Blues Roundup: IBC Winners, BMA Voting Closes, New Watermelon Slim in April - Page 2

The music world is filled with all sorts of eccentric personalities and strange stories.  Watermelon Slim's story is one of the better ones.  Slim (Bill Homans) is a certified genius.  He holds degrees in history and journalism from the University of Oregon and a master's degree in history from Oklahoma State University.  He is also Vietnam veteran who taught himself to play guitar while in an Army hospital, teaching himself left-handed backward slide guitar using a cheap balsawood guitar and a Zippo lighter as the slide. He is the only Vietnam vet to record a full-length LP album during the Vietnam War. It was the underground release, Merry Airbrakes, a protest-tinged record.

Slim's professional career included stints as a teacher, farmer, and truck driver.  His life spent on the road driving truck is a recurring theme in many of his songs.   In 2002, he suffered a near fatal heart attack and that brush with death seems to have been the impetus to pursue his passion for music and the blues full time.

"Everything I do now has a sharper pleasure to it," he said.  "I've lived a fuller life than most people could in two. If I go now, I've got a good education, I've lived on three continents, and I've played music with a bunch of immortal blues players. I've seen an awful lot and I've done an awful lot."

The tracklisting for The Wheel Man
1. The Wheel Man
2. I've Got News
3. Black Water
4. Jimmy Bell
5. Newspaper Reporter
6. Drinking & Driving
7. Fast Eddie
8. Sawmill Holler
9. Truck Driving Mama
10. I Know One
11. Got Love If You Want It
12. Rattlesnake       
13. Peaches  
14. Judge Harsh Blues (Good Morning Judge)

Be on the lookout for BC Magazine's review of Watermelon Slim & The Workers' upcoming release, The Wheel Man.

Article Author: Josh Hathaway

Josh Hathaway is a Sr. Music Editor for Blogcritics. He is formerly an award-winning journalist and broadcaster.

Visit Josh Hathaway's author page — Josh Hathaway's Blog