Reverend "Slick", Article from The Democrat

	*Young bluesman bringing back the old* style blues
And a good time was had by all -- Young blues sensation Daniel "Slick" Ballinger gave a concert for the residents at the Senatobia Convalescent Center last week.

The long-ago blues sounds of R.L. Burnside, Mississippi Fred McDowell, and Muddy Waters came to life again at the Senatobia Convalescent Center last week. Daniel "Slick" Ballinger, an 18 year old blues prodigy from Raleigh, N.C. came to share his music and brighten the day for the center's residents and staff.

Ballinger's style is reminiscent of days gone by. He picks and plays slide, pounding his foot to his own rhythms as his voice calls back the true music of the Delta.

Ballinger has grown up listening to country and rock and roll music, but discovered the old-style blues when he saw the movie "Great Balls of Fire" based on the life of Jerry Lee Lewis. Later he saw the movie "Crossroads," about Robert Johnson and he was hooked. "I heard that music and it just called me," Ballinger told the Commercial Appeal in October, 2002.

The Clayton, N.C. High School senior has been studying, and playing the blues in juke joints and nightclubs for the last three years. His mother brought him to Memphis for the first time when he was 16 years old, so that he could fulfill his dream to play on Beale Street. It was there he met blues supporter Sherman Cooper of Como, who introduced him to local blues legend Othar Turner. Ballinger spent the better part of last summer living with 94 year-old Turner on his Gravel Springs farm. He spent his days working the farm with Turner and playing the blues at night. "He is my best friend," Ballinger said. "He is like a granddaddy to me. Any place he goes, I go. I love him." He said that Turner had made him his first fife, and he was learning to play it from Turner and his granddaughter Sharde Thomas.

Ballinger recently won the 2002 Cape Fear Blues Challenge and took second place honors in the Charlotte Blues Society Competition. He won studio time in those competitions and has already recorded five songs in Raleigh. He will compete in the International Blues Challenge in Memphis on January 30. He regularly performs with his band, "Rev. Slick's BBQ Band."