The Slide Area is the tenth studio album by Ry Cooder.

[3][4] Reviewing the album for AllMusic, Bob Gottlieb said: Yes, it is a rhythm & blues, bordering at times on funk album, and rap is one direction R&B took, but.....

The two gems on this are the phenomenal treatments of both "Blue Suede Shoes" and Bob Dylan's "I Need a Woman."

Two songs as different in the original forms as pigs and gerbils are converted to R&B hit status.

The album is very good but those two songs make it a gem.