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Profile
Lil' Slim & the Back-Alley Blues Band
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1999 KBA Award Winner
Achievement for Blues on the Internet
Presented by the Blues Foundation
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If you like your blues down-and-dirty and spelled with a capital "B" -- the kind of blues you would expect to find on the South or West side of Chicago, then you need go no further than Lil' Slim & the Back-Alley Blues Band. Only they are not from Chicago, they are from Lincoln, Nebraska. Right out of the Zoo Bar in Lincoln, as a matter of fact.
Lil' Slim (Shawn Holt) is none other than the 22 year old son of Chicago Blues legend, Magic Slim (Maurice Holt of Magic Slim and the Teardrops). Lil' Slim plays that old style Chicago blues without all the special effects and pedals popular among many of today's young guitar players. He plays straight ahead, plug-it-in-and-play blues, done the way it was meant to be. Not funk, not rock disguised as blues, just plain 'ol blues, done well.
Using only a thumb pick to play his guitar, Shawn is able to produce a rich tone that is easy on the ear, yet often explodes with gale-force bursts of speed when that thumb begins to fly across the strings. One journalist has called him the "fastest thumb in the West." Shawn moved with his family from Chicago to Lincoln in 1994 when his dad wanted to get the young teen away from the gang violence and other bad influences. He formed a band with long time family friend Jeff Boehmer (who plays bass and whose dad owns the Zoo Bar). Shawn actually started out on bass but soon switched to guitar. The other band members include Ryan Larsen on drums, and newest member, Minnesota Max Tomoson on guitar and vocals, formerly with Baby Jason and the Spankers. This is a young band with talent, direction and the right attitude who are definitely on the move and someone to keep an eye out for. They will also be playing Sunday night at The Norshor.
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