Lightnin' Slim
| Lightnin' Slim | ||
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Lightnin' Slim on the cover of his Ace Records Winter Time Blues album
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| Background information | ||
| Birth name | Otis Verries Hicks | |
| Born |
March 13, 1913 St. Louis, Missouri, or Good Pine, Louisiana, United States |
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| Died | July 27, 1974 (aged 61) Detroit, Michigan, United States |
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| Genres | Louisiana blues, swamp blues | |
| Occupation(s) | Guitarist, singer, songwriter | |
| Instruments | Guitar, vocals | |
| Labels | Excello, Stateside, Flyright | |
| Notable instruments | ||
| Music sample | ||
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Otis Verries Hicks, known as Lightnin' Slim (March 13, 1913 – July 27, 1974) was an African-American Louisiana blues musician, who recorded for Excello Records and played in a style similar to its other Louisiana artists. Blues critic ED Denson has ranked him as one of the five great bluesmen of the 1950s, along with Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Howlin' Wolf and Sonny Boy Williamson.
According to most sources, Otis Hicks was born on a farm outside St. Louis, Missouri, though researchers Bob Eagle and Eric LeBlanc state, on the basis of his draft card, that he was born at Good Pine, Louisiana. He moved to Baton Rouge at the age of thirteen. Taught guitar by his older brother Layfield, Slim was playing in bars in Baton Rouge by the late 1940s.
He debuted on J. D. "Jay" Miller's Feature Records label in 1954 with "Bad Luck Blues" ("If it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have no luck at all"). Slim then recorded for Excello Records for twelve years, starting in the mid-1950s, often collaborating with his brother-in-law, Slim Harpo and with harmonica player Lazy Lester.
Slim took time off from the blues for a period of time and ended up working in a foundry in Pontiac, Michigan, which resulted in him suffering from constantly having his hands exposed to high temperatures. He was re-discovered 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, the present President of the company. His first gig was a reunion concert in 1971 at the University of Chicago Folk Festival with Lazy Lester, whom Reif had brought from Baton Rouge in January 1971.
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