Watermelon Slim & the Workers

Watermelon Slim & the Workers
Watermelon Slim & the Workers
(Northern Blues)
Watermelon Slim is Bill Homans, 56, a Vietnam vet who spent years growing melons and driving a truck before he got his blues in gear. He’s more reminiscent of Muddy Waters than anyone else alive. He plays a searing slide guitar and his harmonica wails like some reptilian mating call. Then there are his songs. “Folding Money Blues” launches those historic faces (Washington, Franklin et al) into dialogue. Roles get reversed on “Juke Joint Woman”: he’s home with the kids while mother’s in a whiskey bar. Slim shows that new blood in the blues need not be young, just freshly bruised.
—Doug Taylor

This article appears in Dec 6-12, 2007.