Guitar Slim Jr. | |
Birth Name: | Rodney Glenn Armstrong |
Birth Date: | 24 August 1952 |
Birth Place: | New Orleans, Louisiana, United States |
Instrument: | Guitar, vocals |
Genre: | New Orleans blues |
Occupation: | Guitarist, singer |
Years Active: | 1970s - present |
Guitar Slim Jr. (born Rodney Glenn Armstrong, August 13, 1952, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States)[1] is an American New Orleans blues guitarist and singer. Over his lengthy playing career, he has worked with numerous other blues musicians. His debut album, Story of My Life (1988), was nominated for a Grammy Award.
Armstrong's father was the noted blues performer Guitar Slim, best known for the million-selling song "The Things That I Used to Do", which is listed in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll.[2]
Guitar Slim Jr., has worked for many years on the New Orleans blues club circuit, and his repertoire became more reliant on his father's material.[3] His debut album, recorded in 1988, Story of My Life, was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album in 1989. New Orleans music historian Jeff Hannusch stated in the sleeve notes for that album that Slim Jr. "has been a fixture on the black New Orleans club circuit for the better part of 20 years...[but] doesn't get to play the posher uptown clubs."[4]
He toured with Stevie Ray Vaughan in the late 1980s, and they remained friends until the Vaughan's death in 1990.[5] Slim's 1996 release, Nothing Nice, featured the Memphis Horns.[6]
His most recent recorded work was the 2010 album Brought Up the Hardway.[5]
He has consistently played at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival since its inception.[7]
In 2018, he performed at the Swing Wespelaar Blues for the People festival in Belgium.[8]
As of 2024, he continues to perform throughout the Louisiana blues and R&B circuit.
Year of release | Album title | Record label | |
---|---|---|---|
1988 | Story of My Life | Orleans Records | |
1996 | Nothing Nice | Warehouse Creek Records | |
2010 | Brought Up the Hardway | ClyDesign Studios |