We recently lost one of the great blues men of our time. Magic Slim, straight out of Chicago and Mississippi, played the blues all the way up to the very end. Although you don’t hear much about him when it comes to some of the blues greats, he still had a solid place in the history of the blues. I wanted to share an article from RollingStone that talks a little bit about his history and how he passed. Then I also want to celebrate the life and music from Magic Slim with some footage from one of his performances. I hope you enjoy it all as much as I did!
Magic Slim recently passed away and is being honored by blues music fans all around the world. Here’s a little bit from RollingStone about the blues guitar slinger, but you can check out the full article at http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/blues-guitarist-magic-slim-dead-at-75-20130222.
Slim, born Morris Holt in Mississippi, helped define the sound of post-war electric blues in Chicago as a younger peer of icons like Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. Slim’s first instrument was piano, but after he lost the little finger on his right hand in a cotton-gin accident, he switched to guitar, and also played bass with his mentor, the guitarist Magic Sam. Slim moved to Chicago in 1955, but found it so difficult to land gigs on a competitive South Side blues scene that he soon returned home.
Back in Mississippi, he developed his talent playing small gigs like plantation parties, with brothers Nick and Douglas as his backing band, the Teardrops. They returned to Chicago by the mid-Sixties, this time for good, and began a recording career in 1966 with the song “Scufflin’,” the first in a series of singles that led eventually to his first album, Born Under a Bad Sign, in 1977. His latest, the covers album Bad Boy, came out last year.
One of the best ways we can honor Magic Slim is by enjoying his music. Check out some of his concert footage here at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmeHlF4H58Q.
[youtube_sc url=”http://youtu.be/zmeHlF4H58Q” height=”420″ rel=”0″]
I hope you enjoyed listening to some music by Magic Slim. He’ll go down in blues music history as one of the men to help spread the blues to fans all around the world. There’s more coming your way at Blues Guitar Unleashed so stay tuned.
Thanks,
Griff
6 replies to "Chicago Blues Man Magic Slim"
Magic Slim and the Teardops was the 2nd Blues Band I saw in my life, as a student in Madison, WI. This was in the early 1980’s. It was an amazing experience, and I was blown away by their cool, soulful, swinging grooves and songs. The band I saw looked a lot like the one in this video–Magic Slim and another guitarist(would that have been his brother?), a bassist and drummer. Seeing them play live definitely set me on the road to listening to and loving the blues…
I was lucky enough to see them play again in a small club in Albuquerque in the late 90’s and they were still playing and sounding great!
I didn’t know he had died. Thanks for letting me know Griff. Magic Slim will be missed by all of us.
Thanks Griff.
They were great love the blues and the people who play them.
Great old time blues
Gotta Love that guy!
true Blues loved it……