Slimography

Henry Harris grew up in Oakland in the 70's and early 80's listening to a wide range of innumerable musicians, including Hendrix, Muddy Waters, Van Halen, and the Isley Brothers. He spent his mid-20's hanging out in Hollywood. During his Hollywood years he fortuitously met up with the great LA blues guitarist Ray Bailey. Henry noticed that Bailey played blues with a rock-infused feel. He got serious about his guitar in 1992 when he fell upon some hard luck. Henry turned to his dad for help and asked if he could live in his trucking yard at 61st and Avalon in Los Angeles. Hank, as he was known then, wanted to use the opportunity of being homeless to focus on really learning to play the guitar, an instrument he had fooled around with since high school.

He practiced a minimum of 6 hours a day. Evenings found him walking to jam sessions at local blues spots, including, Babe and Ricky's (at its original spot at 53rd and Central), the Safari Club, and competitive private juke joints. After returning each night to the yard, he slept in an old van. He treasures those years and recognizes how valuable the time was in developing him into a bona fide blues musician. "Those years were like going to school. I submitted myself to learn as much about the blues, performing, and the guitar as I could. I soaked up everything about the old guys, those bluesmen who really lived and looked the part."

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Music

Slim's latest solo CD, Life Under Pressure, is full of compelling originality and is something really special. Here's how Slim describes the unique way of making Life Under Pressure. In August of 2006, having six hours of studio time long left over from a previous recording session, I decided to go into the studio with fellow musicians from Los Angeles' South Side to have a jam session from four in the afternoon until ten at night. The cats I asked to join me were LeRoy Martinez, John, and Tokyo Mississippi. Nothing was planned. No songs in mind. We just came to play. I created a juke joint party atmosphere in the studio. I told Glen, the engineer, "Just let it roll, for better or for worse." I wanted to see what such an innovative vibe might produce. My goal was to try to create a blues album close to my heart without any preconceived notions or the constraints of an orchestrated session. No one had a set list. I simply called off a shuffle, be it fast or slow, or I showed the bass player, "For this one, do this, man."

Once the groove was laid down, I fed off the emotional tenor of the life situations of what we were all going through: Leroy's support for his ailing wife, Hiro fighting deportation back to Japan, John dealing with his medical situation, and me losing my family. So it's only fitting that I call this CD, Life Under Pressure. After hours of painstaking review of what we did, including me listening for the first time to what I created that night, I selected the songs that would be best for this project. With only a couple of exceptions, most of the songs on this CD were improvised during that original jam session. I made whatever edits were necessary, put the songs on discs, and gave them to Willie McNeil, Lester Lands, Rick Jones, and Norman Weatherly to study for a February, 2007 recording session to finalize work on this release. So like I told Glen, "Let it roll, for better or for worse." South Side Slim March 2009.

Buy it now on Southsideslim.com!

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