Fillmore Slim - Other Side Of The Road (2000)

Fillmore Slim could get over with blues fans anywhere. On Other Side of the Road the guitarist boasts one of the raunchiest tones since Johnny Guitar Watson and he sings with the rough-hewn authority of a sanctified preacher. An itinerant bluesman-born and raised in New Orleans, relocated to San Francisco in the mid-’50s, did a five-year stretch in a federal penitentiary in Texas-he’s worked under a variety of names, including Tailbone Slim, Clarence “Guitar” Sims and Fillmore Sims. He performs with passion and fire on insightful originals like “Call 911,” “Kicked Out,” “The Girl Can’t Cook” and the raucous, shuffling “Pretty Baby.” His New Orleans roots come out on the jazzy shuffle “Louisiana Scat” and a funky rendition of the Dave Bartholomew classic “Blue Monday,” a hit in the ’50s for Fats Domino. A welcome return to the scene by the wily blues veteran. ~Bill Milkowski