South Side Slim – Raising Hell/Trouble On The South Side (Manifest).

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.

Slim is still mean and moody on the cover of Trouble On The South Side but the cover belies the funky and soulful opener, Blue Rain. It's based on the blues theme of having little or no money and there's some gritty sax but not too much of Slim's guitar. The blues arrive in the shape of V8 Ford and Slim's guitar is unleashed. He goes a little over the top perhaps but that's just him and this is his one nod to traditional electric blues on the album. Funky Chicken is, as the title suggests, a funky blues and it has a very cool organ break. The powerful Last Man Standing is played in an Elmore James style and Slim takes it to the extreme. This is followed by another fast paced blues in the shape of Sunset And Vine and Victor G. Purvis turns in a strong performance on bass. Hell Hounds On My Trail is a strong Chicago blues and Slim really hammers his guitar, showing what an aggressive player he is. We stay in Chicago for Guilty Mind but he slows things right down. This is another strong song and Slim has certainly upped his game, both vocally and lyrically. There's a lovely rolling guitar solo that shows he can be gentle too.

Feelin' Pain sees a return to funky blues and marks another strong one off the conveyor belt. They just keep on coming and The Jam gives us guitar overload, not that that's a bad thing! I thought that Fire And Ice (The Smoking Gun)was going to be political but it turns into an accelerated guitar instrumental that's the musical equivalent of a nuclear bomb. Interview With Slim is a novel idea, putting the song in the form of an interview and explains his versions of the blues. Reminisin' is good, old style shuffling soul and there's some Spanish guitar on Ride With Me. This is a bit out of place on this album but it's pleasant enough. The same goes for the instrumental version before Slim finishes with the title track. This gives a chilled out R&B/soul finish and is fine but I do have to admit that I prefer Slim's in-your-face style.

www.southsideslim.com

David Blue.