Going Back To Paris - The Paris Slim Mountain Top Sessions 1998-1999

by Franck L. Goldwasser

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Franck Goldwasser's discography is small but mighty. His release from last year, SWEET LITTLE BLACK SPIDER was one of the toughest releases of the year. These recordings from 1998-1999 are some of the best of his career. With guests GARY SMITH- JIM PUGH & RUSTY ZINN, these sessions burn through originals & well chosen covers with an intensity most contemporary releases lack. Band support is superb and the loose, but tight approach shows that Paris Slim has mastery of the sound. C.L. Bluebeat Music

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Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Who Needs This Mess!!??, Can't Raise Me, The Sultans of Slide - Lightning Strikes, Sweet Little Black Spider and Other Songs From the Trenches of the Blues, Going Back To Paris - The Paris Slim Mountain Top Sessions 1998-1999, Blues For Esther, Jumpin' at La Java, Papa, Fais Pas Ça, and 5 more. , and , .

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1.	Gonna Move To Texas 04:14	info	buy track
2.	Rollin' Stone 04:21	info	buy track
3.	Love Is Just A Gamble 05:44	info	buy track
4.	Harp De Triomphe 02:20	info	buy track
5.	Lowdown Dog Blues 03:42		buy track
6.	It's A Sin 02:43	info	buy track
7.	Can't Raise Me 03:54	info	buy track
8.	House Full Of Blues 07:19	info	buy track
9.	That's What You Do To Me 02:59	info	buy track
10.	Death Letter Blues 03:23	info	buy track
11.	Tell Me, Baby 03:35	info	buy track
12.	Slim's Business 04:37	info	buy track
13.	Going Back To Paris 05:23	info	buy track
14.	Four Walls 03:33	info	buy track
15.	3629 Grove 03:21	info	buy track
16.	Sixth Avenue Meltdown 09:23	info	buy track

about

An Introduction to “Going Back To Paris” – Franck L. Goldwasser

A thirty-seven year veteran of the West Coast blues scene, Franck L. Goldwasser (sometimes still known as “Paris Slim”) was born and raised in Paris, France in the 1960’s. Having dropped out of art school and moved to the United States in 1983 to pursue his musical aspirations, he paid his dues in the juke joints and nightclubs of the San Francisco Bay Area, gigging alongside some of the most iconic blues luminaries of our time, including Jimmy McCracklin, Lowell Fulson, Pee Wee Crayton, Percy Mayfield and Charlie Musselwhite. A vital contributor to the Bay Area 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 Leavy, Mark Hummel, Harmonica Slim, Sugaray Rayford, Byther Smith and BMA laureates The Mannish Boys of which he is one of the founding members.

“Going Back To Paris“ is Franck L. Goldwasser's new release on the Mountain Top label, a project that has been brewing for more than twenty years. “Those tracks have been in the can since the late nineties, and it was one of my biggest regrets that they hadn’t been released, because they’re some of the best stuff I’ve ever recorded”, he reflects. “The Mountain Top label got started in the mid-nineties, and I played on and produced several of their releases, but for some reason or another my own album has never come out”, he adds. A blues enthusiast and part-time harmonica player, Charles “Chas” Putris launched the label just so he could record his favorite Bay Area artists: Gary Smith, R.J. Mischo and Fillmore Slim among others. Having moved to Hawaii over a decade ago, Putris relegated his musical activities to the back burner, and there haven’t been any new releases since.

Byrd Hale, producer and host of Stanford University’s KZSU’s weekly blues showcase “Blues With A Feeling” for nearly three decades and one of Goldwasser’s oldest friends, recalls a telephone conversation during the winter of 2020: “Franck was real frustrated about the Mountain Top recordings. There’s this pandemic going on, musicians have no work, and our efforts to promote [Goldwasser’s previous release] “Sweet Little Black Spider” got stalled when Covid hit; he needed product to sell and told me about those recordings he did for Charlie back in ’98 that were never released. I suggested he got ahold of Putris to see if we could buy the rights and put it out ourselves, like we did “Spider”, he goes on. “We didn’t know if we’d ever hear from him, having dropped out of the game, but he got back to Franck right away”. “Going Back To Paris” had been Chas’s brainchild, and he himself was rather bitter about the project never having had a chance to be heard by the public. One of Goldwasser’s most fervent supporters ever since the two were introduced by Hale at a South San Francisco club, Putris shared the frustration and stunned the guitarist with news he couldn’t have foreseen. “I told Franck that Mountain Top would release the record, because after all, out of all the albums we did together, “Paris” might be the one I’m the most sentimentally attached to”, he recounts. “We had some disagreement over what songs should be on the album and that’s the main reason the release got stalled on two separate occasions." This time, however, Putris gave Goldwasser carte blanche over the album’s tracks and sequence, even assigning him to the creation of the artwork.

“One of the reasons I'm so attached to these recordings is the players," muses the Frenchman. "Those guys are top flight artists who've paid some serious dues! " he adds. “[Drummer] Big Walter got his start in the Midwest playing with heavy Detroit guys like Bobo Jenkins and Eddie Burns, and he led [San Francisco soul-rock group] the Dynatones for decades; (Johnny) Ace toured with John Lee (Hooker), Rosco Gordon, (Charlie) Musselwhite and Otis Rush---he's a freak on the blues bass. Recording with those guys was an honor and made me feel right at home. That's one of the toughest blues rhythm section the world's ever seen, as far as I'm concerned ". Guitarist Rusty Zinn, a household name in his own right, is largely featured on “G.B.T.P.”, while South Bay blues harmonica godfather Gary Smith makes a cameo appearance on two songs. “I was listening to Gary as a teenager in France”, says Goldwasser. “I was in his band for a while in the late ‘80’s, and he’s a hero of Charles’ --- his contribution is the icing on the cake!”. In addition to the 1999 Mountain Top sessions, the album includes three tracks from a 1998 self-produced demo that features a crack East Bay band lead by keyboard legend Jim Pugh (Robert Cray Band, Gospel Hummingbirds). Drummer John Hanes, an original member of the indie rock group Pearl Harbor and the Explosions, and the late Chicago transplant Leonard Gill on bass round-up the group.

“Having these recordings available to the public at last is very exciting. Although they’re more than twenty years old, they give a pretty good picture of what I’m about”, says the Parisian transplant. Charlie Lange, a long time fan, promoter of blues music, radio show host and operator of the world-renowned online music store Bluebeat Music, wrote: “Franck Goldwasser's discography is small but mighty. His release from last year, “Sweet Little Black Spider” was one of the toughest of the year. These recordings from 1998-1999 are some of the best of his career. With guests Gary Smith, Jim Pugh and Rusty Zinn, these sessions burn through originals and well-chosen covers with an intensity most contemporary releases lack. Band support is superb and the loose but tight approach shows that Paris Slim has mastery of the sound.”

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released February 20, 2021

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about

Franck L. Goldwasser California

Born in Paris, France in 1960, Franck Goldwasser moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1983. Immersing himself in the area's still vibrant blues scene, Franck worked with some of the most prestigious blues names in West Coast blues, including Percy Mayfield, Lowell Fulson and Charlie Musselwhite. Franck has released several solo albums and has appeared on more than 100 albums. ... more

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