Thursday, October 22, 2009

Lightnin' SLIM - Have I Got Blues For You 2001


Lightnin' SLIM - Have I Got Blues For You 2001
Label: DRESSED TO KILL

Blues

Otis Hicks (LIGHTNIN' SLIM), 13 March 1913, St. Louis, Missouri, USA, d. 27 July 1974, Detroit, Michigan, USA. It is as a Louisiana blues stylist that Hicks is best known, having settled in that state in his early teens. He learned guitar from his father and his brother, and made a name for himself on the Baton Rouge blues circuit during the 40s. In 1954, he recorded for Jay Miller's Feature label, and began that producer's long and fruitful relationship with the blues. These early recordings had a tough, spare sound that helps to place them alongside the very finest down-home blues of the 50s, and the quality was largely maintained over much of the next decade, with many singles leased to Excello Records. His partnership with harmonica player Lazy Lester was particularly effective and releases such as "Mean Old Lonesome Train", "Hoodoo Blues" and, especially, "Rooster Blues', provided him with commercial success and kept him in demand for tours both locally and further afield. Many of his releases demonstrate his particular facility for taking raw material from the work of other popular bluesmen, such as Muddy Waters and Lightnin" Hopkins, and turning it into something entirely his own. The relationship with Miller finally came to an end in 1965, but within a few years, Slim found a wider forum for his music when he became a regular visitor to Europe.
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Louisiana blues artist Lightnin' Slim used his sandpaper-rough yet expressive voice and raw, kinetic electric guitar playing to become a regional hit maker and an exemplar of the Excello Records sound in the late 1950s and early '60s. Coincidentally -- considering his stage name, Slim's sound falls somewhere between the rough and tumble blues of Lightnin' Hopkins and the slightly smoother, more broad-based sound of sometime labelmate Slim Harpo. Slim benefited greatly from the blues revival of the '60s, playing concerts and festivals at home and in Europe until his death in 1974.
By Tom Heyman.
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01. Rooster Blues      2.41
02. Lightning's Bad Luck   2.32
03. G.I. Blues   2.33
04. Crazy About You Baby   3.39
05. My Babe     Dixon
06. Things I Used to Do   3.10
07. That's All Right   2.56  
08. Good Morning Heartaches   3.01
09. Hoo Doo Blues     4.01
10. Oh Baby   2.53
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