About Us

Dubbed "Son House Junior" by blues veteran Guitar
Mac, Coyote Slim was born in 1979 in the asphalt
jungle of West Los Angeles. From 1993 to 2009 he
was a resident of the Bay Area, specifically in
Cupertino as well as downtown and south San José.
In 2009 he moved to the foothills of the Sierra
Nevada, in the beautiful town of Springville, CA. In
2010 he will be living in the Bay Area again.

Coyote Slim has been influenced primarily by
Mississippi Delta and Hill Country artists, but also by
all types of blues as well as jazz, African music, and
zydeco. Coyote Slim is a self-taught performer. In the
true spirit of the blues, Coyote Slim performs his own
interpretations of traditional blues numbers as well as
composing his own tunes based on autobiographical,
traditional and sometimes political themes.

Coyote Slim has worked a variety of jobs including
demolition worker, fishmonger, and biological
science researcher. At one time he was a radio DJ on
KSCU Santa Clara. His booming voice and slide-guitar
were well-known and admired among the musicians of
Prescott, AZ, where he attended Prescott College and
received a BA in Environmental Studies in 2004. He
has busked on the street in Corvallis, Oregon,
hollered in a beach-front restaurant in Bahia de Kino,
Mexico, entertained at various house parties, and
played at a “49” following the De Anza Pow Wow. He
is well known in downtown San José, where from 2006
to 2007 he could sometimes be found playing at
underground bars during the wee hours of the
morning. Coyote Slim has played at many Bay Area
farmers’ markets, from Pinole to the Evergreen
district of San José (which is reflected in his music,
for instance the tune "Bay Area Busking Blues).

Coyote Slim is a “green-collar worker.” He has taught
out-door science to school children in downtown San
José, at various elementary schools, and at the
wetlands of Charleston Slough in Mountain View. In
2008, as an AmeriCorps member doing urban forestry
with OurCity Forest in San José, he received a
mayoral commendation for his part in helping to
"green" the third largest city in California (his
experiences will be recounted in a song on a
forthcoming album). During 2009 he served in the
Sierra Nevada AmeriCorps Partnership as an outdoor
educator working with the youth of Tulare and Kern
Counties for a small non-profit calle.

When not playing music or working, he spends time
bird-watching, hiking or writing (one current project
includes an historical mystery novel set in 1871 in
Santa Clara Valley). You can contact him at
bluesman@coyoteslim.com.