Rural Missouri–born, Chicago-based singer-songwriter Steve Slagg has been releasing music since 2011, a body of work that zigs and zags stylistically, guided by his collaborations within the Chicago DIY scene and his playfully curious explorations into spirituality, queerness and nature. Despite their diversity, his songs are anchored by a distinctive songwriting voice: they're earthy yet mystical, cynical yet hopeful, conversational yet poetic, and painstakingly honest, except when they’re not. As a fellow songwriter once put it, “Steve, your songs are full of poison. But also the only known antidote to that poison.”

His third album, I Don’t Want to Get Adjusted to This World, released September 21, 2024, has been featured on WBEZ’s Reset with Sasha-Ann Simons and Prairie Public’s Great American Folk Show, hailed as a “masterpiece” in the folk and Americana blogosphere, and played on college and independent radio stations across the country.

Slagg self-produced the album, recruiting Chicago rock band Mooner (of which Slagg is also a member) as his band and co-producers, with engineer Dorian Gehring (Finom, Chicago’s Cosmic Country Showcase) co-producing, engineering, and mixing. Overdubs came from Chicago and beyond, including alt-country guitarist John Gargiulo (Contorno), experimental woodwind player Eric Novak (The Curls, Dissonant Dessert), LA composer and brass player Aaron Esposito (Son Lux, Knives Out OST), and Slagg’s friend and mentor, Massachusetts singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Erin McKeown (The Mountain Goats, Miss You Like Hell). Together they crafted lush, jangly Americana that occasionally collapses into angular noise and ambient sound, all while keeping Slagg’s voice front and center. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.