Voices in our Heads
Henry Harris is South Side Slim: Long Live the Blues!
Henry Harris aka South Side Slim is a musician, songwriter, performer, and all-around philosopher about life. For Harris, the Blues come from down deep in his soul. The Blues musician grew up in Oakland in the seventies and eighties listening to the music of Jimi Hendrix, Muddy Waters, Van Halen, and the Isley Brothers.
Henry Harris was late to the life of a musician. He didn’t pick up a guitar until he was sixteen or seventeen. But, when he did, his life as a musician was set.
Henry Harris aka South Side Slim
PalacioMagazine.com sat down for an interview with the Blues Musician in a very noisy coffee house for a conversation about his roller-coaster life, his brand of Blues Music, and the future of the Blues.
The Music Story of Henry Harris
Henry Harris, South Side Slim, moved to Los Angeles in the early eighties. His life story would take him from Hollywood to South Los Angeles where driving a truck would come before growing into a musician. Henry Harris has lived the Blues.
Although he heard the Blues in his mother’s house while growing up, his musical taste leaned more toward the Funkadelics. But, according to Henry Harris, his musical moment came when he heard Jimi Hendrix and his song Machine Gun.
According to Harris, his life and music would change again when he met Los Angeles Blues and Jazz Musician Ray Bailey. In our interview, Harris describes how his life changed after a bout with some hard living in his father’s Truck Yard. As he elaborates in the interview and on his website, www.southsideslim.com, Harris would go on to have daily rituals of long days of guitar practice and jam sessions at local Blues clubs including Babe and Ricky’s (at its original spot at 53rd and Central), the Safari Club, and as he describes them “competitive private juke joints.”
“Those years were like going to school. I submitted myself to learn as much about the blues, performing, and the guitar as I could. I soaked up everything about the old guys, those bluesmen who really lived and looked the part.”
There’s more to Henry Harris/South Side Slim
Henry Harris, South Side Slim, has had a career and a life to be shared through his music, videos, and a biography, “Sweetback Blues: The Twelve Bar Tale of South Side Slim.” You can find out more about Harris at his website, Facebook pages, and YouTube.
