Sunnyland Slim Born: 1905 Died: 1995 Sunnyland Slim is not always thought of as a Memphis bluesman, but he was.  Many African American musicians of the early twentieth century moved north from the crushing poverty and racism of central and north Mississippi up to Memphis where a large black population and culture existed, not always peacefully, but with some autonomy.  It was then the financial crunch that drove them up the river to Chicago where a black man could make the same wage as any other laborer.  Many of the great Chicago bluesmen such as Howling Wolf and Muddy Waters were born and raised in the Mississippi delta.

Sunnyland Slim, born Albert Luandrew in 1905 moved to Chicago in 1939, but in the late 1920s he made Memphis his home base.  Sunnyland Slim got his name from one of his best known songs, “Sunnyland Train“.  Already playing piano around the delta region he arrived in Memphis and played with many of the local musicians including Little Brother Montgomery and Ma Rainey.  When he moved to Chicago he helped form the amazing post-war music rennaisance that would later influence British rock bands such as the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds.

Muddy Waters partially owed his recording career at Chess Records to Sunnyland Slim who introduced him to the Chess brothers at his own birthday party.  Early on in his career in Chicago Sunnyland played with Sonny Boy Williamson, but took up with a slightly younger crew of local stars, eventually playing and recording with every major Chicago blues artist of that golden age. 

Most of his work was done as a sideman and studio artist, but he also had an extensive recording career, cutting records with Aristocrat, Hytone, Opera, Chance, Tempo-Tone, Mercury, Apollo, JOB, Regal,  Blue Lake, Club 51, and Cobra between 1948 and 1956.  He was still recording at the age of 80 and playing weekly Sunday night shows in Chicago.  Among his best known songs were "The Devil Is a Busy Man," "Shake It," “Johnson Machine Gun“, Sunnyland Train“, "Brownskin Woman," and "It's You Baby."

Sunnyland Slim died in 1985 at the age of 90 from kidney failure.