By The Red Wagons

A Jukebox Full of Lynwood Slim Music by David Mac  BLUES JUNCTION PRODUCTIONS

Over the past few weeks since the passing of the great Lynwood Slim, I have been spinning his records and listening to others on which he made key contributions. I have also been receiving a huge amount  of correspondence from people all over the world who were moved by Slim, his music and by the appreciation that they read here at the JUNCTION.

Some of these communiqués were from people right here in America who identified themselves as “huge blues fans” yet were not familiar with Slim’s music. Maybe this has to do with how in the blues field the best music has a regional flavor to it. Oh, who am I kidding? It has everything to do with a very strong regional bias against west coast blues. There is no accounting for bad taste and the power cabal that is the Blues Foundation seems to revel in that ethos. Get your mind around this; Lynwood Slim has never even been nominated for a Handy or BMA…never. Remember that William Clarke only received a Handy Award posthumously. This I suspect had more to do with Clarke recording on the sacred cow label that is Alligator than the “secret nominators” removing the wax from their ears and pulling their heads out…

So, for those in need of a little primer into the recorded legacy of Lynwood Slim, here is a sampling of some of my favorite songs from ten of my favorite records where the voice, harp and/or flute can be heard. Bear in mind Slim has participated in (educated guess) over 100 different recording projects through the years. Even he didn’t remember how many records he had produced, or on which he had sang, played harp, flute and or wrote the liner notes. It is hard to find an album that is less than superb in which Slim has his name attached.

I have these albums listed chronologically more or less by when they were recorded as the release dates vary. Most of the titles going back to the early 90’s have been re-issued and re-released on different labels through the years. Also note that many of these recordings are out of print. Some of these are available on E-Bay for a pretty hefty price tag. However, several titles are available through Bluebeat Music. Click on the album covers and you can go to that site to purchase any of these great CDs. I wish I could thank Slim personally for leaving behind such a treasure. What a wonderful gift. Thanks Slim!

• Track 1     

Lost in America was not only recorded in America, but deep in the heart of NewportBeach, California. These sessions took place directly behind the venerable Crab Cooker restaurant in Lyon Studios. It is where producer Larry Taylor and a cadre of West Coast blues and roots musicians made magic. Slim’s first solo album, Soul Feet, made a year earlier is also a great record. It was recorded with some of his Minnesota buddies from the land of 10,000 lakes. Here a couple of blocks from one big ocean, Slim made music with the some of the players with whom he would record and call friends for the rest of his life. The song, Don’t Be Messin’ With My Bread has a deep groove and features the guitar of Dave Gonzalez.

• Track 2   

Long Overdue is the appropriately named title of Junior Watson’s first solo CD. It is hardto believe this 1994 Black Top release is really twenty years old. Actually “long overdue” could be the title of just about any Watson release as he has this habit of flooding the market place with his once a decade release schedule. Here the highly acclaimed guitarist also demonstrates that he is an underrated vocalist. He sings on six of the album’s seventeen tracks. There are a few instrumentals in the mix and he is joined by vocalist Brenda Burns as well as Lynwood Slim. Slim sings and swings as only he can on the wonderful number by Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, Lonesome Train. In the countless shows that I have had the privilege to hear the great Lynwood Slim, I can’t recall a gig where he didn’t close the set with Lonesome Train.

• Track 3   

The album Two Hands One Heart by Kid Ramos, which was originally released back in1995, was re-issued by Rip Cat records earlier this year. Rip Cat’s founder and president, Scott Abeyta, re-mastered and remixed the record and achieved spectacular results. The voice of Lynwood Slim, which sounded good was, as it turns out, the victim of too much compression in the original mastering process but, now sounds exactly like what you would hear if you were standing next to him in a room. The improvement in sound when playing both releases back to back is nothing short of extraordinary. The album is imbued with a variety of blues styles with a big helping of swinging, west coast, T-Bone Walker inspired music thrown liberally into the mix. It is material like this that Kid was seemingly born to play and Slim was born to sing. Slim sings on ten of the album’s original sixteen tracks and on all three of the album’s bonus tracks. The T-Bone tune, You Don’t Love Me gets the patented Lynwood Slim treatment here. This record has been a personal favorite of mine for nearly twenty years and it just got better.

• Track 4    

The group known as The Big Rhythm Combo made one record under this name, TooSmall to Dance. Slim was the album’s producer, vocalist and harp player. He is joined by guitarist Kid Ramos, pianist Fred Kaplan and drummer Richard Innes. Bassist Tyler Pederson rounds out the core members of this band. Spyder Middleton and Jeff Turmes lend their skills on tenor and baritone saxophones respectively. The band dishes out some great support for Slim who delivers his trademark, uptown sophisticated blues singing on the tune, (I Have) Nothing Left.

• Track 5      

Back to Back on Crosscut Records out of Germany is a collaboration with guitarist andvocalist Junior Watson. Here Slim, again the album’s producer, and Watson are joined by the “A- Team” of Larry Taylor, Richard Innes and Fred Kaplan. The songToo Late was a Slim concert favorite and one of mine as well. It swings hard and even served as a vehicle for the vocalist to do a little scatting when performed in concert. However the song I chose from this album was Rough Duff. The song is, as you might suspect, a Jack McDuff original which finds that beautiful middle ground where jazz and blues live together. Rough Duffis a mid-tempo instrumental where Slim helps to lay down a thick groove via his flute. He then breaks off into a solo that still maintains the rhythm and pace of the song. This Rough Duff is some very tasty stuff.

• Track 6      

West Coast House Party is Kid Ramos’ third “solo” album and his second on theEvidence label. This 2000 release features a whole host of guitar players with whom Kid generously shares the spotlight. They include Duke Robillard, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Junior Watson, Rusty Zinn and Little Charlie Baty. Vocalists who make appearances include James Harman, Kim Wilson, Janiva Magness, Big Sandy and James Intveld. Kid hasn’t made a solo album without the man with whom he shared a special musical bond and personal friendship, Lynwood Slim. Slim contributes his vocals on two tracks which include the Jimmy Liggins’ classicTalkin’ That Talk. My jukebox selection however is the Jeff Turmes penned number entitled Happy Hours. The song deals with the same dilemma the protagonist has to confront in the Wynonie Harris tune Bloodshot Eyeswhich Slim would nail on the Brazilian Kicks album a few years later.

• Track 7      

2004’s Think About It on Severn Records by guitarist Alex Schultz may be simply one of the best albums of the new millennium. The guitarist has this thirteen track masterpiece’s vocal duties divided fairly evenly by three of the best singers on the scene. They are Finis Tasby, Tad Robinson and, of course, Lynwood Slim. The album also has three marvelous instrumentals which fit in nicely as wonderful sorbets in a disc which features variety and yet remains a focused document to good taste. The three Slim tunes, like everything else on this album, are pretty darn special, but his reading of the song, I Don’t Want Your Money, Honey by the fairly obscure post war guitarist Harry “Fats” Crafton is nothing short of sublime.

• Track 8    

Last Call is a 2006 Delta Groove Music release. The album is subtitled the, The MellowSounds of Lynwood Slim. On the face of it, it may look like the most musically diverse album of Slim’s career. Maybe it is, but those mellow sounds of Slim shine through material written by Bo Diddly, Clifton Chenier, Duke Ellington, Lowman Pauling, Billy Holiday, Mickey Baker and others. Slim himself contributes three originals including a down home slow blues burner co-written by his guitar playing buddy Kid Ramos entitled, Across the Sea. The tune has Slim moving across the sea and after an acoustic harp solo, our hero states, “I’ll be back some day, when they dig what I play. That may never happen it’s just too hard to say.” Those lyrics pretty much sum up the plight of the modern blues man in America who has to go overseas where people PAY to see them perform and BUY their CDs.

• Track 9      

Brazilian Kicks is the absolutely breathtaking album that Slim produced along with IgorPrado. The album was released on Delta Groove music in 2010. The Igor Prado Band included at the time twenty three year olds Yuri Prado on drums and bassist Rodrigo Mantovani and guitarist Igor, who was twenty four. They are joined by twenty year old Denlinson Martins on sax. Special guest Donny Nichilo on piano round out the ensemble. Slim wrote the liner notes and he refers to these musicians as amazing…true that.  The album is full of wonderful original material and some great covers ranging from the Jimmy Nelson classic, I Sat and Cried, the tune made famous by Wynonie Harris, Bloodshot Eyes, and the Dave Bartholomew song, Is It True. These are all great choices but my jukebox selection is a Lynwood Slim original entitled, Maybe Someday. This languid, plaintive ballad like everything else on this spectacular recording may be some of the best work ever by Slim.

• Track 10     

The Red Wagons are an Italian little big band, who I like to call, Rome Full of Blues. Theyare the same unit who backed Junior Watson at the Tore Alfina Blues Festival in 2007. The much bootlegged recording of that concert was finally given a Watson approved release on the Bluebeat Music label in 2012. That same year, The Red Wagons released a studio album entitled Jumpin’ With Friends. They are joined by their musical heroes and contemporaries such as Sugar Ray Norcia, Sax Gordon Beadle, Mitch Woods, Igor Prado and, as you might suspect, Junior Watson. Lynwood Slim is also on board the wagon as he sings on two of this fine album’s sixteen tracks. One of which is an old B.B. King number Jump With You Baby that dates back to his days with Los Angeles’ Modern Records label. I have always loved this song and Slim of course does it proud.

• Bonus Track     

Trick Bag with Friends Volume 1 is a 2013 release from this very hip band ofinternational players based out of Stockholm, Sweden. They are led by vocalist Tommy Moberg and bass player Lars Nassman. The guitarist and album’s producer is Tomi Leini formerly of Knockout Greg and Blue Weather. This CD is a special guest assortment where the band is joined by fellow Swede and Godfather of the European Blues scene, Sven Zetterburg, as well as West Weston of the U.K. Also onboard are Americans James Harman, R.J. Mischo, John Nemeth, Barrelhouse Chuck and Bob Corritore. The lone live track on this studio album was sung by Lynwood Slim. He covers the Jimmie Rogers classic,That’s Alright. This song was recorded by John Reilly on May 17, 2012, at the Tiki Bar in Costa Mesa, California.  It is the last recording to be released in Slim’s Lifetime.

• Editors Note:

Slim continued to record over the past two years. He returned to Brazil and sang on a few tracks for an upcoming album with the Igor Prado Band. The working title is, Way Down South. It is impossible to predict an upcoming offering as the blues business is nothing if not completely unpredictable, but my best guess is a February release on Delta Groove Music. That of course could change. This CD is an Igor Prado project that is scheduled to include Sugar Ray Norcia, Mud Morganfield, Kim Wilson and others, in addition to Slim.

Additionally, several months ago both Slim and Rip Cat Records founder and president Scott Abeyta told me that an album was in the works whose title was and likely will remain Hard To Kill. It is a record that includes Slim working alongside an international cast of players whose talent he helped to nurture and develop. How the death of Slim impacts the future of this project is hard to tell. We hope this album finds its way into the public domain as soon as possible.

There are a couple of other recording projects of which I am aware that feature the talents of Lynwood Slim. These are in the can and are at this time a bit too premature in their development to discuss publicly. Stay tuned…