Otis Verries Hicks, known as Lightnin' Slim (March 13, 1913 – July 27, 1974), was an American

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

musician who played Louisiana blues and

swamp blues Swamp blues is a type of Louisiana blues that developed in the Black communities of Southwest Louisiana in the 1950s.Malone, Evelyn Levingston, "Swamp Blues: Race And Vinyl From Southwest Louisiana" (2016). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertatio ...

for

Excello Records Excello Records was an American blues independent record label, started by Ernie Young in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, in 1953 as a subsidiary of Nashboro, a gospel label. History It recorded such artists as Lonnie Brooks, Lightnin' Slim ...

. The blues critic ED Denson ranked him as one of the five great bluesmen of the 1950s, along with

Muddy Waters McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913 April 30, 1983), known professionally as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer and musician who was an important figure in the post-war blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of modern Chicago b ...

Little Walter Marion Walter Jacobs (May 1, 1930 – February 15, 1968), known as Little Walter, was an American blues musician, singer, and songwriter, whose revolutionary approach to the harmonica had a strong impact on succeeding generations, earning him ...

Howlin' Wolf Chester Arthur Burnett (June 10, 1910January 10, 1976), better known by his stage name Howlin' Wolf, was an American blues singer and guitarist. He is regarded as one of the most influential blues musicians of all time. Over a four-decade care ...

and Sonny Boy Williamson.

Biography

According to most sources, Otis Hicks was born on a farm outside

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

, Missouri, but the researchers Bob Eagle and Eric LeBlanc stated, on the basis of his

draft card Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day un ...

, that he was born in Good Pine, Louisiana. Prison records from

Louisiana State Penitentiary The Louisiana State Penitentiary (known as Angola, and nicknamed the "Alcatraz of the South", "The Angola Plantation" and "The Farm"Sutton, Keith "Catfish".Out There: Angola angling. ''ESPN Outdoors''. May 31, 2006. Retrieved on August 25, 2010. ...

discovered by researcher Gene Tomko also corroborate his birthplace as Good Pine, Louisiana. He moved to

Baton Rouge Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-sma ...

at the age of thirteen. Taught guitar by his older brother Layfield, Slim was playing in bars in Baton Rouge by the late 1940s. His first recording was "Bad Luck Blues" ("If it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have no luck at all"), released by J. D. "Jay" Miller's Feature Records in 1954. Miller gave him the stage name "Lightnin' Slim". Slim then recorded for

for twelve years, starting in the mid-1950s, often collaborating with his brother-in-law

Slim Harpo Slim Harpo (born James Isaac Moore; January 11, 1924 – January 31, 1970) was an American blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spiri ...

and with the harmonica player

Lazy Lester Leslie Johnson (June 20, 1933 – August 22, 2018), better known as Lazy Lester, was an American blues musician who sang and played the harmonica and guitar. In a career spanning the 1950s to 2018, he pioneered swamp blues, and also played ha ...

. Slim stopped performing the blues for a time and eventually worked in a foundry in

Pontiac, Michigan Pontiac ( ') is a city in and the county seat of Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 61,606. A northern suburb of Metro Detroit, Pontiac is about northwest of Detroit. Founde ...

, as a result of which his hands were constantly exposed to high temperatures. He was rediscovered by Fred Reif in 1970, in Pontiac, where he was living in a rented room at Slim Harpo's sister's house. Reif soon got him back performing again and a new recording contract with Excello, this time through Bud Howell, then the president of the company. His first engagement was a reunion concert in 1971 at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

Folk Festival with Lazy Lester, whom Reif had brought from

in January of that year. In the 1970s, Slim performed on tours in Europe, in the United Kingdom and at the

Montreux Jazz Festival The Montreux Jazz Festival (formerly Festival de Jazz Montreux and Festival International de Jazz Montreux) is a music festival in Switzerland, held annually in early July in Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline. It is the second-largest annual ...

in Switzerland, for which he was often accompanied by Moses "Whispering" Smith on harmonica. He last toured the UK in 1973, with the American Blues Legends package organised by Big Bear Records. In July 1974, Slim died of stomach cancer in Detroit, Michigan, aged 61.

Discography

Albums

*''Rooster Blues'', Excello LPS-8000 (1960); CD release: Hip-O/MCA 40134, with three bonus tracks (1998) *''Authentic R & B'', three tracks, with various artists, UK Stateside SL-10068 (1963) *''The Real R & B'', two tracks, with various artists, UK Stateside SL-10112 (1964) *''A Long Drink of Blues'', six tracks (all of side 1), compilation album with Slim Harpo, UK Stateside SL-10135 (1964) *''Lightnin' Slim's Bell Ringer'', Excello LPS-8004 (1965); CD release: Ace Records #CDCHD-517 (1994) *''The Real Blues'', one track, with various artists, Excello LPS-8011 (1969) *''High & Low Down'', Excello LPS-8018 (1971) and

Sonet Synchronous optical networking (SONET) and synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) are standardized protocols that transfer multiple digital bit streams synchronously over optical fiber using lasers or highly coherent light from light-emitting diode ...

SNTF-770 (1978); CD release: Ace Records #CDCHD-578 (1994) *''That's All Right'', Quicksilver QS-5062 (1983), reissue of Excello LPS-8018 *''London Gumbo'', Excello LPS-8023 (1972) and Sonet SNTF-757 (1978) *''The Excello Story'', three tracks, with various artists, Excello LPS-8025 (1972), 2-LP set *''Montreux Blues Festival'', 10 tracks, with various artists, Excello LPS-8026 (1972), 2-LP set *''American Blues Legends '73,'' 2 tracks with various artists, Big Bear Records BEAR20 *''The Early Years'', Flyright FLYLP-524 (1976) *''Trip to Chicago'', Flyright FLYLP-533 (1978) *''The Feature Sides 1954'', Flyright FLYLP-583 (1981) *''We Gotta Rock Tonight'', Flyright FLYLP-612 (1986)

CD compilations

*''Rollin' Stone'', Flyright FLYCD-08 (1989) *''King of the Swamp Blues 1954–1961'', Flyright FLYCD-47 (1992) *''Blue Lightning'', Indigo Records IGOCD-2002 (1992) *''I'm Evil: Rare & Unissued Excello Masters, Volume One'', Excello/AVI 3002 (1994) *''It's Mighty Crazy!'', Ace Records CDCHD-587 (1995) *''Nothin' but the Devil'', Ace Records CDCHD-616 (1996) *''Winter Time Blues (The Later Excello Sessions 1962–1965)'', Ace Records CDCHD-674 (1998) *''The Best of Lightnin' Slim'',

Hip-O Hip-O Records is a record label that specializes in reissues and compilations. It is part of Universal Music Group. Established in 1996, the label has distributed releases from 'out of style' genres such as disco and early hip-hop music as wel ...

/MCA 12010 (1999) *''I'm a Rolling Stone: The Singles As & Bs 1954–1962 Centenary Edition'', Jasmine JASMCD-3045 (2015), 2-CD set

Songs

*"Farming Blues" (1954) *"New Orleans Bound" (1954) *"Bad Luck and Trouble" (1956) *"It's Mighty Crazy" (1957) *"G.I. Blues" (1959) *"My Starter Won't Start" (1958)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lightnin Slim 1913 births 1974 deaths American blues singers Musicians from St. Louis Deaths from stomach cancer Deaths from cancer in Michigan Ace Records (United States) artists Musicians from Baton Rouge, Louisiana Louisiana blues musicians Swamp blues musicians African-American guitarists Alive Naturalsound Records artists American blues guitarists American male guitarists 20th-century American guitarists Singers from Louisiana Singers from Missouri Guitarists from Louisiana Guitarists from Missouri Excello Records artists 20th-century African-American male singers