Fillmore Slim

The Legendary Fillmore Slim

2007-03-22

The blues by its very nature attracts a host of colorful characters who inhabit the shadowy margins between good and evil, love and hate and night and day. Fillmore Slim has made a life in this intersection of extremes having spent years as not only a hard working blues man but as a high end pimp in San Francisco who had his ladies working the streets as he worked the stages. After the feds treated him to a vacation from the streets he claims to have quit “the life” and now focuses his efforts on the blues. Joined here by Rick Estrin (Little Charlie & the Nightcats) on harmonica, and hotshot guitarists Paris Slim and Joe Louis Walker, Fillmore weaves tales about his notorious past on the harmonica fueled "The Legend of Fillmore Slim" and reflecting his taste in women on the funky "Love For the Third Time". While Fillmore takes a stab at combining rap and the blues on a duet with his son, "Hey Little Brother", he fares better with slower traditional blues cuts such as "Trapped by the Devil" and "My Friend Blue". While his view of women is, shall we say, traditional, as revealed by his declaration of independence from his woman on "Jack You Up" he is savvy enough to balance the scales with a taste of his own medicine on "She Don’t Love Me" where his woman manages to keep busy while he’s on the road. Other notable cuts include "Blues from the Heart", which is Fillmore’s shout out to all the blues guitar legends who inspired his entry into the blues and "Tired of My Old Lady" which features some smoking slide work from Joe Louis Walker. Smitty