SLIDE GUITAR MAN
Québec Blues QB-9910

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VOIR, Montreal, Qc. -  February 2000
Claude Côté

Here it is, at last, the first album of the truly gifted guitarist Jean-Denis Bélanger better known and appreciated under the nickname that got him noticed at the time he was the leader of the defunct Blue Rocket Special.

Slim is a gemme simply because of his guitaristic understanding of the blues, rockabilly, rock'n'roll, (remember his famous Honey Bee), and his dylanesque escapades which he assumes totally.

Slim offers here a complete kaleidoscope of these different styles with a volubility
and a quality of execution that have nothing to envy to Carl Perkins or even to Chuck Berry ! 
A sure bet.  And done with good taste too. 

 

 

BLUES BYTES, Phoenix, Arizona - January 2000
Benoît Brière  

Unbeknown to the outside world, there has been an interesting  blues scene emerging in Montreal these last few years.

Some of  the best players of the area turn up to give a hand to J.D. Slim,  who self-produced his brand new CD, Slide Guitar Man (info at  quebecblues@hotmail.com).

J.D. is an excellent guitarist, and  he doesn't see himself as strictly a blues player.In fact, his clean,  smooth voice is probably better suited for folk than it is for  blues. Listen to the mandolin-driven "Let it Rock" for proof.

All  in all, his CD has a pleasant, bluesy pop feel that might make it  a good choice for newcomers to the blues, with the slide and  harp showcase "Sick and Tired" being the most hardcore  Chicago-style blues song .

 

 

SCENE ROOTS & BLUES MAGAZINE, Winnipeg, Manitoba. - Winter 2000
Jeff Monk

Quebec six-string sharpie Jean-Denis Bélanger (J. D. to his fans) bas been sliding around the French Canadian music scene for nearly two decades. He formed his own band in the 1980s (Blue Rocket Special) and toured wilh Nanette Workman (look her up) on her Rock and Romance Tour of 1994/95.

What this first solo album delivers is a strong set of nine original songs that are played well and recorded warmly. J.D. covers a great deal of ground here, easily grinding out straight blues ("Sick andTired"), mysterious, swamp-soul tinged burners ("ln Disguise") and plucky rockabilly ("Lonely Avenue") without posturing. "Let It Rock" gives off plenty of John Hiatt meets Steve Earle vibes for the no-depression set. The album title is a bit misleading though. There are only a few songs featuring slide guitar so die-hard string-scrape aficionados may feel let down.

If Slim's home province ever separates, can we have him?

 

 

LE CHOIX DES GENS D'ICI, Mont-Laurier, Qc. -  September 18, 1998
Luc Bélisle
 

Café Mi-Suisse Mi-Sucré
J.D. SLIM IN GREAT SHAPE
     

J.D. Slim, a Quebec boogieman...
and a real boogieman too !!!

 

Recognised as Quebec's slide guitar king, J.D. Slim was in  concert september 4 at the Café Mi-suisse Mi sucré, a presentation  of Blue, in collaboration with CFLO FM. Jean-Denis Bélanger, a.k.a.  J.D. Slim was totally in control that night.
      
Backed on drums by ex-Mahogany Rush Jimmy Ayoub and Jean-Guy Boutin on bass, J.D. Slim paid himself a treat with charged rock  and blues, sometimes playing the covers note-for-note and sometimes adding his personal touch.

He makes the classics his own: Who Do You Love, popularised by Bo Diddley; John Lee Hooker's One Bourbon, One scotch, One beer; J.J. Cale's Call Me The Breeze and After Midnight that could have  gone on forever; Eric Clapton's Have You Ever Loved A Woman; Dylan's All Along The Watchtower (Wow!); and also the Beatles' Come  Together and I Want You.
      
After some 20 years on the road, J.D. Slim also writes his own  material, Les Dieux De La Guerre (The Gods Of War) is an absolutely infernalboogie that this one alone would be a good reason for J.D. to do an album. He put out a hard-to-find unplugged (independant)  album in 1995.
 
J.D. Slim opened for the great bluesmen John Mayall and Jeff Healy,  also played with Nanette Workman and appeared at Bob Harrisson's Sessions Blues Sessions at the Grand Café, in Montreal.

 

 

LE JOURNAL DE MONTRÉAL,  Montreal, Qc. - March 24, 1991
Paul Villeneuve

Photo Pierre Vidicaire

J.D. SLIM  WITHOUT SHADES

When you're born in Gaspésie and your name is Jean-Denis  Bélanger, it's not obvious that one day you'll end up playing  blues-rock on St-Denis street... under the name of J.D. Slim. 

But that's what the Mont-Louis native was aiming for, in his   early twenties, when he started playing rock in a Montreal-North  tavern. 

Being the last of a family of seven kids, Slim, who moved to  Montreal with his parents at an early age, identifies his musical  roots to his brothers and sisters favorite singers that rocked  his childhood: Elvis, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis... 

First and foremost, he sees himself as a songwriter. He  discovered the blues through the Beatles' Yer Blues.  In 1984, he got a band together: Blue Rocket Special. They  were into bluesmen like John Lee Hooker who also used the   nickname Texas Slim. Jokingly, one guy in the band re-named its  Leader J.D. Slim, who's sunglasses would become his trademark.
    
On the Labatt Blues Scene, J.D. Slim appeared at the  Festival International de Jazz de Montréal from 1985 to 1990 and  also opened for John Mayall at the Spectrum in May 1990. 

As part of the Session Blues Session, where he's been  invited since 1988, J.D. Slim will be performing next Wednesday  at the Grand Café, with his band, his songs, his guitar and...  his shades.

 

 

LE DEVOIR, Montreal, Qc. - May 23, 1989
Serge Truffault

Photo: Jacques Grenier 

CULTURE ET SOCIETY

JEAN-DENIS BÉLANGER  -  Urbain blues: heavy and solid
 
After running for five days, the Session Blues Session gave us again the opportunity to enjoy the tasteful, incisive and  textured playing of guitarist Jean-Denis Bélanger a.k.a. J.D.  Slim. It was last Saturday night and there were no hockey  on TV.     

He doesn't look over thirty. But that doesn't stop him from having a playing that makes older players growpalewith envy. He barely moves. He's not a show-off, which is sometimes a pretence for hiding a lack of talent. He minds his business. He plays. And  he plays damn good too.     

The Grand Café was packed and only a few notes were needed to show where Jean-Denis Bélanger stands. From John Lee Hooker to some slide guitar Hound Dog Taylor and George Thorogood style. A heavy and solid  urban blues that got the people right away. With good backing from Bob Harrisson on drums and Marc Deschênes on bass, Bélanger or J.D. Slim did a take-off on hubcaps with an instrumental with such a drive, having very little to envy to the guitar heroes of the sixties. He went on with  Roll Your Moneymaker and Shake Your Moneymaker with the same rousing spirit. Then he played a couple of blues numbers followed by an incisive solo in Who Do You Love, a George Thorogood favorite,  then Sweet Little Angel in which he inserted the Beatles' I Want You riff, then a frenzied Johnny B. Goode not so much Chuck Berry style but more a la Johnny Winter.

In the middle of all these blues, Jean-Denis Bélanger gave us a masterful rendition of the Dylan classic Like A Rolling Stone, showing how much his voice gained since last year, when he  and his Blue Rocket played at the Montreal Jazz Festival. Last Saturday night, Bélanger seemed to drift away from his shyness in favor of his voice.    

Among all the bluesmen that ride across Quebec, Jean-Denis Bélanger stands out with that little thing that might be easy to pin-point but hard to explain. In short, Jean-Denis Bélanger a.k.a. J.D.Slim has charisma. That little thing, added to his masterful playing, his voice, his repertoire and his simplicity, makes him a true artist.