From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Wed Mar 13, 2002  1:16 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Lightnin' Slim
 
LIGHTNIN' SLIM (By Shaun Mather)

Born Otis Hicks, 13 March, 1913, St. Louis, Missouri
Died 27 July, 1974, Detroit, Michigan

Otis Hicks was born on a farm outside St. Louis, Missouri but left home at
an early age, moving to St. Francisville, Louisiana. His brother Layfield
taught him the guitar during the 1930's and by the late 1940's Hicks was
working the bars of Baton Rouge. During the 1950's and 60's, Hicks often
worked with his brother-in-law Slim Harpo. He recorded for Excello from the
mid-50's to mid-60's, cutting some real Louisiana gems as Voodoo Blues, Just
Made Twenty-One and Bad Luck Blues. He relocated to Detroit in the 1970's
and toured Europe as part of the American Folk-Blues Festival. He performed
at the 1972 Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreaux, Switzerland and toured with
the American Blues Legend Tour in 1973. He died of cancer on July 27, 1974
and was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Pontiac, Michigan. Matthew "Boogie
Jake" Jacobs of Living Blues magazine summed him up best in March 1977,
"Lighting Slim was the king of the blues in Louisiana, he influenced everybody."

Recommended listening:
Rooster Blues - Hip-O
Nothing But the Devil - Ace
(I'd like to add the "London Gumbo" LP from 1972, recorded in the UK with
fantastic piano work by Pete Wingfield - Dik)