'Songs for Slim' Sparks Replacements Reunion

When Linden Hills resident and well-loved musician Bob "Slim" Dunlap, 61, suffered a debilitating stroke in February 2012, friends, fans and fellow musicians started finding ways to send emotional and financial support.

Those efforts appear to have paved the way for the reunion of his former band, the Replacements, who last week announced their first shows in 22 years. 

Songs Start with Mars
It all started after Dunlap's stroke with the Slim Dunlap Fan Club on Facebook, then an online fundraiser and, soon, songs raising money for Dunlap's medical expenses.

Chris Mars, the Replacements' drummer and now a painter and filmmaker in Southwest Minneapolis, was first to release a fundraising track for Dunlap: When I Fall Down, released in June 2012 as a 99-cent download at Mars' website. He told the Local Current blog: 

“I wrote this song for Slim, he was my inspiration for it,” says Mars, who transitioned away from music in the mid-’90s to focus on visual art. “While I still make music, I don’t share it much outside of the context of the films I make.”  

“[Slim]’s having health complications that are making rehabilitation that much more difficult for him,” Mars continues. “I wrote this song for him quite spontaneously and decided to go public with it, so to speak, to raise money for Slim and his family while they navigate these challenges. It’s available as a 99-cent download on my website with proceeds benefiting the Dunlaps. It’s also my hope that this small thing can show Slim and his family that people have him in mind, and care, and are rooting for him, because those things truly inspire Slim to fight and be well.”   

"We had a really good time working together and reconnecting," Stinson says. "Coincidentally, this is when the [festival] offer happened to be out there."

There's no indication the tour will continue beyond these three dates, and all Stinson will say on the subject of further shows is "we'll see." The band hasn't revealed who will play with Westerberg and Stinson, either, though we know it won't be original drummer Chris Mars. He left the band in 1990 and is now a visual artist with no apparent interest in returning to his old gig. "We didn't speak to Chris because we knew the answer before we even asked – he'd say 'no,'" says Stinson. "We're currently working out who's gonna fill what shoes."

Read the full article at rollingstone.com. 

So far the 'Mats (short for Placemats, short for Replacements) have announced three shows at Riot Fests in Toronto, Chicago and Denver. But this version of the band may yet play the Twin Cities, where three former members still make their homes. 

The Replacements' early years revolved around the Oarfolkjokeopus record store and C.C. Club bar at 26th and Lyndale. The band namechecked Minneapolis streets in songs ("Lyndale, Garfield" in Run It) and made a Bryant Avenue rooftop famous on the cover of their 1984 album Let It Be.