South Side Slim - Raising Hell

Album: Raising Hell
Size: 134,3 MB
Time: 58:09
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2001
Styles: Blues/Funk/Rock mix
Art: Full

1. Blues For Sure (4:51)
2. Roadblock (4:38)
3. 8 O'Clock In The Morning (4:31)
4. Young Man (4:35)
5. Comin' To Your House (4:59)
6. Almost Daylight (4:54)
7. Raisin' Hell (5:01)
8. Another Lonely Night (5:55)
9. You Can Never Tell (4:57)
10. Kitchen Floor (4:11)
11. Big Money (3:03)
12. I Wish I Was Blind (6:31)

South Side glares at you from the cover of the album like he means business and the opening track, "Blues For Sure", confirms this. Vibrant and vigorous, it covers the youth in his voice and highlights the talent in one of the currently least known of the current crop of young guitar whiz kids. "Roadblock" is a funky blues that has a real attitude with shades of Prince and James Brown. This is followed up with more funky blues in the shape of "8 O’clock In The Morning". This has an eerie guitar feeling and will leave you asking the question, can South Side only play at top speed? "Young Man" is a more traditional, jazzy blues and the introduction of saxophone is welcome. South Side shows two sides of himself on the sophisticated blues of "Comin’ To Your House" and the strong and moody blues of "Almost Daylight".

"Raisin’ Hell" is, as the title suggests, a rocking blues that allows Slim to let loose on guitar and boy, does he do just that. There’s a return to the funky blues style for "Another Lonely Night" and this just serves to confirm how strong a guitar player he is. He can do the traditional as well and "You Never Can Tell" is about as traditional as he gets. No matter what style he is playing there is no doubting his credentials as a top class guitarist. He sticks with the traditional style for "Kitchen Floor" and serves up what is probably the track of the album. He could be a big name if he produced more of this quality. There’s a big finish to the album with two more strong tracks, the fast paced jazzy blues of "Big Money" and "I Wish I Was Blind", a Chicago blues. The latter is the better and suits his voice very well a classy finish to a very good album.

Personnel: South Side Slim (guitar, vocals); Chris Jones (bass); Scott Matthews (drums); Deacon Jones (organ); Hollis Gilmore (saxophone).

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South Side Slim - Trouble On The South Side

Album: Trouble On The South Side
Size: 166,2 MB
Time: 72:04
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2007
Styles: Blues/Funk/Soul
Art: Full

1. Blue Rain (5:00)
2. V-8 Ford (5:20)
3. Funky Chicken (4:29)
4. Last Man Standing (3:45)
5. Sunset And Vine (3:57)
6. Hell Hounds On My Trail (6:59)
7. Guilty Mind (5:23)
8. Feelin' Pain (3:31)
9. The Jam (3:59)
10. Fire And Ice (The Smoking Gun) (4:09)
11. Interview With Slim (3:49)
12. Reminiscin' (5:08)
13. Ride With Me (5:03)
14. Ride With Me (Instrumental) (5:03)
15. Trouble On The South Side (6:23)

Louisiana-born, Los Angeles-based blues singer and guitarist Henry Harris, aka South Side Slim, has the tricky balance between the blues tradition and the rigors of modernity down pat. Too many contemporary bluesmen are far too precious about their chosen music, unwilling or unable to expand even slightly upon their chosen masters, be they Elmore James, B.B. King, or at this point even Robert Cray.

As a result, their albums often sound airless and un-lived-in, as if they're merely actors playing the roles of bluesmen. The other end of that spectrum leads to bands like that exquisitely awful scene in the movie Ghost World involving the white boy blooze band Blueshammer, who learned everything they know about Willie Dixon off old Led Zeppelin records.

South Side Slim sits comfortably in the middle, leavening his old-school Chicago blues with some Southern soul and blues-rock feints whenever the mood strikes. As a result, his fifth album sparkles with invention, from the funky soul groove of the opening "Blue Rain," which features a horn section you'll swear is right on the verge of kicking into Cliff Nobles' "The Horse," to the epic title track, which recalls both Prince and Curtis Mayfield in the course of its blues-soul groove. /Stewart Mason, AllMusic

(For personnel details, see artwork included.)

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South Side Slim - Five Steps

Album: Five Steps
Size: 144,7 MB
Time: 62:46
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2000
Styles: Blues
Art: Full

1. Just A Thing (4:13)
2. Junkyard Dog (3:10)
3. Woman Is My Weakness (2:53)
4. I Was Hooked (3:37)
5. Can't Stop My Drinking (4:07)
6. Take All My Money (5:51)
7. 5-Steps (7:25)
8. Let Me Down Easy (5:10)
9. It Was You (3:41)
10. Road House Blues (3:49)
11. Going Fishing (3:37)
12. That's All I Need (4:11)
13. Messed Up (4:08)
14. I Can't Rest (6:49)

On Five Steps, Henry Harris’ (aka. South Side Slim) first full solo CD he lets his amazing talent shine through. South Side Slim is a young blues performer with wonderful songwriting, singing and playing ability. Slim takes you through many styles of blues on this disc and all of them are a delight. The opener “Just A Thing” is a scorching minor key blues with some amazing guitar from Slim that let’s you know he is not the ordinary blues player.

On “Junkyard Dog” Slim takes the tempo down a little bit without any difference and sounds just as good. “Woman is My Weakness” is a great shuffle blues with great playing from the band, especially Deacon Jones on Keyboard and Slim on guitar. Next up is “I Was Hooked” another shuffle that keeps everything nice and smooth. The next song, “Can’t Stop My Drinking” shows Slim’s talent outside of straight blues with some straight forward rocking guitar. The next song of notice is track 7 “Five Steps” which is a very good slow blues that shows off both Slim’s singing and guitar playing. The next song “Let Me Down Easy” is the furthest away from the blues moving into classic R&B style that sounds like it could have come from the golden age of rhythm and blues.

The next two songs are “It Was You” and “Roadhouse Blues”, the former a slow simmering blues, while the latter has more of a swing feel to it. “Going Fishing” is another rockin’ blues tune with some very amusing lyrics with double entendre. “That’s All I Need,” a cover of Magic Sam is done very straight and well with Slim adding his unique voice to a great song. The last two songs end the CD very nicely with “Messed Up,” a very fast blues song and the CD ends with a beautiful slow shuffle blues. This is one of the best debut CD’s and Slim is one person to look forward to hearing more from. If you are a fan of many styles buy this disc you won’t be disappointed, it will blow you away.

(For personnel details, see artwork included.)

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32/20 Feat. South Side Slim - Blues From The South Side

Album: Blues From The South Side
Size: 126,0 MB
Time: 54:29
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 1999
Styles: Blues
Art: Front, inside, tray, cd

1. Black Jack Whiskey (2:59)
2. South Side Slim (2:59)
3. Back Stabbing Woman (5:00)
4. Sleepless Nights (3:22)
5. Mercedes Blues (4:15)
6. Married Woman (5:43)
7. Younger Days (3:57)
8. Mighty Fine Woman (4:48)
9. Message (5:43)
10. Detroit Woman (3:25)
11. Sunset And Wine (3:12)
12. I'm Feeling Pain (3:50)
13. Guilty Mind (5:12)

Henry Harris (aka South Side Slim) grew up in Oakland in the 70’s and early 80’s listening to a wide range of innumerable musicians, including Hendrix, Muddy Waters, Van Halen, and the Isley Brothers. He spent his mid-20’s hanging out in Hollywood. During his Hollywood years he fortuitously met up with the great LA blues guitarist Ray Bailey. Bailey turned him on to blues played with a rock-infused feel. Henry got serious about his guitar in 1992 when he fell upon some hard luck. He turned to his dad for help and asked if he could live in his trucking yard at 61st and Avalon in Los Angeles. Hank, as he was known then, wanted to use the opportunity of being homeless to focus on really learning to play the guitar, an instrument he had fooled around with since high school. By 1998 Little Hank had transformed himself into South Side Slim, guitarist and singer/song writer.

Personnel: South Side Slim (guitar, vocals); Jerry Rosen (guitar, vocals); Franklin Bell (drums); Oklahoma Ollie (bass).

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