Magic Slim
(born August 7, 1937)
Magic Slim, born Morris Holt in Torrence, Mississippi, took an early interest in music, singing in the church choir, and fashioning a guitar for himself with baling wire from a broom, which he nailed to the wall. "Mama whooped me for that," recalls Slim. His first love was the piano, but having lost the little finger on his right hand in a cotton gin accident he found it difficult to play properly. Undaunted, he simply switched to guitar, working in the cotton fields during the week and playing the blues at house parties on weekends. When Slim made his first trip to Chicago in 1955, he found it rough going on the highly competitive blues scene and returned, discouraged, to Mississippi to perfect his craft. Demonstrating his characteristic determination, Slim spent the next five years practicing guitar and teaching his younger brothers, Nick and Douglas (Lee Baby) to play bass and drums respectively. Confident in his abilities, Slim returned to Chicago and established himself as a formidable player on the scene. In 2003 Magic Slim and the Teardrops were officially recognized as the finest blues band in the land when they won the coveted Blues Music Award as "Blues Band Of The Year." It was the sixth time Slim had won a Blues Music Award, considered the highest honor in the blues field.