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Watermelon Slim & The Workers

WATERMELON SLIM AND THE WORKERS | Northernblues
By TED DROZDOWSKI  |  March 7, 2006
3.5 3.5 Stars

NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND Watermelon Slim’s bad-news lyrics are leavened with humor, a baying hound dog’s voice, and raw, whinnying slide guitar.When Watermelon Slim (a/k/a singer/guitarist Bill Homans) howls about riding in the “Devil’s Cadillac,” it’s hard not to imagine that he’s had his own hands on its wheel occasionally. After all, most of his songs are about emotional car crashes, whether he’s lamenting the bad-paper passing of his “Check Writing Woman,” the misery that comes with “Hard Labor,” or his history as a “Bad Sinner.” But this laconic bluesman, who took a bullet in Vietnam and then took another 25 years to record his debut album, is no run-of-the-mill whiner. His lyrics are leavened with a sense of humor that’s buoyed by his baying-hound-dog’s voice and fortified by his raw, whinnying slide guitar. His back-up group the Workers are stalwart, but the disc is apt to peak when it’s just Slim alone, talking to dead presidents in “Folding Money Blues” and making like a moonshine-struck Cajun on “Eau de Bone,” with only his lonely, shimmering guitar for accompaniment. This is Slim’s third album, and it’s likely to elevate this rangy, talented character up from the underground.

Watermelon Slim & the Workers | March 24 | Sit 'N Bull Pub | 163 Main St, Maynard | 978.897.4663

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Comments
Watermelon Slim & The Workers
Ted, I am Watermelon Slim's brother, Peter, and I live here in Boston -one correction on your very nice review of his latest album, it didn't take him 25 years to record his debut album-His FIRST album was recorded in 1974, when he was a member of Vietnam's Veterans Against the War, and is called Merry Airbrakes. I helped him produce it at a studio in Dorchester, wrote a couple of songs for it, and played acoustic on the album-If you are interested in hearing some of that music-where his playing is just as good often as on the new album-if you are interested I can email you a couple of the clips or make a cd of the album, which is hard to find these days- I am also a composer, and started out in blues like Slim, at the same time in 1961, but wound up going to New England Conservatory for a Master's in Comp. and Theory, and also just came out with a new cd-but my music is "so-called" contemporary music or orchestral music-although two of the composers for whom it was a "tribute" are Frank Zappa and Bill Evans.
By Peter Homans on 03/13/2006 at 2:18:29
Watermelon Slim & The Workers
Oh, and one other thing-Bill is the son of Bill Homans, Jr., who was a very well-known criminal/civil rights attorney who worked in Boston for years-and was probably part of the inspiration for Slim's involvement in the anti vietnam effort.
By Peter Homans on 03/13/2006 at 3:24:21

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