Biography
Amos Easton, 7 May 1905, Brunswick, Georgia, USA, d. 1968, Los Angeles, California, USA. Bumble Bee Slim was a blues guitarist, although he seldom played on record; it was as a singer that he recorded prolifically from 1931-37. Leaving home around 1920, he led a itinerant life for eight years before settling in Indianapolis, and later Chicago. As a singer, he was influenced by Naptown’s Leroy Carr, and his songs convey a modified version of Carr’s bittersweet aesthetic. Easton appears friendly, confiding and philosophical, sometimes bruised by life’s adversities, but never crushed by its tragedies. In part, no doubt, this is a reflection of his own personality, but it also typifies the switch from personal expression to performance art of recorded blues in the 30s. His records were very popular; songs such as ‘B&O Blues’ and ‘Sail On, Little Girl, Sail On’ fed back into folk tradition, and several were big enough hits to be...
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