Lovell Moore died in 2004 at the age of eighty, having seen that labor finally come to fruition. Palazzotto has also taped interviews with Harpo’s stepson; with Neal, Johnson and Richard; and with musicians Lazy Lester and John Fred Gourrier. He also talked to David Kearns, who arranged several Alabama appearances for Harpo and recorded a 1961 performance that was released years later on a London label. “It’s the only live album Slim ever did,” says Palazzotto. He hopes to interview major artists who have recorded Harpo’s tunes. “In Rolling Stone magazine, Keith Richards named his top ten favorite songs,” he says. “Slim’s ‘Blues Hangover’ was number four on the list.”

Palazzotto has found no videotape of Harpo. “He appeared on American Bandstand in July 1961, but all the kinescopes for that year have been lost,” he says. Even still photographs are sparse—many were lost in a house fire shortly before Harpo’s death.

But Palazzotto has great music to work with—about forty tunes, he estimates. And he lucked out when he discovered at Columbia University’s archives an audiotape interview Harpo did in New York around 1967. “I think Slim was there to appear at the Apollo Theatre,” says Palazzotto, grabbing a CD. The room fills with the voice of Harpo, talking about hardscrabble times.

“I think my style is a little bit different,” he tells the interviewer. “I’m a country boy. I express my experience living in poverty. . . . Everything wasn’t all peaches and cream with me.”

He recounts his start in the music business: “I ran across this guy Lightnin’ Slim who was recording for Excello. I met him in Crowley at a club called the Lucky Mule. I told him I had [written] some numbers I thought would be real good for records. One was ‘King Bee,’ one was ‘Got Love If You Want It,’ and one was an instrumental, ‘Moody Blues.’ We cut [them] and they came out real good. . . . Around ’59 or ’60, I did a song my wife wrote called ‘Rainin’ in My Heart.’ . . . . My wife do just about all my writing for me.”

What strikes the listener is the intelligence and articulateness of this man who grew up well below the poverty line in rural Louisiana, and whose education was cut short by the need to earn a living. His answers are thoughtful, his diction crisp.

“Miss Lovell said Slim was a good-hearted, honest person who didn’t let the race problems of the era get to him,” says Palazzotto. “He didn’t drink, he never did drugs. He was good to his musicians. Rudy [Richard] and James [Johnson] talk about what a gentleman he was.”

Although documentary-making can be a race against the clock—trying to get to people while they are alive, in relatively good health, and coherent—Palazzotto says he is in no rush to finish the video, which he envisions as a ninety-minute DVD with a companion CD of Harpo’s music.

“This story is somewhat never-ending,” he says. “There is so much to cover. Slim’s songs were being recognized and recorded by major artists forty or more years ago. His songwriting was as significant as anybody’s you can think of.”

Slim Harpo was posthumously inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame on September 25. Ruth Laney has worn the “grooves” off her Best of Slim Harpo CD. She can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .'; document.write( '' ); document.write( addy_text1426 ); document.write( '<\/a>' ); //--> This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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