Watermelon Slim: I Don't Care No More

Got the link from the South Skunk Blues Society. Watermelon Slim is the headliner for their nice little blues fest on June 22nd.

Watermellon Slim Press Release

Press release from Northern Blues Music

Watermelon Slim and the Workers Win Top Industry Honors For Band Of The Year and Album Of The Year

The NorthernBlues Music release The Wheel Man wins ‘Album of the Year’ over peers Koko Taylor, Bettye LaVette and Jimmie Vaughan.

Watermelon Slim and the Workers won a pair of awards at the Memphis-based Blues Foundation’s 2008 Blues Music Awards (formerly W.C. Handy Awards) on Thursday May 8, 2008 at the Grand Casino Event Center in Tunica, Mississippi.

Watermelon Slim is a relatively new luminary of the blues, rapidly building a career behind four albums and constant touring. In 2008 Slim was nominated for six awards, a feat matched only by the likes of B.B. King, Buddy Guy, and Robert Cray. Slim has twelve nominations in the last two years, a feat unmatched in the event’s 29 years.

Slim, his band and the album have been steadily building praise preceding these two Blues Music Awards. The legendary Jerry Wexler penned the liner notes of the award winning album which also won the Independent Music Award for ‘Blues Album of the Year.’ Watermelon Slim and the Workers have long been leading earners for their exclusive booking agency, Intrepid Artists. Among other accolades, the band also won the 2008 Maple Blues Award for ‘International Artist of the Year.’

Blues Revue Magazine wrote of The Wheel Man “(Watermelon Slim) not only holds his own but defines a new genre – one that’s the blues’ answer to some of rock’s greatest garage bands.” Mainstream media such as Paste Magazine describes Slim as “the most exciting and authentic blues performer I’ve heard in years.” The U.K.’s MOJO Magazine ranked Slim’s last two records #1 on its annual ‘Best Blues Albums of the Year’ list.

The Toronto based world/roots/blues label NorthernBlues Music has released the last two Watermelon Slim & The Workers CDs. A self titled album was released in February 2006. ‘The Wheel Man’ was released in April 2007 and debuted in the top ten on Billboard’s Blues Charts. It was produced by Chris Wick and features keyboardist Dave Maxwell and Chicago blues legend Magic Slim on the title track. As mentioned earlier, Jerry Wexler wrote the liner notes yet had to decline a producer role due to health issues.

Owner of NorthernBluesMusic, Inc. Fred Litwin beams "I can't tell you how proud I am of Watermelon Slim - these awards show that the fans recognize he is the most authentic and honest bluesman out there." These are not lighthearted words considering Litwin’s label launched the likes of Otis Taylor and Janiva Magness into worldwide recognition and their own bevy of awards.

Born in North Carolina, raised in Boston, Bill ‘Watermelon Slim’ Homans was schooled at Middleberry College until he enlisted in Vietnam. While laid up in an Army hospital he taught himself upside down left handed guitar with his military issued Zippo as a slide and a plastic pick cut from the top of a coffee can. He has been a truck driver, watermelon farmer, sawmiller, funeral officiator and small time criminal. He’s earned two masters degrees in history and journalism and hauled industrial waste. In the early 2000s, a near fatal heart attack clarified his focus on mortality and he hit the road on a new career as a singing/songwriting/guitar playing/harmonica blowing/ performing bluesman.

The highly anticipated follow up to ‘The Wheel Man’ is entitled ‘No Paid Holidays’ and features Lee Roy Parnell on slide guitar. ‘No Paid Holidays’ hits the street June 24, 2008 on NorthernBlues Music via Redeye Distribution.

For almost three decades, the Blues Music Awards (and previously the W.C. Handy Awards) have celebrated excellence in performance and recording of the blues. For more information about the Blues Foundation and the Blues Music Awards, visit www.blues.org.

www.watermelonslim.com & www.northernblues.com

Label/Radio: Pamela at NorthernBlues 866-540-0003 or info@northernblues.com
Publicity & Media: Michael McClune at 310.319.1199 or michael@michaelmcclune.net
Bookings: Intrepid Artists at 704.358.4777 or staff@intrepidartists.com
Management: Chris Hardwick at Southern Artists at 405.447.4329 or chris@southernartist.net

Really good blues interview and article

The Vue Weekly from Edmonton has a really nice blues article for the upcoming Edmonton Blues Festival. The interview features Watermelon Slim, and Steve Berlin from Los Lobos. It covers, both the myth of Robert Johnson, and how age, and living the blues makes a difference. I like the article because it takles a couple of issues that we have covered here. Perhaps the best qoute from the story come from Watermelon Slim who talks about why Robert Johnson was so good.

‘I’m playing the blues ‘cause I play that I-IV-V progression’—no, no, no, that ain’t working out. There’s a lot more to it than that.”
Slim is getting at the fact that a little music theory and a few stories always came secondary to the actual living that those original bluesmen did. Johnson was as good as he was because he got out and travelled with his guitar, living life and learning songs and licks along the way and grinding it all into
his own style.

Watermelon Slim: Smokestack Lighting

Wow! talk about playing slide guitar in an unorthdox fashion. Much like Jeff Healy except, Slim plays it LEFT HANDED, and with the strings basically BACKWARDS!!! Very cool!

Blog Critic Review: Watermelon Slim, The Wheel Man

Probably the hottest blues band in the country right now is Watermelon Slim and the Workers. Slim was nominated for six BMA's and while he was shut out, he is still getting tons of good press, and great reviews. Blog Critic has a review on his latest release, The Wheel Man. This is some good ol down home in your face pass the delta and give me some Cajun music please! For the review click HERE.

Watermelon Slim Interview

The Prince George Free Press, has an interview with Watermelon Slim. Slim was up for six BMA's, but was shut out, but I don't think that will stop Slim. He has been playing since the 70s, and it was over 30 years between releases so I am sure he can handle adversity:-) I just hope he releases a new CD before 2037:-)