Sourdough Slim with Robert Armstrong

It’s no secret to anyone who knows me: I unabashedly adore Paradise-based, yodeling, accordion-playing, wise-cracking cowboy-musician Sourdough Slim. Slim’s latest irresistible offering features banjoist/National steel guitarist/saw player Robert Armstrong and Slim playing together live at the 2009 Strawberry Music Festival. Armstrong is perhaps best known for his membership in 1920s-style string band R. Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders (founded by iconic underground cartoonist R. Crumb, who is no longer in the group), which also boasts guitarist/ethnomusicologist Bob Brozman as one of its members. There’s not a darned thing on this CD that is not highly pleasing—from Slim’s refreshingly ludicrous imitation of a female voice on “Barnacle Bill the Sailor,” to Armstrong’s lengthy, swampy, lap-steel solo on “Fan It,” to Slim’s vigorous harmonica on “Open Up Dem Pearly Gates.” Slim and Armstrong trade lap-steel and harmonica solos on “Cowpuncher Blues,” a laid-back, throwback ditty penned by Slim himself. And Armstrong’s saw lends just the right high-lonesome touch to “Tumbling Tumbleweeds.” It’s all ridiculously good on this CD—Slim’s wacky jokes included. Get yer own copy at www.sourdoughslim.com.