Cover photo © 2024 Lance Bowman

There are many amazing back stories in the blues, but none more different than that of Prakash Slim. Since this spring, the highly polished country blues guitarist has been captivating audiences across the U.S. after finally fulfilling several lifelong dreams, emerging from a life of poverty in his homeland, recording his first album on American soil and finally playing the music he loves in the place where it was born.

And, believe it or not, he accomplished all of his goals with the help of friends he made on the internet while never leaving his humble home on the other side of the world!

Now based in upstate New York, Slim was born Ram Prakash Pokharel and literally came into the world in the middle of a rice field during the rainy season in the remote village of Lamatar in the Lalitpur district of Nepal, a landlocked nation situated between India and China that’s known best as being the home of both of Buddha and Mt. Everest, too. But despite its isolation, the Land of Solitary Meditation and Penance is home to a small blues community, too.

“My mother was still working in the field to feed our family and the village when she went into labor,” Prakash told Blues Blast in a recent interview. “My father, an administrator, died when I was two years old, leaving her to raise my older brother, sister and me. Life was hard.

“The only ambition I had growing up was to live one day at a time. Ambition was a privilege for rich kids, not me.”

Just 60 miles southwest of the capital, Kathmandu, but a difficult four hours away, Lamatar sits in the rugged foothills of the Himalayas – different as day and night from the flat expanse of the Delta in Mississippi. But grinding poverty and other factors present obstacles that make life similar in many ways. Lamatar is so remote that electricity didn’t arrive until Slim was three, and the first motorized vehicle didn’t reach the village until he was 15.

One blessing that Prakash enjoyed was a decent education in a government-run school. But even then, instead of sitting at a desk, he sat on a mat made of straw. Another is his love for music, which came at a young age.

“I’d drive my mother crazy, banging on water pots all day and singing along to songs I’d hear on the radio,” he says. “It could be Indian music, Nepali folk or Muddy Waters – he was the first blues artist I heard — or ’70s bands like The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, B.B. King. It all depended on what was playing that day.

“Once a month or once a week they’d play the blues, and I’d be waiting and hoping until they did.”

Like the Delta, folks didn’t have much in Lamatar other than familial love and a tight-knit community that worked together to overcome obstacles in whatever form they took. Prakash’s prized possession during childhood was a bicycle gifted to him by his sister. It was a real treasure costing 3,500 rupees or more…and for struggling Nepalis, the rupees were hard to come by.

But he still swapped it for his first guitar – an electric — when he finally got the chance.

“I was 16,” Slim remembers, “and I traded the bicycle for a guitar with a friend, fibbing to my family that I’d just loaned it.”

Prakash struggled for a couple of years, trying to teach himself the instrument, then realized he needed to know more. Possessing a curious mind, he knew he had to learn music theory…but where? Finding the right teacher was a difficult task in and of itself. His first break came at age 20, when he met C.B. Chhetri. A bandleader in addition to being a skilled educator, Chhetri agreed to take Slim under his wing and teach him the progressions and chordings that would make his music sing.

“He lived ten kilometers (six miles) away, and it was a difficult journey – especially without a bicycle,” Slim says, “but I never missed a lesson.”

He proved to be such an excellent student that Chhetri eventually invited Prakash to join his band, which played  Western instrumental music on the local restaurant circuit. Slim spent years at his side before joining a succession of rock bands — The Sound of Music, Black Hawk Nepal and The Plus, playing lead and rhythm guitar and bass and mixing traditional Nepali pop numbers with hits from the Eagles and other Western Top 40 groups.

“It was fine playing in rock bands for 12 years,” Prakash says, noting that hearing B.B. King on the radio for the first time was a life-changer. “It really struck home with me…it healed the hole in my soul. The intervals he was playing on guitar were magical.”

After taking a ten-day seminar at Kathmandu Jazz Conservatory taught by American Dr. Gene Aitken, who was serving as an envoy in the U.S. embassy, Slim started teaching music theory and guitar himself, something he continued until leaving his homeland. And he dedicated his life to the blues, becoming an important figure in the local Blues in the Schools program, too.

Prakash’s first foray to the U.S. should have come in 2015. That’s when he was invited to attend a retreat at the Waldon School of Music in San Francisco. But tragedy struck. A major earthquake in the region caused so much destruction that he had to cancel the trip. The event cast him into a depression that endured until 2017, when he was confined to bed rest after falling ill.

“I spent my time scrolling through the internet,” he says, “and I came across the Facebook page called ‘Acoustic Blues Pickers.’”

The discovery proved to be as big an event as the earthquake in Slim’s life. He’d listened to country blues occasionally through the years, but it was always a footnote until he played a post track of Robert Johnson playing “Me and the Devil Blues.”

“I listened to that number several times, and didn’t know what was happening to me. That was my turning point.”

For the next week, Prakash taught himself the song. Then he made a video and posted it for the group to see. That simple act from his bed in Nepal introduced Slim to the world. Now in his 40s and a polite, friendly man, he possesses an outgoing personality that’s instantly likable, and it didn’t take long before he started making friendships with blues lovers, artists, societies and venue operators on all four corners of the world.

During his extend recovery, he became totally consumed with country blues and its creators. He started picking up technique from Johnson, then moved on to study and learn tunes by Charley Patton, Bukka White, Son House, Blind Blake, Mississippi John Hurt, Fred McDowell and other first-generation stars. And the music inspired him so much that it led him to deep research into the music’s history, the major events surrounding it, slavery and the societal problems that helped produce it, too.

“Blues is the voice of an oppressed and exploited people,” Slim insists. “It’s a sacred boon to the world, and no one can deny that it came from African-Americans who had suffered.

“Like them, I was born with the blues. Many of us (Nepali) are suffering from same problems today…discrimination, economic depression and other social issues. Like the people of Mississippi, we have flooding, droughts and other natural disasters.”

Through his new internet contacts, it didn’t take long before Slim learned that – like his neighbors at home – the blues community is supportive and giving, too.

Tennessee attorney Fred Love, for one, befriended Prakash after viewing his Facebook video and offered a hand to advance his career. “‘How can I help you?’ he asked me,” Slim remembers. “‘I want to play Delta country style,’ I said, “‘but I don’t have a resonator guitar and slides.’”

For Slim, it was just a dream, but for Fred, it was a call to action. Within weeks, they arrived at Slim’s door.

“I’m blessed,” Prakash says.

Then there’s Dr. T.D. Moore, a Mississippi based director of a non-profit, who’s helped him learn blues history and more about the artists he reveres.

Moore runs the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund, a charity created by a former social worker-turned-vintage guitar dealer in 1989 to repair and rebuild the Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Morgan City, Miss., where authorities agree Robert Johnson was laid to rest.

The group now works to restore African-American church communities across the South, paying special attention to restoring markers of musicians buried in their graves. They memorialize the artists and educate the world about their contributions through outreach programs, blues research and education. And they’re active in the fight for racial equality, too.

It didn’t take Prakash long to become part of its blues mentorship training program, where he fell under the spell of T.J. Wheeler, the Delta guitar virtuoso who’s been deeply involved with the non-profit since its inception. Slim credits T.J.’s playing and instruction with helping him become the dyed-in-the-wool Delta and Piedmont bluesman he is today.

“Without knowing your history and your culture, my blues training would have been incomplete,” Slim insists. “I used it to empower kids in my Blues in the Schools work in Nepal. It teaches them how to live better lives – and how to improve race relations and other social issues. The kids love it!”

Back to the music!

Prakash recorded his first album, Country Blues from Nepal, in 2022. It came about thanks to another Facebook friend, Carl Wyatt. Slim mentioned in conversation that it was one of his dreams. And Irish-born guitarist/bandleader now based in France immediately offered to help make it come true. Wyatt enlisted the help of his bass player, Luxembourg-based Yves DeVille, who owns a recording studio and label. Slim laid down WAV tracks in Nepal, forwarded them to Europe, where Yves mixed, mastered and released them on his DeVille Records imprint.

“Another American friend, Henry Jones, helped me with the phrasing and lyrics,” Prakash says, “something he’s also done with my new album.”

And making things even more special, Prakash reached out to Italian harmonica player Fabrizio Poggi, asking if he’d like to contribute to the project. A Grammy nominee with Guy Davis for the album, Brownie and Sonny’s Last Train, a few years ago, Poggi agreed, submitting his own WAV tracks via the internet, too.

Amazingly, what started out as a pipedream struck a positive chord with blues lovers around the world, placing in the No. 4 spot in Roots Music Report’s chart of best country albums in the U.S. while ranking No. 12 in Britain and No. 19 in Australia. And two of its songs charted well, too. Almost immediately, Slim was receiving interviews and coverage from a host of other countries, including Germany, Greece, France, Armenia, Paraguay – where he was nicknamed “the Nepali Robert Johnson” and Ireland, too – all without stepping foot outside his home in the Himalayas.

But that would come to an end soon, too. He finally stepped on Mississippi soil in 2023, when he was invited to play in Clarksdale at the Crossroads Blues Festival. He also fulfilled every blues lover’s dream by visiting both the Crossroads and Johnson’s grave. And he also got to play alongside Wheeler at a festival in New Hampshire, which made the trip even more special.

His emigration to the U.S. earlier this year came about through the sponsorship of two more Facebook friends, Lance Bowman and Kat McNeill, who ran the Can’t Stop the Blues page on the website. A huge success during the COVID crisis, they broadcast shows four nights a week to folks shut-in around the world, and many of the top names in the industry were featured performing.

Lance welcomed him to America in Virginia this spring. And guitarist Johnny Burgin – a world traveler who was a fixture in the Chicago blues scene for decades — and Stephanie Tice – Johnny’s partner and his co-host of the popular No Borders Blues podcast – welcomed Prakash into their home for two weeks before Slim hit the road for a five-month U.S. tour. Slim’s been a guest on No Borders twice, and Johnny’s helped him with bookings.

And in case you were wondering…you guessed it!…the trio have been friends on the website for years. But there’s still one more online hookup – and it’s probably the best one yet!

Chicago-based Michael Freeman is a British-born, Grammy-winning producer and engineer and former board member of the Blues Foundation. He’s worked with a who’s who of talents, including Pinetop Perkins and Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, Deborah Coleman, Eddy Clearwater, John Primer, Bo Diddley, Mississippi Heat and a host of others in a 30-plus year career.

“I connected with him about five or six years ago,” Slim says. “I was asking him if there is something he could do to help me because I knew I wanted to do something in the blues. He said: ‘Give it time. There’s a chance…when the time’s right.’”

The duo kept in touch through the ensuing years, and Prakash sent him samples of his work. And the right time came shortly after his arrival in the U.S.

“I got a call from Stephanie that Michael wanted to do two or three songs with me,” Slim says. “I was shocked that it would be my good fortune to work with such a blues great. The next day, she called again, saying he wanted to do four or five songs…then another call the next day to say he wanted to do a full album.”

With only two originals in his set list, Prakash immediately went to work to create more. Five days later, he had eight songs in the can, and it’s a good thing that he did. He and Johnny were on the road when Stephanie called to inform them Freeman had green-lighted the project.

“We had a Zoom meeting with Michael, and I played all of the songs,” Slim recalled. “He said ‘yes,’ and he set a recording date for April 17 and 18 at Sam Phillips Studios in Memphis.” Prakash would play lead on lead resonator guitar and provide vocals while Johnny would support on electric guitar and Michael handle drums. When Prakash got to Tennessee, Grammy nominee and multi-instrumentalist Scott Bomar served as the engineer.

Entitled 8000 Miles to the Crossroads and released on Freeman’s Blue Point Records, the album hit the streets on Aug. 2 and has soared through the charts. It’s an amazing accomplishment for the artist, who’s already received Ambassador of the Blues awards from two blues societies in California and Josie Awards as international ambassador and world artist of the year despite being a relative unknown everywhere outside the acoustic blues world.

Possessing Prakash’s rhythmic and hypnotic fretwork throughout, the album recently hit the No. 1 spot on Roots Music Report’s country blues chart and created additional interest in his debut release, which is also currently charting again, too. His skill on the strings makes listeners overlook the Nepali accent in his pleasant, mid-range voice — something that’s easily forgivable considering he’s been a member of the English-speaking world for less than a year.

Choice cuts include a stellar version of Scrapper Blackwell’s “Kokomo Blues,” which sounds fresh despite being covered by hundreds of artists since debuting in 1928. The Slim original “Old Man Blues” and the autobiographical “8000 Miles to the Crossroads” demonstrate his ability to deliver new songs that remain faithful to the past while delivering contemporary themes.

You’ll also like “Talking Nepal Blues,” which delivers more of his biographical material that mirrors in many ways what Delta bluesmen have produced, and the instrumental, “Blues Raga (Part Two),” which fuses East and West while carrying forward a theme Prakash used on his debut disc.

The New World has opened a whole new world of possibilities for Slim, who’s working diligently to get his green card, become a permanent resident and bring his wife and son from Nepal to be at his side. Like Burgin, Prakash is proving himself in be a road dog of the first order – and someone who’s heart is definitely in the right place. Check out his music and find out where he’ll be playing next by visiting his website: www.prakashslim.com.