The music of Naptown blues pianist Honey Hill – Part 2

July 27, 2025

This is the second episode in our three-part series exploring the music of of Gilbert “Honey” Hill, an important Indianapolis blues pianist. Hill was born in Indianapolis in 1912, and lived in the city until his death in 1953.

On this edition, we’ll focus on Hill’s work with the blues star Bumble Bee Slim, they cut over 25 songs together for Decca Records during the summer of 1936. The guitarist and vocalist, Bumble Bee Slim, was born Amos Easton in Brunswick, Georgia in 1905. By the late 1920s, it’s speculated that Slim was living in Indianapolis, where he met the Naptown blues greats Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell. It’s likely that Slim met Honey Hill around this time.