Magic Slim
Magic Slim was born on 07/08/1937 in Torrance, Mississippi. His full birth name was Morris Holt. Holt had to give up playing the piano after losing his little finger in a cotton gin (machine for separating cotton fibres) accident. Holt moved from Torrance to Grenada, Mississippi.In 1955, Holt moved to Chicago along with his friend and mentor Magic Sam. Sam would recruit Holt as a bassist in his band and give him the Magic Slim nickname. Slim was struggling to make an impact, so he returned to Mississippi to work. There he got his younger brother Nick to play the bass guitar.
In 1965, Slim returned to Chicago.
In 1966, Slim recorded his first song "Scufflin'". He would follow it with several single releases leading into the mid-1970s.
In 1970, Slim's brother Nick joined Slim's band the Teardrops. They would play various small juke joints around Chicago.
In 1977, Slim released his first album "Born Under A Bad Sign" for the French label MCM.
In the 1980s, Slim released albums with Alligator, Rooster Blues and Wolf Records.
In 1980, Slim recorded a cover of "Mustang Sally".
In 1981, Slim won his first W.C. Handy Award. He was nominated more than forty times during the first three decades of the awards.
In 1982, guitarist John Primer joined the Teardrops. He would continue to play with the band for the next 13 years.
In 1994, Slim moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, where he would regularly play at the Zoo Bar. He was often accompanied by his son Shawn Holt.
In 1996, Slim released the album "Scufflin'" which featured the John Primer lineup in addition to Jake Dawson.
In 2003, Magic Slim and the Teardrops won the W.C. Handy Award for "Blues Band of the Year" for the sixth time.
On 21/02/2013, Slim died in a hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He had been suffering health problems which had intensified on the tour he had gone on a few weeks earlier. Later in the year, Magic Slim was posthumously awarded a Blues Music Award in the "Traditional Blues Music Artist" category.