Watermelon Slim combines raw blues and smart stories

Watermelon Slim combines raw blues and smart stories
August 13, 2010
by Dave Howell
The Morning Call

Watermelon Slim has been a truck driver, journalist, Vietnam veteran, forklift operator and environmental activist. In some interviews, he has even confessed to being a small-time criminal. He also raised watermelons for a time, which gave him his nickname.

And he plays the blues, which he'll be doing next Friday with his band, The Workers, at 2nd Story Blues on Broadway, the first act to play the venue's new location at the former American Legion Hall in Fountain Hill. Slim was the opening act when 2nd Story Blues opened almost exactly two years ago. 2nd Story Blues founder Les Houck says he was asked to move from the second floor of Goosey Gander in south Bethlehem because the owner wanted to use it more for his own bookings.

Slim, whose given name is Bill Homans, was raised in North Carolina and retains a Southern drawl. He now lives in the first home he ever owned in Clarksdale, Miss., without a television or a CD player. In an interview from his home, Homans says he is not a virtuoso musician, even though he plays a solid harp and has a unique style on slide guitar. That might be taken as modesty, since he also claims he is not very interesting.

What Slim does is combine the raw energy of classic blues with his own compositions that reflect his varied experiences. "Down and dirty" would be much closer than "slick" to describe his musical style. His songs are about real life.

"My biggest asset is accessibility," he says. "I can talk to people. I am well read and well traveled. I let people talk to me." He has a master's degree in history from Oklahoma State University.

In 2008, along with winning the Blues Music Award for "Album of the Year" (for his CD "The Wheel Man") and "Band of the Year," he played 172 gigs. He has also had 15 other Blues Music Award nominations.

The latest Watermelon Slim CD is this year's "Ringers," which is old-style country, with titles like "Soft Lights and Hard Country Music" and "Cowboys Are Common As Sin." Slim does not generally play much in the way of country in his blues shows, however.

Slim can converse on a wide range of subjects. He explains why he prefers oil over watercolor or acrylics in his pursuit of painting. He is opposed to advertising, saying, "Advertising modifies people's behavior so they can buy what they do not need. "

He is strongly anti-war since his military service. He commented on our current ones: "We have two wars based on lies. Our military policy is incompetent. Bush and Cheney ran it as badly as anyone could have."

Slim has an exciting style of blues harp, getting the most out of the higher notes. On guitar, he runs his slide across a guitar lying flat, like a Dobro or a pedal steel. "I play left-handed on a right-handed guitar," he says. "I use cheap Chinese copies, so I can throw them away if I need to. They barely cost as much as I make for a night's gig."

Guitarist Ronnie McMullen, Jr. handles any chording needed for rhythm and also takes leads. The other Workers are Cliff Belcher on bass and Chris Stovall Brown on drums.

Slim almost missed his show the first time he came to Bethlehem, when he was appearing at Musikfest in 2007. "We had four different sets of directions and went all over. Once we were within rock-throwing distance and didn't even know it. We got to the stage with 10 or 15 minutes to spare."

This trip to Fountain Hill will be different. "Each band member has a GPS, and I have maps, although sometimes the GPSs compete with each other and the maps."

Slim says, "I still sing and play as well as ever, and I am in pretty good shape right now." It was a heart attack in 2002 that led him to reexamine his life and decide to take up music full time. The 62-year old has cut down to about 90 shows a year.

"Playing is not too stressful,' he says. "Travel is harder than the playing. Long tours can be tiring." Slim mentions Belgium, England, Croatia and Australia, sometimes going long distances for just one show. He would like to take a year off to devote more time to activities like painting and his anti-war efforts.

"I am not touring because I am desperate for the money," he says, indicating that he does not want to be forced into performing for the rest of his life.

"I've crammed a lot of experience into my lifetime, enough for three people." He adds what he thinks are his most important words: "God has blessed me. Amen."