“Slim’s whole sound was mysterious,” says Tommy Stinson of guitarist Bob ‘Slim’ Dunlap, his former bandmate in The Replacements. “You’d see him playing and wonder, ‘Where is that coming from?’ He’d mess with electronics and make his own effects pedals. He was like the old genius uncle, with all kinds of stuff going on. I always loved that about Slim.”
“Slim’s whole sound was mysterious,” says Tommy Stinson of guitarist Bob ‘Slim’ Dunlap, his former bandmate in The Replacements. “You’d see him playing and wonder, ‘Where is that coming from?’ He’d mess with electronics and make his own effects pedals. He was like the old genius uncle, with all kinds of stuff going on. I always loved that about Slim.”
Fifteen years Stinson’s senior, Dunlap was a key figure in Minneapolis’s emergent independent scene of the late ’70s. Local entrepreneur Peter Jesperson (who would later sign and manage The Replacements) was inspired to start the Twin/Tone label in 1977 as an outlet for R&B combo Thumbs Up, featuring Dunlap and powerhouse soul shouter Curtiss A. The duo then transitioned into the punky Spooks.
By the time Paul Westerberg asked him to join The Replacements in early ’87 to replace Stinson’s half-brother Bob, Dunlap was already a Twin Cities cult legend. “We used to run into him a lot playing the clubs, whether it was the Longhorn or First Avenue or whatever,” Stinson recalls. “Everyone knew Slim, he was such a sweetheart. He was a very subdued fellow, in a way. But after spending time in The Replacements, I think we brought out another side of him. Paul in particular was really pushing him to rise above what he was used to, to make a little more racket. It was like, ‘You’re a lead guitar player, man. Get out there!’”
Dunlap is a vital presence on 1989’s Don’t Tell A Soul, providing counter-melodies and decorative texture to Westerberg’s open-tuned guitar. He also made telling contributions to the following year’s low-key All Shook Down, though The Replacements were over by ’91. Dunlap subsequently went solo, signing to Jesperson’s Medium Cool imprint for 1993’s The Old New Me and Times Like This (1996), despite being a somewhat reluctant frontman. Among his biggest fans was Bruce Springsteen, who told E Street Radio in 2024: “He was really a unique guitarist, singer and songwriter, and one of the deepest and truest rock‘n’roll souls I’ve ever heard.”
Dunlap continued to play around Minneapolis until 2012, when he suffered a severe stroke that left him paralysed. Westerberg and Stinson quickly established Songs For Slim, a project that raised money for his medical expenses by commissioning a series of Dunlap covers by artists including Peter Buck, Jeff Tweedy, Lucinda Williams, The Jayhawks, Steve Earle and Patterson Hood (eventually compiled on Songs For Slim: Rockin Here Tonight).
“Slim was in The Replacements when I first saw them in 1987 – he was great, even those times when [the band] weren’t,” remembers Hood, who covered “Hate This Town” for the project. “That song just spoke to me in a really personal way. I’d written many songs about my hometown, often from a somewhat surly point of view of feeling stuck there. ‘Hate This Town’ had such a cool twist and was full of such lovely sentiment without being sentimental. I wish I’d written it.”
The Replacements’ own “Songs For Slim” tribute EP in 2013 led to a full-on band reunion that lasted for a couple of years. “It brought us back together for someone other than ourselves, which I think was a great moment,” says Stinson. “I revere that as being a really good Replacements record. We were able to just throw caution to the wind and be the ’Mats again for a minute.”
Dunlap passed away in December 2024, but his two mid-’90s solo albums are now being compiled on Every Little Word, a 2CD package that also includes bonus tracks, demos and live recordings. “Some people want to get out there and be a star, like: ‘Yeah, here I am!’” Stinson concludes. “Slim wasn’t that guy. Within the Minneapolis music scene, he’s so important from top to bottom, but there was never any bravado about it. Slim was more like, ‘Here’s what I do. If you like it, come listen.’ I always got the feeling that he meant to fly under the radar.”
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