Customer Reviews

Mississippi Soul

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This came highly recommended to me from a blues friend. We are still friends, but I was thoughroughly disappointed in this. I can listen to just about any thing, but could barely make it thru most of these tracks. I'd give it a 3 Stars for the playing which was fine, nothing speacial on harp or gtr. I'm not a huge delta blues fan for starters so maybe this was just a bad mix for me. Vocally, he makes Johnny Winter sound like Pavaratti. It's like they took Slick, grabbed him by the short hairs, and forced him to sing those skretching lines at gun point. 1 star for the singing, and I'm being generous. I know you don't have to be a great singer (Dylan) to be a great, but wow this was unsavory bad. If this were heavy metal they would call him a "poser". Yammering on about not being a white person or a black person, but a real person and ranting on about jesus and the blues. Please... The worst CD of it's ilk.
Should come with the caption:
Warning - you are about to enter a snooze zone.

JOHN CAMPBELL, for example, would be a far more authentic slide guitarist with an adaquite voice to listen to, if you are going down this dusty delta road.

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

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!

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.

I saw and met Slick a couple of years ago at a small Southeast Missouri music fest. He knocked me and the rest of the crowd out. He is the most dedicated artist I have ever personally encountered. Surely he is primed for greatness. The cd is wonderful and very honest. If you have even the slighest interest in real Southern blues, buy this album.

It's lowdown and dirt road bound-it's laid to the side and catfish fried!!!!!!!
Man it don't get no better than this! Mississippi Blues at it's finest!
Slick stopped me dead in my tracks when I heard him down on Beale a few years back, and now, at the young age of 21, he has caught the attention of the music world....I have literally seen folks so caught up in his live act that they had tears flowin' down their faces!!The raw energy is so powerful, you can feel the blues pourin' out of his pores...He takes it to the top with the new release of MISSISSIPPI SOUL. This CD, with the help of veteran Producer Jim Gaines, (Carlos Santana, Stevie Ray Vaughn) has captured the raw emotion and spirit of the blues. Ifn' you ain't caught him live yor' in for a Blues Healin'...Can I get an AMEN!!!!! Thumbs up! and 5 stars!!!!!!!!!

This debut album from Daniel "Slick" Ballinger won the 2007 Blues Music Award for Best Debut Artist. If anything, it validates the opinion of the judges at the 2004 International Blues Challenge where Daniel and his band came in second, and Daniel won the Albert King Award for Best Guitarist.

In 2006, Daniel's life has took a turn when he was called to Serve and today can be found not on the stages and clubs where he made his name, but in NC, preaching the Gospel. He has announced his intention to devote his music to serving his new-found Faith, but hasn't abandoned the Blues. His next album will have a Gospel-Blues focus and is sure to be a treat.

I take exception to the reviews that pan his vocals; while perhaps not "traditional" blues, you can feel every emotion charged phrase right down to your soul, and isn't that what the Blues is all about? When listening to the title track, you can close your eyes and see Daniel as he spent the summer of 2002 living with and learning the Blues from the then 94 year old living legend Otha Turner in the Mississippi back country.

So while we may never again hear the likes of "Sugar Mama Blues" or "Slow Down" come from this brilliant young man, we are certain to hear more inspired Blues as he finds his heart and journeys through life. Until then, we are lucky to have this album of electric Delta tinged Blues, complemented by some of the most tasteful guitar and harp you're likely to hear.

old time blues played by young man with solid roots well worth the money

I highly recommend this album. This young man is going places. He has an excellent voice and a way with words. My husband and I saw him last summer at a blues festival and even though he wasn't the headliner, he was definitely the best act there. I cannot wait until he releases his next album. Thanks so much Slick.

Just got back from the Soul Shine Blues Festival in Bascom, OH. Slick and his band played the final performance and man were they great! He has an awesome voice and he can really play guitar... hard to believe he's only 21. Another prodigy like Derek Trucks!!