Gritty Blues with a Contemporary Sensibility

Whiteboy Slim is an explorer of the blues. He says, "I see the Blues as a living art form - not museum exhibit. I think there is room for experimentation and creativity in the blues without losing respect for the roots." In fact, as Slim points out himself, blues has always accepted outside influences and tackled the troubles of the day. Its very nature ensures that it will always be relevant. So, when he adds jazz or sings about the war in Iraq, Slim is taking the blues on the road it was meant to follow.

The first Whiteboy Slim CD, "HOMEMADE", came out in 2003 with eleven original tracks, as a tribute to the Year of the Blues. "I tried to cover as many blues genres as I could here: from Delta blues to hip hop, the CD is still all blues."

There are some real gems on this CD. It has all the ingredients of a classic blues collection and ought to give rise to several more releases, each focused on a specific side of Slim's repertoire. The CD started out as a summary of Slim's last few years of writing and playing. Most of the tunes were written for Automatic Slim, but never got recorded properly, so Slim literally took things into his own hands, playing all instruments: "I was having trouble finding people to play with, so I ended up doing the whole CD by myself. I tried to give the thing a real live flavor. It's a little unorthodox for a blues guy to admit to using digital instruments, but, whatever... I was never good at staying inside the lines anyway!"

Check out some of Whiteboy Slim's blues. The links in the Listening Room on the right let you play and download MP3s. They offer a taste of the CD and the awesome live performance, but the only way to get the full picture is to get to a gig or buy the CD, "Homemade."