Slim Pickens - Voice Work

Voice Work

Pickens lent his voice to the 1975 studio recording of Bobby Bridger's collection of Western ballads A Ballad of the West, in which he narrated part 1, "Seekers of the Fleece", the story of Jim Bridger and the mountain man fur trade era. Slim’s interest in this project blossomed in 1970 when his daughter, Daryle Ann, was cast in Max Evans' independent film The Wheel. Evans had also hired Jim Bridger’s great-grandnephew, Bobby Bridger, to sing the film's theme song. Aware of her father’s interest in mountain men, Daryle Ann set up a meeting for Evans and Pickens, and Pickens immediately volunteered to narrate the heroic couplets. In July, Bobby, Slim and the Lost Gonzo Band recorded Seekers of the Fleece outside Denver in a tipi studio, where Slim's old mountain-man pal Timberjack Joe had decorated with grizzly bear robes and beaver pelts to set the mood.