Jump to Content

Waxed - Record Review from Issue #63 May-June 2006

Slick Ballinger

Mississippi Soul (Oh Boy)

By

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.

Enjoy the ND archives? Consider making a donation. Advertising helps defray our basic expenses, but doesn’t touch the over $150,000 invested to get this content online. Just $10 (or more!) from 15,000 of our fans and we will reach our goal. Thanks for your support.

Or send a check to: No Depression, PO Box 31332, Seattle, WA 98103

Discuss

Did you enjoy this article? Start a discussion about it, or find out what others are saying in the No Depression Community forum.

Join the Discussion »

Find out what's going on in roots music. Share concert photos and videos, learn about new artists, blog about the music you love.

Join the No Depression Community »

Originally Featured in Issue #63 May-June 2006

Cover of Issue #63 May-June 2006

Buy this issue

More articles from this issue:

  • Mark Pickerel

    Mark Pickerel - Even if and especially when • Two days before his show in Austin at this year's South By Southwest Festival, Mark Pickerel is sitting in the cozy, wood-lined confines of the Hunt Club at Seattle's Sorrento Hot…

  • Josh Ritter

    Josh Ritter - Dances with wolves • Josh Ritter says his new album, The Animal Years, reflects his last few years living like a hunter-gatherer: Try to eat, try to sleep, drive to the next town, set up, play music, …

  • Dr. John

    Dr. John - Hoodoo Guru • "You live in a jungle, you better be ready to die. Somebody like me may shave your ass dry." – "Monkey & Baboon," by Mac Rebennack & George Landry, from Creole Moon "Th…

Buy our history before it’s gone!

Each issue is artfully designed and packed full of great photos that you don‘t get online. Visit the No Depression store to own a piece of history.

Visit the No Depression Store »

From the Blogs

  • Stackridge, Farncombe Music Club (UK, 5/18/12)
    I first started going to live gigs in my early teens. I was underage. I lied about my date of birth so that I could become a member of Friars, a music club based in Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire. Life membership was 25p. I still have my member’s card. Wild Turkey in June 1971 was the first live band I saw and some forty one years later I am still occupyin […]
  • Bonnie Raitt, John Prine & Tom Waits at Opryland (circa '74)
    Bonnie, Johnny & Tom Visit Opryland, USA — an interview-article by W. Conrad for Buddy Magazine (March, 1976)

 
 
Backstage and on stage at Nashville's Opryland, Ben Fong-Torres, rock journalist from 
Rolling Stone, was shadowing Bonnie Raitt, the star of the evening's attraction. In the shadows, lurking inside his cheap suit and a cloud of to […]
  • The Last Time I Saw Gram Parsons
    By Bill Conrad (His Prep School Pal)

 Summer of 1969, I was in London when I saw a flyer advertising the Byrds at Royal Albert Hall. Melody Maker, the local music news, suggested that a few Beatles and Stones might attend. That was incentive enough for me.
  The Byrds took the stage and launched into "Turn, Turn, Turn."  Other than band leader Rog […]
  • Davina and the Vagabonds at Newcastle Cluny II
    The Cluny, Newcastle Thursday 17th May 2012 Alan Harrison One of my greatest pleasures is discovering new music any of its shapes and forms and tonight was a bit of a revelation as I had only ventured out of the house because there was nothing on TV. As the support act finished there were only about 30 people scattered around The Cluny and perhaps 75 were sc […]
  • Lee Ann Womack Helps Houston's Homeless
    As founder and president of Healthcare for the Homeless -- Houston (HHH), Dr. David Buck (left with country star Lee Ann Womack at First Lady's Luncheon, Washington, D.C) is a busy man. So busy, in fact, he was taken aback when his office got a voice message from U.S. Representative Gene Green's wife Helen saying that she would like Dr. Buck to att […]
  • TPR#88 Addam Scott - Interview and Music
    On episode 88 of the Taproot Music Show, Addam Scott, the musician, not the actor, talks to Calvin about his latest CD, San Diablo. He discusses the concept of conflict that runs through the CD and how he likes ““I like to move forward that contradiction and show the best of who we are as people and the worst of who we are as people.” He discusses his musica […]

Shop Amazon by clicking through this logo to support NoDepression.com. We get a percentage of every purchase you make!

Subscribe To the No Depression Newsletter

Subscribe to the No Depression Newsletter

Network With Us