ANA POPOVIC Source: Lincoln Journal Star Date: 09/2011 Writer: L. Kent Wolgamott

Zoo Bar has the blues -- four top blues artists play this week

The Zoo Bar built its reputation presenting a who's who of the blues. While Lincoln's internationally known club has broadened its offerings to include all types of roots music, it still features the blues, no more so than this week with four of today's top blues acts set to perform there.

Here's a rundown of the Zoo's blues this week:

Magic Slim with the Lil' Slim Blues Band, 9 p.m. Saturday; cover charge $6. Lincoln's own Magic Slim will take the stage with his son Shawn and the fine band that just released an excellent, old-school blues CD.

Slim, whose name is Morris Holt, was recently honored by his home state of Mississippi, which erected a Blues Trail Marker in the town of Grenada. Born in Torrance, Miss., Holt and his family moved to Grenada when he was 11. Now 74, Slim attended the unveiling ceremony this summer at 818 Union St., in front of the building where Holt's mother, Pinky Holt Taylor, operated a restaurant called Queen's Eat Shop.

Morris Holt made his first trip to Chicago in 1955, where he befriended Magic Sam, who gave him guitar lessons and his nickname. He returned to Mississippi to perfect his blues, going back to Chicago in 1965. There, he put together his band, The Teardrops, with his brothers Nick and Douglas and has been a fixture in Chicago blues since. Slim, who had played the Zoo Bar for decades, moved his family to Lincoln in 1994.

Walter Trout, 6 p.m. Tuesday. Tickets: $15 advance, $18 day of show. Acclaimed guitarist Trout returns to the Zoo after a fine show there in March. Trout, who has been playing for more than 40 years, backed the likes of John Lee Hooker, was a short-term member of Canned Heat, then played with John Mayall and The Bluesbreakers along with Coco Montoya.
A solo artist since 1989, Trout left Mayall in part to move away from pure blues and add rock influences into his music. "Common Ground," his most recent album, is his 20th release, and he continues to tour constantly.

"Guys like me, Coco, Jimmy Thackery, Tommy Castro, my peers, we've got to go out and play for the people," Trout said before the March show. "It's the troubadour tradition. I'm proud to be part of that tradition."

Lil' Ed and the Blues Imperials, 6 p.m. Wednesday. Tickets: $10 advance, $12 day of show. One of the great showmen of the blues, Lil' Ed Williams is a living connection to the Chicago blues. He and his half-brother, bassist James "Pookie" Young, were tutored in the blues by their uncle, the legendary J. B. Hutto.

"J.B. taught me everything I know," Williams says in his Alligator Records biography. "I wouldn't be where I am today without him."

In 1975, Williams and Young formed the first incarnation of the Blues Imperials. A decade later, Alligator Records pulled Lil' Ed and the Blues Imperials out of the West Side clubs and Lil' Ed out of the car wash where he worked to record their brand of blues.

Lil' Ed has been recording and touring since then, becoming a Zoo staple. An entertainer of the highest order who has headlined Zoofest, Williams will walk on the bar with his guitar, play outside the club and keeps the house rockin' from start to finish.

Ana Popovic, 6 p.m. Thursday. Tickets: $12 advance, $15 day of show. Serbian-born Popovic is one of the world's best female guitarists and holds her own with the boys just fine, thank you. That can be heard on "Unconditional," the album she released in August.

The disc showcases her playing, which can be brash and tough, then delicate and lyrical, along with her songwriting, with eight contemporary blues songs coming from her. She's also becoming a convincing singer with some growl and bite in her voice.

Popovic began playing her father's guitar as a Belgrade teen and toured Europe in the late 1990s after the fall of Communism. She made her first record in Memphis in 2001, appeared with Trout on a Jimi Hendrix tribute tour of Europe the next year and got a W.C. Handy nomination as best new blues artist in 2003, becoming the first European artist to appear on the blues awards show.

She has played with the likes of B.B. King and the late Solomon Burke, done the Blues Cruise and toured the U.S. extensively since then, developing a reputation for superb shows marked by fiery guitar work. She, too, has become a Zoo favorite.