Local Guitar Slim Keeps Blues Alive

Guitar Slim, Prosito's Restaurant, 3829 Sixth Ave. Tonight and tomorrow, 9:30 p.m., $4 cover. New Year's Eve, 9 p.m., $10 advance. 752-0676.

-- TACOMA He books himself as Guitar Slim, but barrel-house blues singer and guitarist Pat Chase says he isn't as adamant about that nickname as he once was.

"There was a harmonica player I played with in the Bay Area around 1975," Chase recalls. "It was summertime and we played a lot of house parties and basically all I'd ever wear was a pair of shorts and sandals. And Paul would look at me and say "Man, Pat, you've got the skinniest legs I've ever seen! I'm gonna start calling you Guitar Slim.' I pushed it. I was telling everybody `Hey, I'm Guitar Slim!' Sometimes a handle just sticks."

Chase says he didn't know then about the OTHER Guitar Slim, Eddie Jones, one of electric blues' earliest influences. Chase pays tribute to the guitarist with his version of Jones' signature tune, "Guitar Slim," on his self-produced album "Dedicated," which he released last April.

He says he first started learning to play at age 10 when his older brother got a guitar.

"He took lessons, then he'd come home and show me what he learned. The only problem was that I'm left-handed. I learned to play a right-handed guitar upside down. My brother would tell me not to touch his guitar when he wasn't there, so naturally as soon as he was gone I'd be at it. But I couldn't change the strings around. I didn't know the difference anyhow. No one told me it was backwards."

In the early '70s Chase and his friends got together and played popular songs by the Stones and Creedence Clearwater. But they also became interested in folk, first Bob Dylan and then the blues of Lightnin' Hopkins. Interest in acoustic blues eventually led to electric.

But it was a stint in the Navy that put the shine on Chase's blues conversion.

"It was around 1978 and I got stationed for training at the Great Lakes Naval Station, which is in north Chicago."

A friend had suggested Chase contact Chicago blues singer and pianist Sunnyland Slim. Over a 60 year span, Sunnyland Slim had played with such greats as Muddy Waters, Otis Rush and King Curtis.

"I called him up," Chase recalls, "and said, `Sunnyland Slim, this is Guitar Slim! Ron told me to call you, and I need a gig!' He hired me on the phone! His guitar player had wanted a vacation. Just a twist of fate." Chase joined an all-star band which also included the father of modern Chicago blues harmonica, Walter Horton.

"Here I was, 24, playing with all these Chicago blues legends. Junior Wells, Buddy Guy. It was a great experience."

Chase has stuck by the electric blues he learned, working in California and now in his adopted Washington state. Born in San Jose, Calif., today he's well settled in Snoqualmie. And these days, he keeps his playing confined to the weekends, joined by band members Mark Dalton on bass, drummer Larry Harris and saxman Dennis Ellis.

"Hey, I've played the bars," he says. "I've seen the life of a (full-time) musician. It's just too hard."