Time: 38:59
File: MP3 @ 320K/s from vinyl
Released: 1970
Styles: Electric blues, harp blues
Art: Back, Front, Inside
1. Only Sixteen (2:49)
2. Somebody's Scaring Me (3:04)
3. Gonna Tell How It Feels (2:54)
4. It Takes Two To Make A Woman Like You (2:51)
5. Sweet Home Chicago (3:52)
6. Whole Lots Lovin' For Me (3:27)
7. You Gonna Be Sorry Baby (2:40)
8. My Baby's Just Like A Freeway (3:03)
9. Hey Y'all (4:27)
10. I Love You (2:49)
11. Tell Me Baby (2:34)
12. My Baby's Mean (4:24)
West Virginia Slim is Archie Himmons who recorded under many monikers and many different musical styles. Here is a short paper I wrote about him some years ago after I interviewed the man.
Archie Himons (at that time he was known as Aashid Himons) told me he was born in Huntington, WV 22nd September 1942. His father was a noted local fiddler and his mother a church organist and pianist. As a child, he learned to play piano, drums and the harmonica with the records of De Ford Bailey who would stay one of his "idols". After an appearance at the Dave Garroway's TV Today Show, Archie - only 13 at that time - went to New York to try his luck in the show biz but he ended in jail for vagrancy!. In 1959, Archie went to the US Army and then settled in Washington DC in 1962, where he befriended with cab driver and jazz guitarist Bill Jennings who taught him to play the guitar. Archie recorded as a member of the Unpredictable Parliaments (a vocal group) and as Little Archie and the Majestics. He met Richie Havens and began to play solo, blues and folk to cash upon the Folk Boom trend. He toured with Richie until Toronto, stayed for awhile on the West Coast, formed an Electric blues band à la "Paul Butterfied" (his own words) the West Virginia Slim Electric Blues Band and then waxed the Kent album for Bihari (Archie was extremely surprised that this LP which was a commercial flop was still remembered in Europe!). While he was visiting his family in Huntington (1972) he courted a white girl and then was severely beaten by the local KKK. He then decided to leave the USA. He settled in Mexico, recording with a Mexican "Soul" group, TheThree Sould of Mind. He drifted a little bit everywhere in Central America, stayed several years in Tegucigalpa where he was more and more hooked by the Rastafarism. Archie became Akigo Haamu, then Go Ayo, recorded under those names his brand of "Mystic Reggae". For familial reasons Archie went back to the States in 1979, settled in Nashville, formed the Afrikan Dreamland that recorded six albums between 1980 and 1987. He also produced several TV programmes which were broadcasted on PBS (Two gained Awards: Apartheid, One Heart). Archie/ Aahid also launched the SOBA (Society of Black Artists), formed a New Age group, Ashaka in 1997 that met an important success in the States and abroad. He was going back to the blues after he was contacted by the Tennessee Folklore Society to set up a show about DeFord Bailey, his childhood idol. Himons then recorded a folk & blues album, "Mountain Soul" where he sings and plays guitar, hca, piano backed by The Wooten Brothers, a Nashville Country Music group.In 2000, a few months before I interviewed him,, Himons had recorded another folk & blues album, "West Virginia Hills". Archie Himons died on Saturday 19 March 2011. #Gerard Herzhaft
West Virginia Slim Electric Blues Band MP3
