Excellent If Not The Essential Magic Slim

Morris Holt, best known as Magic Slim, has had a celebrated recording career over 40 years, and rarely produced a blues record that was merely good. It is misleading for Blind Pig to call the compilation of some of the best tracks from his half dozen or so Blind Pig albums, The Essential Magic Slim since any compilation of Slim’s recordings that do not span his entire career including the superb records that have been issued on Rooster Blues, Alligator and the Austrian Wolf label can hardly be called Essential. Best of Magic Slim on Blind Pig would be more accurate.

This is not to say that the music here is substandard. In fact the music here is typical of the hard-driving rocking Chicago blues that Slim has been producing since his 1966 45 of Scufflin’. Opening with a rocking rendition of Bo Diddley’s Before You Accuse Me, rocketing through the terrific shuffle, Mind Your Own Business and continuing with a driving updating of Jimmy McCracklin’s Think, Magic Slim forcefully delivers his lyrics while laying down some stringing guitar. He is one of the few who can produce a listenable Mustang Sally while going down in the alley on the slow groove of Crazy Woman. Those backing him here include guitarists John Primer, Steve Freund, Michael Dotson and Jon McDonald, with brother Nick Holt handling the bass on most of the 15 tracks.

This may not be “The Essential” Magic Slim, but it is an excellent introduction to his music if you are not familiar with his distinctive and recognizable style.

I wrote this review in 2007 for the DC Blues Calendar and Jazz & Blues Report but I am not sure if either publication ran it. I likely received a review copy from Blind Pig.

Excellent Rough Dried Magic Slim

It might surprise blues fans, but the Austrian Wolf label has issued 14 albums by Magic Slim & the Teardrops, way more than any other label. And these are not some run of the mill issues. Three of them have won WC Handy Awards and five were recorded at the legendary Zoo Bar which became Slim’s musical home some time ago. The 14th and latest Wolf album is Rough Dried Woman, which is subtitled “Magic Slim’s best 14 songs.” It is compiled from sessions recorded for Wolf between 1986 and 1992 and include 3 previously unissued live recordings. Present on all the recordings are Slim, his brother Nick Holt on bass guitar and second guitarist John Primer with four different drummers present on the sessions.

Magic Slim’s music is not fancy. It is pretty simple and direct with Slim’s emphatic driving guitar with its single note runs that show a bit of Albert King’s influence, the interaction with him and his second guitarist who during this period was John Primer, and brother Nick’s bass which originated the “lump ta lump” style made for the strong, immediately recognizable Teardrops sound. Nick passed away a little while ago and this CD is dedicated to his memory.

From the opening rendition of Big Mac’s Rough Dried Woman through the reworking of Buster Benton’s Spider in My Stew, to the concluding notes of Roy Brown’s Hard Luck Blues, this is typically solid Magic Slim recording. And the songs come from a variety of sources including Albert King, Lefty Dizz, Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters, Bonnie Lee and Roy Brown. In this strong grouping of blues a few tracks stand out. There is a terrific slow rendition of “Matchbox Blues as done by Albert King as well as the down-in-the alley, slow grind of the cover of Lefty Dizz’s Bad Avenue. Slim’s marriage of a Dust My Broom groove to Bo Diddley’s Before You Accuse Me, is an driving rocker while the medium tempo reworking of Eddie Taylor’s Bad Boy is similarly irresistible before the stunning live rendition of Hard Luck Blues.

One rarely will go wrong with a Magic Slim recording and Rough Dried Woman is one of the better ones by him.

This was a purchase.