Slam Dunkle: Concord’s Two-Wheeled Troubadour

BY VICTOR CURRAN

One autumn day in Monument Square, a visitor asked me about Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. “Is that the one in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow?” he wanted to know.

“No, that one is in New York,” I smiled. (I hear that question a lot.) “There’s no headless horseman here.”

“Then who’s that?” he asked, pointing over my shoulder. I spun around to see a figure all in black, strumming a black guitar as he cruised through the roundabout on his bicycle. But the weirdest part was, his head was conspicuously absent.

©Pierre Chiha Photographers

Concord’s cycling minstrel goes by the name of Slam Dunkle, and he’s irresistibly drawn to novel ideas and opportunities. A couple of years ago, he spotted a broken guitar in a trash barrel, put it back together, and painted it black. Then he painted his beach cruiser bicycle black to match. He found a bargain-priced headless horseman outfit in a costume shop, and voilà, the headless horseman materialized.

Of course, it helped that Matt Dunkle (his real name) has been an avid cyclist since childhood, and he’s a Berklee-trained musician who’s pretty handy at making and repairing instruments. Once he had his guitar and costume, he was ready to hit the streets (and yes, he’s playing real music as he rides around town).

Like many Concord stories, the tale of Slam Dunkle begins at Walden Pond. On hot summer days, Matt likes to ride to Walden for a swim. Heeding Thoreau’s dictum to simplify, he wears his swimsuit while riding to and from the pond. In 2015, inspiration struck: let’s have Christmas in July! He put on a red swimsuit and a Santa Claus hat, hopped on his red beach cruiser, and rode around town belting out Christmas carols, all the while wondering “Can I get away with this?” To his surprise, no one heckled him or called the cops. They waved, smiled, even sang along, and the performer Slam Dunkle was born.

He really got noticed when he found a big red exercise ball to toss and catch while he cycled around town in a Speedo. Next, he put his musical talent into the mix, playing a trumpet (his main instrument since he was eleven years old) or a flute as he rode. He attracted the attention of the Concord Journal, which ran a story on him in October 2017, and at Halloween in 2020, his headless horseman was featured by the Boston Globe, WBZ television, and WCVB’s Chronicle.

Matt even has a website now (slamdunkle.com), but public acclaim hasn’t gone to his head. Like Henry Thoreau, he lives simply so that his imagination can flourish. Fans occasionally hire him to bring Slam Dunkle to life at parties, and he’s even performed at a fashion show at West Concord’s Three Stones Gallery, but he most often appears on the streets of Concord with no sponsor, not even a tip jar. What animates him is the excitement of doing the unexpected and unconventional. Most of all, he loves seeing his joyful spirit reflected in his viewers’ happy faces. So if you see Slam Dunkle making his rounds, be sure to greet him with a wave and a smile.

Victor Curran writes and leads tours of historic Concord and is an interpreter at the Concord Museum. He teaches courses and writes articles about the men and women who made Concord the home of American independence and imagination.