Mysterious bluesman from Carolina who died in the early 1950s just as he was beginning to make his name.
Edward P. Harris, b. August 22, 1923 in Leasburg, NC, d. October 22, 1953 in Newark, NJ, known as Carolina Slim, was a Piedmont blues guitarist and singer. His best-known records are "Black Cat Trail" and "I'll Never Walk in Your Door". He used various pseudonyms during his brief recording career, including Country Paul, Jammin' Jim, Lazy Slim Jim and Paul Howard. He recorded 27 songs. Details of his life outside of his music career are scant, and the reasons for the use of different names are unclear.
Edward P. Harris, b. August 22, 1923 in Leasburg, NC, d. October 22, 1953 in Newark, NJ, known as Carolina Slim, was a Piedmont blues guitarist and singer. His best-known records are "Black Cat Trail" and "I'll Never Walk in Your Door". He used various pseudonyms during his brief recording career, including Country Paul, Jammin' Jim, Lazy Slim Jim and Paul Howard. He recorded 27 songs. Details of his life outside of his music career are scant, and the reasons for the use of different names are unclear.
Harris was born in Leasburg, North Carolina. He learned to play the guitar from his father and was influenced by Lightnin' Hopkins and Blind Boy Fuller. He later found work as an itinerant musician around Durham, North Carolina. In 1950, he relocated to Newark, New Jersey, and made his recording debut for Savoy Records, billed as Carolina Slim. His first single was "Black Chariot Blues" backed with "Mama's Boogie", recorded on July 24, 1950, and released by Acorn Records (Acorn 3015), a subsidiary of Savoy. In 1951 and 1952, he recorded eight tracks for King Records in New York, this time using the name Country Paul. Henry Glover met Slim at these sessions and later commented that Slim was "a very sickly young man at the time". Slim's style blended Piedmont blues, prominent in songs such as "Carolina Boogie" and his cover version of Fuller's "Rag Mama Rag", with the influence of Hopkins steering him increasingly towards Texas blues. He occasionally incorporated a washboard as well as his guitar, as if to emphasise his Carolina roots. His recordings were not hugely popular but sold in sufficient numbers for him to retain his recording contract. In June 1952, he recorded four more tracks for Savoy, which were his final recordings.
He died in Newark, New Jersey, from a heart attack, which occurred during surgery for a back complaint. He was 30 years old.
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By Charlotte Dillon
The blues guitarist, best known as Carolina Slim, was born in Leasburg, NC, on August 22, 1923. His real name is Edward P. Harris. He never performed or recorded under that name though, using a number of nicknames instead, including Country Paul, Georgia Pine, Jammin' Jim, and Lazy Slim Jim. Though much about his life is unknown, not even the reason for working under different names, it is said that Harris learned to play the guitar from his father. Blues artists like Lightnin' Hopkins and Blind Boy Fuller influenced the style of music Harris played.
Around 1950, Harris moved to Newark, NJ. It was there that he made his first recording for the Savoy label as Carolina Slim. A year later he was working for the King label and using the name Country Paul. During about a two-year span, Harris recorded 27 songs. Some of the tracks fans can find on albums by Harris are "Worry You off My Mind," "Mama's Boogie," "I'll Never Walk in Your Door," "Wine Head Baby," "Black Chariot Blues," and "Mother Dear Mother."
In 1953, at only 30 years of age, Edward Harris died from a heart attack. Since then, some of his recordings have been released on albums like Carolina Blues & Boogie and The Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order, 1950-1952.