See Paul Cauthen Deliver an Ominous ‘Slow Down’ in Live Solo Performance

While in Nashville in September for the Americana Music Festival, Texas songwriter Paul Cauthen recorded a stirring live performance of his song “Slow Down” for ACME Radio. It’s a sparse, haunting take, with Cauthen summoning the Johnny Cash-like baritone that has become his calling card.

But Cauthen must also summon strength, as the song’s lyrics underscore the exhaustion the artist suffers after a string of hard living. “I’m faded/staring at four in the morning/still waiting for the good lord to strike a chord,” he intones on the track, a standout of his new album Room 41, named after the room in a Dallas hotel where he wrote, resided, and partied.

“When I sing that first line it just takes me back to dirty clothes, cigarettes, and empty beer cans everywhere in Room 41,” he says in a statement. “A girl leaving — I caught her name the night before — and me sitting in my pajamas just needing to take a shower…. That song’s a good reminder of any artist that allows themselves to go deep into their art and let everything else be destructive around them for their art.”

Cauthen is currently on tour, playing headlining dates and opening for Randy Houser into December.