Travis Leonard Blaylock, better known as Harmonica Slim, was an American blues harmonicist, singer and songwriter.
10 Facts About Harmonica Slim
1.
2.
Harmonica Slim had some commercial success in the 1950s; recordings of two songs he wrote, "Mary Helen" and "You Better Believe It", were modest hits.
3.
Harmonica Slim is not to be confused with two other similarly named artists, James Isaac Moore and Richard Riley Riggins.
4.
Harmonica Slim joined a gospel group, the Sunny South Gospel Singers, in the mid-1940s, and they performed on a local radio station, KCMC.
5.
In 1949, Harmonica Slim moved to Los Angeles, California, where he started to perform with several local blues groups.
6.
Harmonica Slim worked as a session musician in the early to mid-1950s, playing in recording sessions for various record labels, including Aladdin, Spry, and Vita.
7.
Harmonica Slim replaced Slim's parts by the more jazz-flavoured stylings of George "Harmonica" Smith, whom Thiele had previously recorded several times.
8.
Harmonica Slim joined a local band, including the guitar player Nelson Carson, and recorded an album's worth of material in 1976, but these recordings have never been issued.
9.
Harmonica Slim returned to his religious roots and became a minister at his local Baptist church.
10.
Harmonica Slim died of stomach cancer on June 16,1984, in Texarkana, aged 49.