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la Gazette de Greenwood *le Webzine Blues*(French webzine), dec-03, ("Slidin´ Out" review)
"Crazy. This guy is crazy. See (hear) what his guitar is put up to ! Matti Norlin ? I didn't know until a friend of mine mails me this CD. [here there is a game of word between mailing and crazyness where the writing uses an untranslatable french slang word]. Crazy about guitar, this Matti Norlin sure is !
I don't know why, I didn't play the CD right away. It stayed there, on the living room table, scoffing at me with its title : Slidin' Out. And then I put it in the player.....and. it exploded !
"What I like the most of playing in different tunings is that most of the time I don't know which notes I play". !!! This is what Matti says in the liner notes. The first number, Not Allowed, tells it all : it tousles one's hair with the slide! And everything that follows is of the same kind, even if the beat (sometimes) slows down. In addition to the furious slide (Groovin' for instance), Matti Norlin also plays a breathtaking finger picking (Cool Down is a good sample of it). Slidin' Out is a tune "hard to play, especially since I tend to play it fast". oh yeah ??!!
But amongst those 14 songs (all originals), there are a few moments of relative respite, with pure jewels such as Rooftop Jive or This Day Will Never Return.
Recorded in Stockholm (didn't I tell you ? Matti Norlin is swedish) in his own flat, alone with his guitars (6 and 12 strings, National, banjo) and his stomping foot as a rhythm section, you alredy have understood this CD is a little chef d'ouvre of acoustic guitar. If you don't know Matti Norlin, rush to his website www.mattinorlin.com where you'll be able to hear extracts from his music and most of all : order his CD ! Oli "

ÖP (Östersunds Posten), 14/9 -02
" It´s still raw and acoustic, but the material on this album is much more progressive than plain traditional blues. The second song on the album, Distant as a star, is a great rock tune, and with the right drumbeat I´m sure that it could be played at any dancefloor."

Hallands Nyheter, 7/9-02
"Mattis new album strictly contains his own original music, and on several tracks it sounds like he is trying to combine Delta Blues with Punk..."
"...both skillful, playful and beautiful"

Värmlands Folkblad, 6 sept 2002
Matti, the best in Sweden?
"If I claim that the best blues guitarist in Sweden is Matti Norlin and lives on Flintbacken in Stockholm, then I´m sure that people with more experience would have objections.
And that is exactly what happened when Matti played the opening song "Not Allowed" on this his third album, at a small club and someone in the audience was crying out:- Why don´t you play the blues for real!"
But this is Mattis own definition of the Blues, and with this partially phenomenal album, he should have the preference as a interpretionist.
I´m not really sure what guitars he´s using, but I can say that his technique is astonishing, without loosing the blues feeling, and he manage to variate his sound among others by grabbing hold of the Banjo, this sadly underrate instrument which in the right hands can make a whole concert hall crumble."

Groove, nr 6 2002
"You have got to say right away that Matti Norlin is one hell of a guitar player with as much of Mississippi John Hurt and Prewar Blues as Led Zeppelins Hats of to (Roy) Harper in his fingers. On his third record, Norlin is firing off the one slide tune after the other in a way that makes your trousers flutter. It´s a pleasure to hear him play."

Dala-Demokraten, 16 okt -02
Yeah! Matti Norlin is delivering Crazy Blues all by himself. Slidin´out is as far from an overproduced record as you can get, it´s just one guitar and one voice, that´s all. A dirty sound and a straight fotstamp to keep the beat and to help you from getting lost in all the different turns. Down to earth and really cool. You can feel the smoky club house infront of you. Or why not the fire place in the middle of the woods. Matti takes the blues and adds even more cow-minoure and cowboy feeling to it. It turns into some sort of Punk-Blues, with a feeling that brings shiver down your spine. He plays like he has sold both his guitar and soul to the devil. What a rush! I want Matti Norlin sitting in my sofa playing guitar when it´s time for partying on a Friday night.

LT, 15 okt -02
"Matti from little Hoting in little Jämtland is continuing to grow into an even bigger bluesman within the swedish roots stage. You can here it clearer than ever when you listen to his third solo-album. This time all 14 songs is his own composions. Like the tiltle says, the slide guitar has got the major part. The things that makes "Slidin´Out" to a huge exclamation mark are Mattis songs and the way he sings them. Listen to "This day will never return", "Distant as a star", "Groovin´", "Sugar" and you´re probably listening to the finest tunes in the bottleneck style ever recorded in our land."

Contact / Booking: mattinorlin@gmail.com