Guitar Slim & His Band - Specialty 542 (1955)

This is one of those records that you are excited to find at first but then it all goes sour after a closer inspection. While the playing surface is almost as shiny and scratch free as when it was pressed, there is a fast warp...not one of those long flowing kind that the needle will ride up and down like a seasoned surfer...but rather one that at 78 rpm, sends the stylus up into the stratosphere. And that doesn't even cover the hairline crack from the label to the edge.

Archiving it with a bit heavier tracking weight at 33 1/3 rpm, I was able to alter the speed using Audacity software.

Guitar Slim seems to have been Jimi Hendrix a full decade before Jimi Hendrix and his showmanship apparently rivaled that of Little Richard's. It's a shame that his life ended way too early at age 32.

His son, Guitar Slim Jr., has one hell of a voice and some of his music lends itself nicely to the Shaggin' culture of the Carolinas. Check out his website.