Lightnin' Slim - 'The Complete Singles As & Bs - 1954-62'

Otis Hicks, known as "Lightnin’ Slim", was born on March 13, 1913.  He was a blues musician who played in a vocal and guitar style that helped to define the haunting, laid-back rhythms of the Louisiana swamp subgenre of The Blues in the 1950s.

Although there is some difference of opinion, Slim seems to have been born Good Pine, Louisiana, and moved to Baton Rouge at thirteen. Taught guitar by his older brother Layfield, Slim was playing in bars in Baton Rouge by the late 1940s.

Slim basically had two careers, one in the 1940s and ’50s, and another in the 1970s, after he was rediscovered in Pontiac, Michigan.  In the 1950s, he had a number of regional hits, and his "Rooster Blues" hit the national R&B charts in 1959.

In the ’70s, Slim performed on European tours, in the United Kingdom and at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland.  He last toured the UK in 1973 with the American Blues Legends package.

In July 1974, Lightnin' Slim died of stomach cancer in Detroit, Michigan.  He was just sixty-one years old.

'The Complete Singles As & Bs - 1954-62' is a two-CD set that includes all the sides recorded by Jay Miller in Crowley, Louisiana, which Lightnin’ Slim recorded for the Feature, Ace, and Excello labels.  He is accompanied on most of these recordings with just a harmonica (most notably Lazy Lester) and a drummer (or is it a cardboard box at times?).

Many blues critics and fans, including myself, consider Slim’s music to be on par with that of legendary Blues artists like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker, and Jimmy Reed.  Lightnin' Slim's deep, rich vocals and hypnotic guitar rhythms are nothing short of
captivating.

This collection offers an entertaining insight into the music of a highly individual artist, as well as a distinctive strand of regional Blues.

For the freeload, give yourself a Blues nickname.