Slick Ballinger - Mississippi Soul (2006) [CD Rip]

North Carolina born, Mississippi-based blues singer and guitarist Slick Ballinger was barely 21 at the time of recording. His vocal style is high-pitched and in the tradition of old-school blues queens like Big Maybelle and Big Mama Thornton. Influenced by the likes of Howlin Wolf and Muddy Waters he picked up the guitar at the age of fifteen. Before he turned eighteen, Ballinger was honored to share the stage with the likes of Othar Turner and Pinetop Perkins. During the summer of 2002, a 94 year-old Turner took the young Ballinger under his wing and taught him how to live and breathe the blues, in a house with no electricity or running water. Turner was the last surviving master of the Mississippi back-country fife-and-drum tradition, a primitive take on African-American songs which dates back to the Northern Mississippi hill country culture of the 1800s. Living under such conditions is likely to drive a modern man crazy, but not when you are a young bluesman with an old soul like Ballinger. He and Turner rose early each day and led a simple routine of chores, followed by traveling the gravel roads of Mississippi to perform at juke joints and house parties. Ballinger won the Albert King Award in 2004 for "Most Promising Guitarist". After a few years of becoming friendly with the road, Ballinger was set to release his debut, produced by Jim Gaines. His string-snapping guitar style is proof that old-school Delta blues can not only be taught, but can be truly learned and transferred to a new generation. 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. Blind Mississippi Morris plays harmonica and Leon Baker percussion and drums. Slick Ballinger is a truly an interesting, original singer.