"Bad Boy" Perhaps Is Magic Slim's Last Recording

Bad Boy on Blind Pig unfortunately is the final recording of Morris ‘Magic Slim’ Holt who passed away on February 21, 2013 at the age of 75. Over the past forty-five plus years Magic Slim and the Teardrops toured all across the United States (eventually establishing the Zoo Bar in Lincoln Nebraska as home base) and around the world captivating blues lovers with their non-stop Delta-rooted Chicago blues. A terrific live band, Slim's recordings usually captured this.

The last edition of the Teardrops included Andre Howard on bass, Jon McDonald on second guitar, and Brian “BJ” Jones on the drums and they provide the strong driving rhythm to propel the twelve performances here starting with the Eddie Taylor blues that provides this album with its title. Its a pretty diverse collection of material including an interesting rendition of Denise LaSalle’s Someone Else Is Steppin’ In, with Howard contributing a second vocal. One of the best tracks here is a driving rendition of Detroit Junior’s I Got Money, with plenty of stinging guitar, and the following Sunrise Blues, which is a prototypical Magic Slim performance at medium walking tempo.

Girl What You Want to Do is a driving number with a bass line that evokes Mustang Sally and certainly will fill dance floors. I do believe Slim previously recorded for the Austrian Wolf label Roy Brown’s Hard Luck Blues, but certainly there was nothing with him revisiting. Gambling Blues, is a rocking original and the Teardrops get the tempo up for J.B. Lenoir’s How Much More Long, although it doesn’t strike me as one of the most realized performances here. Better is Matchbox Blues, a clever reworking of Albert King’s recording, with plenty of stinging guitar and a tight groove.

A spirited instrumental Country Joyride concludes this album although unfortunately Slim will no longer able to play for us later as he tells us during this tune’s closing. Given the fact Magic Slim had a few dozen albums over his life time, one might be hard-pressed to include this as among his best. Perhaps a couple tracks here are not Slim at his best, but there is still much first-rate blues on Bad Boy.

I purchased my copy. Here is Magic Slim performing the title track.

1st Pennsylvania Blues Festival Celebrates 20 Years of Blues in the Poconos

Kenny Neal, one of the featured performers at the Pennsylvania Blues Festival

Shemekia Copeland

It was a shock when the word came out that the Big Boulder Ski Resort would no longer be holding the annual Pocono Blues Festival after 19 years. The Pocono Blues Festival had established itself as the signature blues festival in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic with a commitment to bring the finest real deal blues, mixing in major names like Luther Allison, Shemekia Copeland, Mavis Staples, Ruth Brown, Taj Mahal with legends who rarely toured like Jimmy McCracklin, Jimmy Johnson and Jody Williams. A change in policy at the resort ended what was an annual tradition that attracted blues fans from all over the United States and countries around the world.

Michael Cloeren, and the others involved in the Pocono Blues Festival have found a new location to carry out the tradition of bringing the best blues to the Poconos with the 1st Pennsylvania Blues Festival at the Blue Mountain Ski Area in Palmerton, Pennsylvania, not far from Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton, Pennsylvania. The Festival is Saturday and Sunday, July 30 and 31 and the line-up is as strong as any blues festival anywhere on an outdoor stage and a tent stage. This first Pennsylvania Blues Festival celebrates 20 Years of Blues in the Poconos.

Performers that have been announced for the festival include Shemekia Copeland, Magic Slim and the Teardrops, Lil’ Ed and the Blues Imperials, Bettye Lavette, Kenny Neal, Cyril Neville, Shakura S’Alda, John Nemeth, The Lee Boys, Big Daddy Charles Stallings, Samuel James, Otis Clay, Linsey Alexander and Steve Guyger & Billy Flynn. Its quite a line-up of some of the best known blues performers and some lesser known ones. There is a mix from traditional Chicago styled blues of Magic Slim, Lil’ Ed and Steve Guyger & Billy Flynn, the deep soul of Bettye Lavette & Otis Clay, the sacred steel of The Lee Boys, the swamp blues of Kenny Neal, and the personal blues interpretations of Samuel James and Charles Neville. Shemekia Copeland is always a favorite but this writer is also looking forward to seeing Shakura S’Alda, another formidable female blues talent. Then a chance to see at another festival Baltimore’s Bog Daddy Stallings get exposure leading a jam after hours on Saturday night as well as two sets on Sunday with his down home back porch blues that is mixed with Louis Jordan, Albert King and James Brown.

For more information on the festival, check out the Festival website, http://www.skibluemt.com/SkiBlue/activities/pa-blues-fest.aspx, for the line-up and more information including directions. I have my hotel reservations already and I know folks from as far away as San Francisco and the Pacific Northwest that have there plans for this as well. Incidentally, Mike has produced the Vermont Blues Festival at Mount Snow, usually in later August, but apparently this will now be the Vermont Blues and Roots Festival and will take place on July 22-24, the weekend before the Pennsylvania Blues Festival. I will have more on this festival when more information is available.