First, the nickname.

Magic Slim, leader of the Chicago barrelhouse blues act known as Magic Slim & the Teardrops, is a big, strapping man. He has a thick, whiskey-tinged voice and hints of a down-home Mississippi drawl from the days he spent as a youth working in cotton fields.

Slim, he's not - at least not now, at age 68 - though he was indeed rather lanky when he was 18 back in 1955 and still known by his given name, Morris Holt.

Good thing his mentor, Magic Sam, saw big things on the horizon for him when he gave him the moniker that year.

Magic Slim has gone on to develop a worldwide following on the blues circuit, with a 40-year recording career and a fiery brand of live shows performed anywhere from the United States to Poland, Japan, the Netherlands, and Brazil. The blues artist, who has earned a reputation as a hard-working, gutbucket guitarist, is to play at Griffin's Hines Farm Blues Club south of Toledo Express Airport on Saturday night.

He's a six-time winner of the coveted W.C. Handy Award, the blues equivalent of the Oscar. In 2003, Magic Slim & the Teardrops won the Handy award as Blues Band of the Year.

In an interview last week, Slim said that what inspires him now is what always has: The feeling that he's running a house party.

He doesn't hesitate to admit that his heart pumps a little faster when he gazes out and sees beautiful women in his audience.

"I take care of myself and like girls. Oh, man, I like those girls," he said, not so much in a lewd tone but more like he's offering up his prescription for longevity. He finished the thought by offering no apologies for his wandering eyes.

"I'm like a dog chasin' a car," he mused about his affection for the opposite sex. He's even got a special kind of music for those moments in which he wants guys to draw their women close to them and snuggle up for a slow dance. It's what Magic Slim refers to as his "belly-rubbin' blues."

Along with Slim's fun and gritty side is a more serious note about the genre of music he represents. The blues is early-American roots music often viewed as the bread and butter of rock and roll and other genres that followed it, from jazz to hip-hop.

"The blues is about telling a story," he said. "If you listen to blues players, they're either telling a story or asking a question. The blues, they come from the heart. You won't find [most] blues on sheet music."

So what's his message for would-be attendees of his Swanton show?

"You can just tell them I will be through there like a black tornado," Slim said. "Anything can happen."

If he has the fury of a black tornado at Hines Farm, it won't be the first time. His 1998 album, called "Black Tornado," was hailed as one of his best in an Associated Press review. A 2005 album was called, ironically, "Anything Can Happen."

Magic Slim & the Teardrops appear with Voodoo Libido Saturday night in Griffin's Hines Farm Blues Club, 3950 South Berkey Rd., near Swanton (off State Rt. 295 south of Toledo Express Airport). Doors open at 6, and music starts at 7. Admission is $12.

Contact Tom Henry at:

thenry@theblade.com

or 419-724-6079.

First Published April 6, 2006, 9:11 a.m.