1st ink on the new CD - hometown paper

NIGHTLIFE

Local Beats

 

Published: Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 1:00 a.m. 
Last Modified: Wednesday, March 9, 2011 at 10:04 a.m.

Artist: Gene "Sarasota Slim" Hardage (guitar, vocals, composition, production)


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Gene "Sarasota Slim" Hardage

Base of operation: St. Petersburg

Style/genre of music: Blues

Bio: Sarasota Slim's new disc (the third on Hardage's own Possum Phono-Graphics label, and eighth overall) entitled, "Get Up Get Down," is commingled blues, funk, boogie, slide guitar and heaps of warm Southern charm. Hardage, who grew up in Sarasota, is as authentic and talented as they come, having worked/ toured with Lucky Peterson (1988+) and earning his "Sarasota Slim" nickname from Rock Bottom (with whom he played, in The Jungle Bushmasters and The Cuttaways). Internationally acclaimed, Hardage released four albums on Italian label Appaloosa throughout the 1990s, and toured Europe. He also started (with the now-defunct Gulf Coast Blues Society) the long-running Monday night blues jam at Tampa's Green Iguana. Hardage calls on a changeable collection of musicians for live performances and recording, including keyboards and backup vocalists to augment standard guitar, bass and drums.

Quote: "If only I could do what the rest of my contemporaries do, and that is to brag about some horrible brush with death and jail and, y'know, three kinds of drug addictions, and all kinds of the bad things that blues people are supposed to have, y'know, I would be really popular," Hardage joked.

Where to see: 7-10 p.m. Saturday. Venice's Snook Haven (485-7221). Free / Official CD release party, 6-10 p.m. March 20 at Skipper's Smokehouse in Tampa ($6).

Where to buy CDs: CDBaby.com and performances ($10)

Website: sarasotaslim.com

-- Dawn Scire, dawnzig@hotmail.com