Painting © 2004 Loz
Arkle
Website
© Copyright 2000-2011 Alan White - All
Rights Reserved
Site optimised for Microsoft Internet Explorer
John Peel OBE, 1939 - 2004
Early Blues Interview
|
|
|
Magic Slim is one of the greatest living proponents of the intense, electrified, Mississippi-to-Chicago blues style that spawned much of the music played by modern blues artists and rockers. Magic Slim was born Morris Holt in Torrence, Mississippi, on 7th August 1937. His mother and father were sharecroppers; they lived on a farm where the young Slim would have little jobs to do. When he was 13 he got his hand caught in a cotton gin and he lost his little 'pinky' finger. Slim showed his musical talents early, singing in his church choir and playing piano. After his accident he couldn’t play the piano anymore because he didn’t have that little pinky finger so he picked up the guitar, working in the cotton fields during the week and playing the blues at house parties on weekends ...... "Magic Slim is a national treasure, one of the few true "bluesmen" still around, and at seventy years young he is playing and singing with as much passion and strength as ever". _________________________________________________________________________
Alan: Slim, thanks very much for agreeing to do this short interview. What were your first musical memories growing up in Mississippi? Slim: Piano. Alan: Did you come from a musical family? Slim: No. My Momma was the only one in our family who started to play. Alan: Did you always want to become a musician? Slim: Well, when you are in the country and you are a sharecropper, you don’t know what you want to be.
Slim: After I got my hand hurt when I was about 14 and I couldn’t play the piano because I didn't have the pinky finger then I switched over to the guitar. Alan: What kind of material were you playing in the early days? Slim: Blue grass, country and western. Alan: And what turned you on to blues? Slim: I first heard a song by John Lee Hooker, 'Boogie Chillun' and that was what turned me over to the blues. Alan: And you never looked back! Slim: Weeell, I just kept on goin’. Alan: How did you get the name Magic Slim? Slim: Magic Sam gave me that name. You see I was slim and tall and I wasn’t stickin' out nowhere. Alan: Lovely! And you were in his band for quite a while? Slim: Yes indeed. Before he died, he told me, “Keep that name because it’s gonna make you famous one day”. Alan: It certainly has. Slim: Well... I’m working on it! Alan: Who’s influenced you most in your music writing and playing? Slim: I’ll tell ya, I listened to all of it but I didn’t have no special reason because I didn’t want to teach myself to play like nobody. I had to get my own sound. But I would listen, to see which way I would go. But I wouldn’t play like nobody but nobody was tryin' to play like me so that’s how I came to it. Alan: So you’ve got your own guitar style – tell me how you reproduce the sound of the slide guitar because it's different to everybody else. Slim: Well, I slide with my finger. I don’t use glass or nothing.
Alan: You’ve got a vast repertoire of songs. Are there any particular songs you play that have special meaning to you? Slim: All of 'em. All of 'em. Alan: You have received the W C Handy award for Best Blues Band six times. Was this special to you? Slim: Oh yeah, that was special. Alan: Tell me about the Teardrops - Jon McDonald on guitar, Chris Beidron on bass and Vernal Taylor on drums. When did you all get together? Slim: Oh, a long time ago. Yeah. See when I first was in Chicago I was playing with a guy by the name of Robert Perkins and he had the name Teardrop, Mr Pitiful and The Teardrops – that was the name of his band. He always be crying and he was so in love with his old lady, oh I don’t know what happened. But he quit and I kept the band and he told me, "Take the name of the Teardrop” so I kept it.
Alan: Tell me about the making of your new album, 'Raising the Bar'. A mixture of old and new material. Slim: Practically, yeah. Alan: And it got to number 1 in the roots music charts I hear? Slim: Yeah.
Slim: I don’t know but a lot of guys playin the blues are putting too much funk in it. For me, I’m not gonna change and I’m not gonna put that funk in. I’m gonna stick with the blues. Alan: That’s good. So how do you see the future of blues music, do you think it will carry on? Slim: Well, the blues’ll never die. The blues make it slow. You take a rock and roll song and it’ll be rolling but a month or two later you don’t hear nothing else. But the blues is steady coming on, steady coming on. Alan: We always get back to the blues. Slim: Yeah! Alan: What do you think of it here at the Colne R&B Festival? Slim: I didn't know I was doing two shows before I left the States, but I don’t feel bad about it because I’m playing with some friends that I know. But one thing that they’d better have is Mr Jack Daniels. No Jack Daniels – no show!! Ha, ha, ha!! Alan: Thank you very much Slim. I very much appreciate it.
Album available from Blind Pig Records:
Return to
Blues Interviews List
|
Alan:
You said you started with a piano, but then you switched to a guitar.
Alan:
Some music styles can be fads but the blues is always with us. Why
do think that is?
