Magic Slim and the Teardrops

Magic Slim and the Teardrops

Magic Slim and the Teardrops is an American blues group led by guitarist and singer Magic Slim, the stage name of Morris Holt. The act is associated with blues and electric blues, and is rooted in the Chicago blues scene.

Origins and formation

Morris Holt is born near Grenada, Mississippi, at Torrance, the son of sharecroppers. He loses part of a finger in a cotton gin accident, which ends his piano playing and pushes him towards guitar. He moves first to nearby Grenada, then comes to Chicago in 1955 with his friend and mentor Magic Sam, who gives him the nickname “Magic Slim” and allows him to play bass in his band. After an early period when he is not highly regarded by other musicians, he returns to Mississippi to work, encourages his younger brother Nick to take up bass, and is back in Chicago by 1965.

Career

Slim begins recording in 1966 with “Scufflin’” and follows it with a run of singles into the mid-1970s. His first album, Born Under a Bad Sign, is released in 1977 on the French label MCM. During the 1980s he releases albums for Alligator, Rooster Blues and Wolf Records, and wins his first W. C. Handy Award. In 1980 he records a version of “Mustang Sally”.

Nick Holt joins the Teardrops in 1970. In 1983 guitarist John Primer joins the group and stays for 13 years. Later releases include Spider in My Stew on Wolf Records, which includes the Willie Dixon song of the same name, originally recorded by Buster Benton, and Scufflin’ on Blind Pig in 1996, which features the post-Primer line-up and the addition of guitarist and singer Jake Dawson. Slim often performs with his son Shawn Holt, who is a guitarist and singer.

Live work and recognition

The group plays in Chicago’s juke joints during the 1970s. Slim moves to Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1994, where the Zoo Bar has booked him for years. In 2003, Magic Slim and the Teardrops win the W. C. Handy Award for Blues Band of the Year for the sixth time. A live recording, Anything Can Happen, is issued on CD and DVD in 2005. Slim dies in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 2013. He is posthumously awarded a Blues Music Award in the Traditional Blues Male Artist category in 2013 and is inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2017.