Watermelon Slim

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Watermelon Slim & The Workers
Watermelon Slim Pistoia Blues Festival 2008
Watermelon Slim Pistoia Blues Festival 2008
General information
Genre (s) Blues chicago blues
founding 2004
Website Watermelon Slim website
Current occupation
Watermelon Slim (William P. Homans)
Ronnie Mack (Ronnie McMullen Jr)
Cliff Belcher
Chris Stovall Brown
Former band members
Ike Lamb
Michael Newberry

Watermelon Slim (* 1949 in Boston ; actually William P. Homans ) is an American blues musician who plays slide guitar and harmonica .

Life

Although he was born in Boston , he grew up in North Carolina , where he came into contact with the blues at the age of five. He later left school to go to Vietnam as a soldier . There he taught himself to play slide guitar while he lay wounded in the hospital. He turned seriously to music in 1970 when he returned from the Vietnam War as a staunch opponent of the war. He processed the experiences of the Vietnam War in his first album "Merry Airbrakes", which was released in 1973 on a small label. He spent the next 30 years of his life with various jobs, including as a worker on a watermelon farm in Oklahoma, from which his stage name is derived. In 2002 he suffered a heart attack that almost killed him. Although he spent most of his adult life as a worker, he earned bachelor's degrees in journalism and history from the University of Oregon and a masters degree in history from Oklahoma State University. As a returnee from the Vietnam War, he is a member and supporter of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War , as well as a member of Mensa International , an association of people with a high IQ.

Discography

LPs / CDs

  • 1973 Merry Airbrakes, Shadoks
  • 1999 EP Fried Okra Jones
  • 2003 Big Shoes to Fill, Southern Music Dist.
  • 2004 Up Close & Personal, Southern Music Dist.
  • 2006 Watermelon Slim & the Workers, Northern Blues Music
  • 2007 The Wheel Man, Northern Blues Music
  • 2008 No Paid Holidays, NorthernBlues Music
  • 2009 Escape from the Chicken Coop, Northern Blues Music
  • 2010 Wrestlers
  • 2017 Golden Boy
  • 2019 Church Of The Blues
  • 2020: Traveling Man

DVD

  • 2005 Ripe for the Picking

Awards and nominations

  • Blues Revue Magazine Watermelon Slim & The Workers, 2006 # 19 among the 25 best blues CDs of the decade
  • Blues Music Award 2009 4 nominations
  • Blues Music Award 2008 6 nominations, 2 Blues Music Awards for album of the year and band of the year
  • Blues Music Award 2007 6 nominations
  • WC Handy Blues Awards 2005 nomination for best newcomer
  • Independent Music Awards Album of the Year
  • Toronto Blues Society 2008 Maple Blues Awards International Artist of the Year
  • Mojo Magazine 2007 # 1 Blues Album of the Year - The Wheel Man 2006 # 1 Blues Album of the Year - Watermelon Slim & The Workers
  • Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame 2008

Watermelon Slim has been nominated 17 times for the Blues Music Award alone since 2004.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://www.allmusic.com/artist/mn0000174680
  2. ↑ Watermelon Slim - Artist Biography ( Memento from August 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Homepage ( Memento from February 26, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ https://www.allmusic.com/artist/mn0000174680
  5. ↑ http://www.watermelonslim.com/epk/epk.htm
personal data
SURNAME Watermelon Slim
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Homans, William P. (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American blues harper (harmonica player) and slide guitarist
DATE OF BIRTH 1949
PLACE OF BIRTH Boston , Massachusetts , USA