For those not in the know, Cornelius Chapel Records has teamed up with the Music Maker Relief Foundation for this exciting new album from Alabama Slim, lovingly entitled The Parlor (due out January 29th, 2021).

The album was tracked in one four hour take for a straight-to-tape feel, but was captured digitally at The Parlor recording studio.

Cornelius Chapel brought in Dial Back Sound's Matt Patton (Dexateens, Drive-By Truckers) and Bronson Tew. Patton and Tew were able to take the raw files and remix and master them back onto tape after Patton and Jimbo Mathus (Squirrel Nut Zippers) sequenced the record and added the perfect amount of bass, organ, and piano so that Tew could work his magic.

Alabama Slim was born Milton Frazier in Vance, Alabama on March 29th, 1939. His father built trains at the Pullman plant and his mother did domestic work.

In their home they had a Victrola and a boxful of 78s. Slim fell in love with the blues of Bill Broonzy and Lightnin’ Hopkins. That’s where the journey began for the nearly 7-foot-tall, always dapper-dressed Bluesman.

“I met Alabama Slim in New Orleans while visiting bluesman Little Freddie King,” remembers Music Maker Relief Foundation Founder and President, Tim Duffy.

"“Slim is a towering man, close to seven feet tall. He was very well spoken and dressed in an impeccable tailored suit. He told me he was an old friend of Freddie’s and was originally from Huntsville, Alabama."

"I told him if he ever got back there soon, that he should call me and I will get him into a great recording studio up there.”

1. 'Hot Foot'
2. 'Freddie's Voodoo Boogie'
3. 'Rob Me Without A Gun'
4. 'Rock With Me Momma'
5. 'All Night Long'
6. 'Forty Jive'
7. 'Midnight Rider'
8. 'Rock Me Baby'
9. 'Someday Baby'
10. 'Down In The Bottom'

The final product (on which 6 of the 10 songs are no-holds barred, no-quarter-given political opinions of our current leader), brought together by all the aforementioned musical maestros, The Parlor is an instant classic which opens on the aptly named, one-two hop of 'Hot Foot' which is itself backed seamlessly by his cousin and best friend Little Freddie King taking over lead vocals on 'Freddie's VooDoo Boogie,' and then we get the Southern rawness of 'Rob Me Without A Gun,' the perky 'Rock With Me Momma,' and then the low slung blues of 'All Night Long.'

Up next is the politically charged, gently frenetic, yet poetically embracing 'Forty Jive,' which is followed by the guitar jive of 'Midnight Rider,' the low-slung blues of 'Rock Me Baby,' with the album rounding out on the finger-snappin' 'Someday Baby,' closing on the earnest, toes in the dirt blues of 'Down In The Bottom.'

“Who knows how many incredible unrecorded blues artists are out there,” says Tim Duffy. “It is clear that the blues will never die within the community from which it was born, as there are artists that embrace the older musical traditions and are determined to scuffle and hold dear to their blues - even if it takes them 50 years to get into a studio.”

In closing, The Parlor is a true lesson of perseverance and true grit. One never knows when the proper team can come together to leave their cumulative mark on an age-old genre.

Official Purchase Link