{{Short description|American blues singer and guitarist (1905–1968)}} {{Infobox musical artist | name = Bumble Bee Slim | image = | caption = | image_size = | birth_name = Admirl Amos Easton | alias = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1905|5|7}} | birth_place = Brunswick, Georgia, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1968|6|8|1905|5|7}}<br/>Los Angeles, California, U.S. | instrument = {{flatlist| *Vocals *guitar }} | genre = Piedmont blues | occupation = | years_active = | label = {{flatlist| *Paramount *Vocalion *Decca *Bluebird }} | website = }}
'''Admirl Amos Easton''' (May 7, 1905 – June 8, 1968),<ref name="bare">{{cite book| first1= Bob| last1= Eagle| first2= Eric S.| last2= LeBlanc| year= 2013| title= Blues: A Regional Experience| publisher= Praeger | location= Santa Barbara, California| page=325 | isbn= 978-0313344237}}</ref><ref name="amg">{{cite web|author=Koda, Cub|author-link=Cub Koda|url=http://www.allmusic.com/artist/bumble-bee-slim-mn0000635467 |title=Bumble Bee Slim: Biography |publisher=AllMusic.com |date=1905-05-07 |accessdate=2016-11-08}}</ref> better known by the stage name '''Bumble Bee Slim''', was an American Piedmont blues singer and guitarist.<ref name="amg" />
==Biography== Easton was born in Brunswick, Georgia, United States.<ref name="LarkinBlues">{{cite book|title=The Guinness Who's Who of Blues|editor=Colin Larkin|publisher=Guinness Publishing|date=1995|edition=Second|isbn=0-85112-673-1|page=63}}</ref> Several original sources confirm that he spelled his first name "Admirl".<ref>Chris Smith, "Words Words Words: Amos Easton", ''Blues & Rhythm'', #342, p.28, 2019</ref> Around 1920 he joined the Ringling Brothers circus. He then returned to Georgia and was briefly married before heading north on a freight train to Indianapolis, where he settled in 1928. There he met and was influenced by the pianist Leroy Carr and the guitarist Scrapper Blackwell.<ref name="amg"/>
By 1931 he had moved to Chicago, where he made his first recordings, as Bumble Bee Slim, for Paramount Records.<ref name="LarkinBlues"/> The following year his song "B&O Blues" was a hit for Vocalion Records, inspiring several other railroad blues and eventually becoming a popular folk song.<ref name="LarkinBlues"/> In the next five years, he recorded over 150 songs for Decca Records, Bluebird Records and Vocalion,<ref name="russell">{{cite book | first= Tony | last= Russell | year= 1997 | title= The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray | edition= | publisher=Carlton Books | location= Dubai | pages= 96–97 | isbn= 1-85868-255-X}}</ref> often accompanied by other musicians, including Big Bill Broonzy, Peetie Wheatstraw, Tampa Red, Memphis Minnie, and Washboard Sam.
In 1937, he returned to Georgia. He relocated to Los Angeles, California in the early 1940s, apparently hoping to break into motion pictures as a songwriter and comedian. During the 1950s he recorded several albums, but they had little impact.<ref name="amg"/> His last album was released in 1962 by Pacific Jazz Records.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://facstaff.unca.edu/sinclair/piedmontblues/bumble_bee.html|title=East Coast Piedmont Blues: Bumble Bee Slim|last=Eckenrode|first=Andrew|publisher=University of North Carolina at Asheville|accessdate=29 December 2013|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060208185615/http://facstaff.unca.edu/sinclair/piedmontblues/bumble_bee.html|archivedate=8 February 2006}}</ref>
He continued to perform in clubs around Los Angeles until he died in 1968.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://thebluestrail.com/artists/mus_bbslim.htm |title=Bumble Bee Slim |publisher=Thebluestrail.com |date= |accessdate=2016-11-08}}</ref> In 2022 the Killer Blues Headstone Project placed a headstone for him at St. Matthews AME Church in Waynesville, Georgia.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Headstones Placed|url=https://killerblues.net/headstones/|access-date=2025-11-30|website=Killerblues.net|language=en-US}}</ref>
==See also== *List of blues musicians *List of country blues musicians *List of Piedmont blues musicians
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Other source== *Zolten, Jerry (September/October 1997). "The Rough and Rugged Road of Bumble Bee Slim". ''Living Blues'', no. 135.
==External links== *[http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?path=/TheArts/Music/Blues/IndividualArtistsandMusicalGroup&id=h-1656 New Georgia Encyclopedia article] *{{Allmusic|class=artist|id=p296}} * [https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/106726 Bumble Bee Slim recordings] at the Discography of American Historical Recordings.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Slim, Bumble Bee}} Category:1905 births Category:1968 deaths Category:Country blues musicians Category:Piedmont blues musicians Category:Chicago blues musicians Category:West Coast blues musicians Category:American blues singers Category:Paramount Records artists Category:Decca Records artists Category:Bluebird Records artists Category:Specialty Records artists Category:Singers from Georgia (U.S. state) Category:People from Brunswick, Georgia Category:Vocalion Records artists Category:20th-century American singers