Franck L. Goldwasser – Sweet Little Black Spider
Format: 2CD – Digital / Label: Slymbyrd Records
Releasedate: 29-01-2020
An Introduction to Franck L. Goldwasser – Sweet Little Black Spider
”A thirty-seven year veteran of the West Coast blues scene, Franck L. Goldwasser (formerly known as “Paris Slim” in blues circles) paid his dues in the juke joints and nightclubs of the San Francisco Bay Area in the early 1980’s, gigging alongside some of the most iconic blues luminaries of our time, including Jimmy McCracklin, Lowell Fulson, PeeWee Crayton, Percy Mayfield and Charlie Musselwhite. A vital contributor to the San Francisco East Bay and Portland, Oregon scenes, Franck has appeared at festivals and concerts across America and Europe; his guitar playing has fueled recordings by artists as diverse as Jimmy Dawkins, Curtis Salgado, Joe Louis Walker, Arthur Adams, R.J. Mischo, Fillmore Slim, Hosea Leavey, MarkHummel, Harmonica Slim, Sugaray Rayford, Byther Smith and BMA laureates The Mannish Boys of which he is one of the founding members.
“Sweet Little Black Spider”, Franck L. Goldwasser’s first release in over five years, was forty years in the making and alifelong ambition for the Paris-born-bluesman. “My dear friend Byrd (Hale) called me out of the blue one day. We traveled all over the South together in the 80’s, but somehow we fell out of touch for almost twenty years”, he explains. Hale, producer and host of Stanford University’s KZSU’s weekly blues showcase “Blues With A Feeling” for nearly thirty years, recalls running into Goldwasser at a gig in San Jose in the winter of ’18:“We had a brief talk, and Franck sounded real down, claimed he had nothing to say. That made me kind of sad because here’s Franck, a dyed-in-the-wool blues guy who’s paid his dues in the trenches playing with the giants, one of the most respected blues guitarists today, down in the dumps!” That’s when the concept germinated in Hale’s mind for a device that might get his old friend getting back on track.“For quite some time I’d been thinking that Franck and (Christoffer) Kid Andersen together in the studio would produce pure dynamite”, Hale goes on to explain.“I decided to call him up and I said, You’re going into Kid’s place and you’re cutting a new album”. Back in 2006, when he was just launching his home-based Greaseland recording facility, Andersen, the Norwegian-born award-winning multi-instrumentist who is quickly becoming the blues world’s most in-demand producer had invited Goldwasser to come and lay down some tracks with him. “I’d told him I wanted to cut something real raw, a three-piece livein the studio, greasy and lo-fi”, recalls the French blues guitarist. “Beaming with anticipation and without blinking, Kid just said: Can I play bass on it? I knew right then that we would have to make that record, sooner or later”, Goldwasser reminisces.
While the songwriting is the main focus of the album from Goldwasser’s standpoint, the music on “Sweet Little Black Spider” is very much of an electricguitar showcase. With backing from just Andersen on bass and Charlie Musselwhite Band drummer June Core, Goldwasser’s idiomatic and brazenly bold stylings get plenty of room to stretch out and invade. Voicing his enthusiasm for the result, producer Kid Andersen exults: “This shit is real! This record is so great! I’m so proud that I got to record this! ”Particularly taken with the spoken word pieces, which make up nearly half of the double-disc outing, Kid adds: “I’d done several spoken word projects in the past, but never within the blues genre; that was very freshand exciting for me, because it added perspective, extratexture and depth to the whole.”Slymbird Records is excited to introduce a long overdue, original work by an artist who unabashedly confesses, “For the first time in all of my recording career, I have an album that I’m proud of, it’s me 100%, it’s way in-the-alley and it smokes!”
“Sweet Little Black Spider” is a re-birth of sorts for Franck L. Goldwasser, formerly known as Paris Slim, and a loving tribute to his mentors; a passionate effortand a musical statement that will appeal to not only devoted blues fans, but anyone who enjoys downhome storytelling and gritty American roots music straight from the soul.
For any further information regarding Franck L. Goldwasser please visit www.francklgoldwasser.com. Slymbird records is happy to respond to your inquiries, please do not hesitate to contact us.
SlimByrd Records
1171 McKinley Street
Redwood City, CA 94061(805) 345-9305
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