Watermelon Slim – Escape from the Chicken Coop

CD Review – blue barry – smoky mtn. blues society

Watermelon Slim & the Workers......what a band! I have reviewed a couple of blues CD from Slim and they are, were, and ever shall be, magnificent. Now Slim has done gone and recorded a country CD. Now I ain‘t much on country music, but Slim captures what the other guys don’t. I mean most county music anymore is just rock & roll. Slim draws the whole CD from his hard life on the road driving 18 wheelers over most plants in this solar system. He has the country voice. He has the band, he has the slide, the words, he is the man. He has lived the hard life from Vietnam, to making a buck somewhere in the backcountry of Montana trying to see the road. Whether or not he’ll get any big time country music radio play is anybody’s guess, but he should. This is a really good CD. His long slide licks are country nation. That drawl is from the heart, and his themes are the envy of the industry. Again I say. I ain’t much on country music, but this is something special. Nothing fancy, just great music, from the heart of truck driver who has had the blues for years. If you are a Watermelon Slim fan you will buy this one because it’s him. If you are a country music fan craving the good old stuff again, well here it is. Yea, truck drivin’ songs never go out of style. Yes, Hank Williams wrote the words to his life. I believe there are 13 cuts on the CD. He recorded about 20 or so, and with some members of Delbert Mcclinton’s band in Nashville. I mean if you are going to do country music CD, do it there. Slim left out nothing on this CD. It is great trucking music. I don’t care what you are driving, slip this one into the player and put the pedal to the medal. “Caterpillar Whine,” “300 Miles,” and “Hank Williams, You Wrote My Life,” are my favorites, and just monsters. This CD will scare the shit out of a 1000 country music artists cause they can’t do this. Can’t find it? Go to www.WatermelonSlim.com / www.NorthernBlues.com. Tarzan you out there? I hope so. Slim too. Enjoy my friends...........one love...........blue barry