WATERMELON SLIM & THE WORKERS

                                       
              



                             
             

From sizzling slide guitar and nitty-gritty harp to his gruff, resonating Okie twang, Bill "Watermelon Slim" Homans delivers acutely personal "workingman blues" with both hands on the wheel of life, a bottle of hooch in his pocket, and the Bible on the passenger seat. Currently on their 2010 "No Paid Holidays Tour", Watermelon Slim and The Workers also features Cliff Belcher on electric bass, Ronnie McMullen Jr. on guitar, and drummer Chris Stovall Brown.

Raised in North Carolina listening to the housekeeper sing John Lee Hooker songs, Slim attended Middlebury College on a fencing scholarship but left early to enlist for Vietnam. Laid up in a Vietnam hospital bed, he taught himself upside-down, left-handed slide guitar on a five dollar balsawood model, using a pick cut from a rusty coffee can and his Army-issued Zippo lighter as a slide. Slim first appeared on the music scene with the 1973 release of "Merry Airbrakes", the only known protest album recorded by a veteran during the Vietnam War. In the thirty plus years since, he's been a truck driver, forklift operator, sawmill worker, firewood salesman, collection agent, funeral officiator, and even a small time criminal. He also completed two undergraduate degrees and a master's degree, started a family, painted art, and joined Mensa, the social networking group for people with certified genius IQ's. Eventually, Slim landed in his current home state of Oklahoma farming watermelons, hence the stage name.

The big turning point in Slim's life came in 2002 when he suffered a near-fatal heart attack, giving him a new perspective on life and consequently, his second emergence as a performing musician. Now with a slew of albums under his belt, Slim's list of accomplishments include and an ever-increasing string of top blues awards and industry accolades; a 2007 induction into the Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame; and a 2010 Blues Revue Magazine nod that ranks the band's 2006 release "Watermelon Slim & The Workers" #19 among the "Top 25 Greatest Blues Albums That Defined the Past Decade". "I've lived a fuller life than most people could in two," Slim says. "I've got a good education, lived on three continents, and played music with a bunch of immortal blues players. I've fought in a war and against a war. If my plane went down tomorrow, I'd go out on top." 

Whether he's playing smooth and shimmery on his slide guitar or moanin' long and lonesome with a voice that grabs you by the heartstrings, when Watermelon Slim sings his songs wrought from Americana and traditional blues, you know every word is true.

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El nuevo disco de Watermelon Slim  & The Workers BULL GOOSE ROOSTER, queda reflejado en el primer video, en el otro podéis ver el tema de Slim Harpo I´m a King Bee, que tambien aparece en el citado álbum, crónica del cual nos ofrece este mes la Revista RUTA 66 y la cual os trasladamos:

Es un fuera de serie . Uno de los pocos bluesman blancos capaz de tutear a los negros entrega su nuevo disco, dicho sea de paso, tras una horrorosa portada.Pero eso importa poco cuando en su interior te encuentras con dieciséis, si he dicho dieciséis, temazos que recorren todos los estilos y todas las influencias que este antiguo repartidor de sandías es capaz de hacer confluir en su persona para conseguir un sonido único e inimitable.Ya sea con sus propias canciones, que recorren sin rubor el country, el folk, el blues del Delta, Chicago o Memphis y el gospel( ojo con esos temas cantados a capella ) o mediante versiones que van de lo absolutamente irreconocible de ese "Vigilante Man " de Woody Gutrhie a las dos mas previsibles y no por eso inferiores de Slim Harpo " I´m a King Bee" y "Scrath My Back " , Bill Homans, nombre real del personaje, demuestras tener las heridas necesarias , la rugosidad en su garganta y el alma imprescindible para todo bnuen intérprete del género. Y por si eso fuera poco el trabajo de los Workers a los instrumentos le sientan de maravilla y justifican, todavía mas , la adquisición de uno de esos discos destinados a ser guardados en la parte alta de tus estanterías para recuperarlo puntualmente.Al tiempo. Firma Eduardo Izquierdo