Magic Slim(1937-2013)

Blues guitarist/singer Magic Slim was born Morris Holt on August 7, 1937, in Grenada, MS. He began his musical career as a piano player, but an accident on a farm which cost him one of his fingers made him switch to playing guitar instead. In 1955 he moved to Chicago and played in a variety of blues bands, including that of Magic Sam. However, he couldn't crack the "big time" in that city, and he eventually went back home to Mississippi. He returned to Chicago in the early 1960s and started his own band, The Teardrops, which included his brother Nick Holt as bass player. The band developed a following and eventually replaced Houng Dog Taylor's group as the house band at Florence's, a legendary Chicago blues bar on the South Side.

In 1978 Slim and his band were featured on an album--he had previously turned out several singles with harmonica player Little Hite--called "Living Blues, Part 2" on Alligator Records. The popularity of that album led Alligator to release a compilation album of his material called "Raw Magic" in 1982. In that year he and the band recorded their own album, "Grand Slam", for Blind Pig Records. In 1990 Slim and a reconstituted Teardrops signed with Blind Pig and released "Gravel Road".