Although Mississippi born,
Magic Slim (Morris Holt) plays Chicago blues, pure and simple. His gruff,
Howlin' Wolf-styled vocals are as constant and as powerful as the wind off of Lake Michigan, and his bright, brittle, and biting lead guitar lines sting like the first hard frost of winter, then turn and brilliantly fuss under his vocals until it's time to sting again. A set of classic
Slim,
Tin Pan Alley was recorded between 1992 and 1998 in Chicago and various spots in Europe, with the domestic dates featuring his brother
Nick Holt on bass,
John Primer on second guitar, and Earl Howell on drums, while the overseas sessions substitute in Michael Dotson on second guitar and Allen Kirk on drums. The personnel changes don't matter one bit, since everything chugs along on
Slim's singing and guitar playing anyway, and the set is darn near seamless. Highlights include the ragged and brisk "Please Don't Leave Me," a solid "Texas Flood," a live take on "Tin Pan Alley," and textbook covers of
B.B. King's "Bad Luck,"
Willie Dixon's "Close to You,"
Albert King's "Goin' to California," and Mack Rice's "Cold Women with Warm Hearts." It all adds up to nearly an hour's worth of modern Chicago blues with no tricks and no frills, or in other words, exactly what you'd expect from
Magic Slim. ~ Steve Leggett