Photo by Linda Cunningham
Shawn Holt is continuing the family business, and the business is down-home Chicago blues.
The son of Magic Slim became the bandleader for Shawn Holt and the Teardrops in 2013 when Morris “Magic Slim” Holt died at the age of 75. Holt, of course, plays the same style as did his father, who developed a distinct sound by playing with a thumb pick.
Shawn Holt and the Teardrops debut Tuesday at Bluesdays in the Village at Squaw Valley. The free weekly summertime show is Tuesday, July 12, from 6 to 8:30 p.m.
Magic Slim was forced to switch from piano to guitar after injuring his hand in a cotton gin accident. He was a Mississippi native who moved to Chicago in 1955 with his friend and mentor Magic Sam. Slim played bass for Sam’s band until he began his own recording career in 1966. He brought his younger brother, Nick, up from Mississippi to play bass. John Primer played guitar in the band until the 1990s, when 17-year-old Shawn came aboard.
Magic Slim encouraged his son to keep the band going after was gone, and he would have been proud to know that the Shawn Holt and the Teardrops won the 2014 Blues Music Awards for New Artist Debut and New Artist Debut Album for “Daddy Told Me.”
Based in Chicago, Shawn Holt and the Teardrops include Vernal “Sticks” Taylor on drums and Russell Jackson on bass. The band also plays Thursday through Saturday in San Francisco at Biscuits and Blues. It returns West next month to play Aug. 20 at the Torch Club in Sacramento in a show hosted by the Sacramento Blues Society.
Jenni Charles and Jesse Dunn of the Dead Winter Carpenters will play the after-party in the Auld Dubliner.
Related story: Magic Sam’s “Black Magic” is back. LINK
- Bluesdays 2016
6 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesdays in the Village at Squaw Valley, free
July 12 – Shawn Holt and the Teardrops
July 19 – J.C. Smith Band
July 26 – Dennis Jones Band
August 2 – David Jacobs Strain
August 9 -Lloyd Jones
August 16 – Joe Louis Walker
August 23 -James Armstrong
August 30 – Mark Hummel Band ft. Little Charlie Baty, & Anson Funderburgh
September 6 – Kenny Neal
