Slick Ballinger – Mississippi Soul
Just 21 when this rowdy booger was recorded, Daniel “Slick” Ballinger is a flashy, captivating, white-boy belter whose voice, in a blindfold test, would most likely send blues aficionados searching for a road-tested, 50-something female veteran of the chitlin circuit. It is an otherworldly, back-o’-the-neck rasp liberally punctuated with falsetto swoops, and the North Carolina native’s Piedmont-style guitar playing (thumbing the bass strings), combined with the insistent honking ‘n’ howling of Blind Mississippi Morris’ harmonica and Leon Baker’s straight-ahead, neo-martial, hill country drumming, make for an electrifying attack right out of the gate. The sound is crisp and biting, and Ballinger’s in-the-tradition originals mingle surprisingly comfortably amid covers of Muddy, Sonny Boy, Willie Tubbs and Son Thomas. But no matter where you start on this ten-cut set, listener fatigue sets in around three or four cuts. Still, a promising beginning; let’s see where he takes it.