Search - Slick Ballinger :: Mississippi Soul

A review I've been waiting to do for four years.

R. Shaw | 03/20/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Mississippi Soul



I've been anxious to write up Slick's first bona fide cd ever since I saw him playing on Beale Street four years ago, while in Memphis during Handy weekend. He stopped people in their tracks then and is still doing it today, except these days there's a lot more people getting exposed to him and his brand of old style, countrified, Mississippi blues. Also, he was only 17 back then and now he's 21. He had a demo at that time and it blew people's minds but he's aged a little since then, picked up more than a couple new licks and has a regular band to back him as he carries his audience through a world of Sugar Mommas, Bull Cows, sleeping dogs, and the Soul that inhabits the Holy Land where blues began. This album is a testament to that very spirit that is there still, "deep down in the country".



Songs like Brotherhood Blues, Let's Get Down and Juke House Blues, as well as the title track Mississippi Soul, exhort you to get up off your butts and start moving them rather than sitting on them. All are hard driving ass shakers with jackhammer percussion from North Carolina drummer, Leon Baker and the indefatigable Blind Mississippi Morris on harmonica. I've seen Slick and the band go on for half an hour or more in clubs doing this high energy material, never stopping until at least three strings have snapped off his guitar. They kept the versions on the record down to a respectable four or five minutes and somehow finished before breaking anything, that I could hear anyhow. Jim Gaines, who recorded these sessions at his rural Tennessee studio, has captured the raw, electrified passion that this band delivers in the clubs and on the festival circuit.

"You Don't Love Me", Muddy's "Rosalie", "Bull Cow" and "Slow Down" give the listener a chance to catch their breath and grab a cold drink. These are the gutbucket, the lowest of lowdown blues at their finest.



By the way, there is no bassist playing on any of the tracks. And there aren't any zillion note a minute guitar riffs going on either. Just hard driving hooks that will drag you right on into the boat and onto the stringer. Slick's blues probably won't sound like any Chicago, West Coast, Texas, or Swing blues that you've been exposed to prior to this. Nope, Slick's blues take you back, "Deep down in the country"to the kudzu laden trees and fence rows of Mississippi, to sweltering hot days and nights at picnics, reunions, and house partys out "there"....where things are different and hard and still very goddamned real.



R.Shaw (Tweed)

http://tweedsblues.net"

PURE JUKEJOINT SOUL!

W. Eric Schwoebel | Raleigh, NC USA | 03/18/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Wow. The pure emotive power, soul--and plain joy--in the voice of young bluesman Slick Ballinger has kept my car rockin' for days now. This is a juke joint rave-up that amps the blues like nothing I've heard in many, many years.



Slick's powerful shoutin' and moanin' vocals and virtuoso guitar work team with the Leon Baker's ace drumming and Blind Mississippi Morris's soulful, heartfelt harp to create a propulsive rhythm that drove me straight to a Friday-night juke joint party. Title track Mississippi Soul, along with Let's Get Down, and Juke House Blues conjure up a steamy, swampy blues party that just plain jumps with joy.



There's some seriously fine deep blues here, too, in Rosalie, Sugar Mama Blues, and Bull Cow Blues. And impressively for such a young guy, Slick has written five of the ten tunes here and co-written a sixth. Not counting a bonus track that is a very special treat, indeed (I'll just say that if you need a little redemption the night after, your ticket is right here in this track).



A big nod to Jim Gaines here, too, for producing a great sound: clean and gritty-soulful, all at once.



Slick opened twice for B.B. King in the past year and there's a good reason, as the quote from B.B. himself on the front of this cd attests: "...That young man is an entertainer...He's keeping the blues moving forward while respecting the past." Entertainer, indeed: I've seen Slick perform live and there is no one quite like him. If he comes to your town, see for yourself. You will have a big grin on your face at the end of the night, no lie.



Now I'm cranking up this cd to get back to the party. You oughta join me!



"

The next big thing

S. Johnson | Mid-west, USA | 03/26/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"As a member of the general listening public, I enjoy this album very much and have shared it with all my friends. This is some great down 'n' dirty Mississippi blues. Slick's guitar work is top-notch, and will some day be up there with the likes of B.B. King. His vocal style is not my personal preference, but it is different, unique and takes somes getting used to. This is why I give the album only 4 stars. His vocals could use a bit of polishing."