Barry Darnell & The Mobile Slim Band
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Barry Darnell & The Mobile Slim Band

Macon, Georgia, United States | INDIE

Macon, Georgia, United States | INDIE
Band Blues Classic Rock

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This band has not uploaded any videos

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"Love at First Sight!"

(Translated from Italian):

Love at first sight! Barry Darnell from Macon, Georgia, and this is his debut album. And hard. Rock, blues and soul, with echoes of the Allman Brothers (Nature Boy), Delaney & Bonnie, Otis Redding and a hint of Van Morrison. Great music, played with class and great job, One of the most beautiful surprises of the beginning of this year.

Un colpo di fulmine ! Barry Darnell è di Macon, Georgia, e questo è il suo disco d'esordio. E che disco. Tra rock, blues e soul, con echi di Allman Brothers ( Nature Boy), Delaney & Bonnie, Otis Redding ed un pizzico di Van Morrison. Grande musica, suonata con classe e grande mestiere, Una delle sorprese più belle di questo inizio di anno.

- Caru.com Italian Books and Records site


"Return of Mobile Slim"

(Translated from the Dutch):

I accidentally came upon the "legendary" name Mobile Slim on an American
blues' site, which referred to Barry Darnell and CD-Baby, After a second introduction to his work I can attest that Barry "Slim" Darnell is a real talent in rock-, soul-, blues- and even gospel music.
Now living in Macon, Georgia, this bluesman with "black soul" in his genes was as a youth gripped immediately by the music of such soul, blues, and Southern rock greats as James Brown, Ray Charles, The Allman Brothers Band, Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters. His musical taste reaches out to include also electric blues, mainly bluesy Southern Rock. A soulful singer, he is also a driven guitar player. We sometimes even hear him on the harp and piano on these 14 tracks, which surfaced
in the Wild Bean Recording Studio and now sound as reborn with the Mobile
Slim Band in the "Return of Mobile Slim".

Barry Darnell is not the boss of this band as its name might indicate. It
is a group inwhich the role of every musician is equally important. The Mobile Slim Band includes, beside Darnell, Billy "Big Bang" Rivers (drums), Michael "Goose" Goodrich (bass), Charles Mr. Precision" Reynolds (guitar, slide), Elbert "Wailer" Durham (tenor sax) and Tom "New York" Harling (trumpet).The Barrettes (Kim Coalter, Lisa Darnell, and Emma Darnell) participate with a vocal contribution
in some of the songs.

The band intends to explore their musical limits with this album by the
mixing of different musical genres. It is an album that manifests Barry Darnell as a brilliant songwriter-singer-guitarist, but there is much more. We hear a great band at work in "Return of Mobile Slim", a band that can raise the roof, but also a band with a real message. Blues soaked with R&B, blues- and Southern Rock
as we know of the Alabama Muscle Shoals. Their music is somewhere between
the Allmans and BB King.

Two things are immediately noticeable: the wonderful songs which quickly
etch in your memory and the superb bluesy slide playing of Charles Reynolds. Barry "Slim" Darnell brings the songs with a pleasant voice. Elbert Durham and Tom Harling meanwhile provide a solid foundation on which the
beautiful songs can be built. Often the choice is for midtempo, with
adornment of the pieces provided by the blending of vocals and guitar soli. A lovely example of this are the numbers "Too Big For My Britches" and "Everybody Tells Me", in which Barry Darnell is vocally outstanding. Another highlight is "No Place Like Home", a swinging jump blues in which the gorgeous guitar playing of Darnell is reminiscent of BB King. Other songs also more in the limelight
are: the moody "Never Been Loved Before", the Southern rocking "Nature Boy", the soulful "Me, Myself and I", a Percy-like song and the funky "Like James Brown" of course reminds one of the legend himself. Very strong also is the final song, the gospel "Mary Don't You Weep. A special treat for the real connoisseur is this "return of Mobile Slim", the motto of The Mobile Slim Band! - Rootstime Belgian Webzine


"Mobile Slim's Life as Mysterious as My Internet Searches"

(Translated from the Dutch):
Mobile Slim must have traveled all through the US before finally ending up in Mississippi and, just as mysterious, turning onto his "crossroads of love" the highway to the Lord.

During his life as a preacher he became also an activist for citizen's
rights. Yet he did not seem to find any rest in life and retired to Georgia to return again to the Blues. Again he mysteriously - as his life - disappeared until a tape of his work was discovered in the Wild Bean Recording Studio ... The last known Recording of Mobile Slim.

To keep the legend alive Barry "Slim" Darnell decided to start the Mobile
Slim Band and also bring the "Return of Mobile Slim" on the market. Barry wrote 12 pieces for this recording,all inspired by Mobile Slim, all written simply but all twelve equally beautiful and varied.

The opening "My Mississippi Queen" and the following, dotted with bluesharp,
"Deacon Stomp"give us already two different blues. "No Place Like Home" is next , a jump blues number that immediately brings to mind the great in this genre. Full of brass and winds and spiced with BB King's guitar riffs makes this swing of the best kind. "Nature Boy" brings"Real Blues",beautifully and intensily sung by Barry, a work to set one dreaming rightaway, just as the tearjerker "Me, Myself and I" with the Barrettes as backing vocals contains much "soul" due to Barry's proof of "organ" mastery as heard in this piece ... praise the Lord!

A funky time with "Like James Brown", a piece that mirrors and perfects the
music of the other legend of Georgia soul and a tribute to James.
The last piece gives us gospel in which Barry uses the title of Pete's "Mary Don't You Weep" and also in the same mood, includes a Martha.

Mysterious and beautiful is this " Return of Mobile Slim". - Rootsville Belgian Webzine


Discography

The Return of Mobile Slim, Preferred Records, 2009
CD available from Amazon.com and CD Baby
Downloads available at Amazon and Tradebit

Photos

Bio

Mobile Slim was born to a boogie-woogie ivory-tickling mother and a construction-working harmonica-playing father in the segregated Southern gulf coast: Mobile, Bay St. Louis, and New Orleans. He eventually moved to Georgia, where he played juke joints and honky tonks all over the Southeast, and sang for spare change on the streets of Underground Atlanta. Ever the rolling stone, he spent several years in Mississippi, where Jesus strummed a funky chord in his soul and inspired Mobile Slim to become a minister of the Lord. He preached in many churches throughout the area, and meanwhile wrote a newspaper column and became active in the Civil Rights movement. But Mobile Slim was still restless. He returned to the blues rhythm he had found in Georgia, this time to Macon, where he continued to make music and live out his groove. Things were pretty mellow, until Mobile Slim suddenly vanished after playing a gig downtown. Some people close to him reported that a few months before his disappearance he became very moody and secretive. He would be gone all night and return at ungodly hours in the morning. No one knew where he went during this time. He had been known to hang with some pretty cool cats at Wild Bean Recording Studio, and one day, a mysterious unlabeled tape was found there, and it was put on the stereo. First there was nothing, and then out came a blast of the funkiest rhythm and blues anyone could ever dream of, a six-course serving of soul food for the soul. They knew immediately what it was: the last known recording of Mobile Slim.

Band Members