Blind Dog Radio

Slim's Shout by Sunnyland Slim

Label: Prestige / Bluesville.
Release Date: 1960.
Recording Time: 40 minutes.
Recording Date: September 15, 1960.
Releases: 1969 (Prestige), 1993 (Original Blues Classics / Prestige Elite), 1999 (Ace), 2007 (Fantasy / Universal), 2012 (Doxy Records), 2014 (DOL).

Styles: Piano Blues, Chicago Blues, Electric Chicago Blues, Regional Blues, Urban Blues.

Recorded at Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, N.J. September 15, 1960.

You wouldn't think that transporting one of Chicago's reigning piano patriarchs to Englewood Cliffs, NJ would produce such a fine album, but this 1960 set cooks from beginning to end. Sunnyland Slim's swinging New York rhythm section has no trouble following his bedrock piano, and the estimable King Curtis peels off diamond-hard tenor sax solos in the great Texas tradition that also mesh seamlessly. Slim runs through his standards -- "The Devil Is a Busy Man," "Shake It," "It's You Baby" -- in gorgeous stereo, and two unissued bonus cuts (including another of his best-known tunes, "Everytime I Get to Drinking") make the CD reissue of Slim's Shout even more appealing.
by Bill Dahl

Personnel: Leonard Gaskin - bass; Belton Evans - drums; Robert Banks - organ; King Curtis - saxophone; Sunnyland Slim - vocals, piano.
Liner Notes by Nat Hentoff. Recorded by Rudy Van Gelder.

Credits: Robert Banks - organ; Ozzie Cadena - composer; Leroy Carr - composer; Phil DeLancie - remastering; Esmond Edwards - artwork; Belton Evans - drums; Leonard Gaskin - bass; Nat Hentoff - liner notes; King Curtis - sax (tenor); Albert Luandrew - composer; Brownie McGhee - composer; Sunnyland Slim - composer, piano, primary artist, vocals; Big Joe Turner - composer; Rudy Van Gelder - engineer; Sonny Boy Williamson II - composer.

Tracks: 1) I'm Prison Bound; 2) Slim's Shout; 3) The Devil Is a Busy Man; 4) Brown Skin Woman; 5) Shake It; 6) Decoration Day; 7) Baby How Long; 8) Sunnyland Special; 9) Harlem Can't Be Heaven; 10) It's You Baby; 11) Everytime I Get to Drinking; 12) Tired of You Clowning.