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Watermelon Slim

Photo by Konrad Eek

"The further through things I think, the more it ends up being the blues."

Bill Homans, a.k.a Watermelon Slim first appeared on the music scene in the early 1970s as the only Vietnam veteran to record a full length LP album during the Vietnam war, a 1973 protest-tinged underground release entitled Merry Airbrakes. In the subsequent years his original material has been reissued and performed by anti-establishment icons such as Country Joe McDonald. He developed friendships and musical bonds with Barbara Dane, roommate Henry "Sunflower" Vestine of Canned Heat, and his dear fishing buddy, seminal Chicago blues harp plyer "Earring George" Mayweather. In his 30 years of music he has played with Henry Vestine, Bonnie Raitt, Robert Cray, the late John Lee Hooker, in Paris with expatriate New Orleans barrel-house piano player Champion Jack Dupree, Boston's leading blues guitarist and producer Chris Stovall Brown, and most recently with Muddy Waters' guitarist "Steady Rollin" Bob Margolin. But not until recently did he fully chase the dream. Less than six months after leaving his most latest truckdriviing job, hauling industrial waste, Watermelon Slim is now making a living as a full time touring bluesman. The decision was predominantly the result of a recent and nearly fatal heart attack, and the renewed perspective on mortality that followed. Logically, why drive industrial waste around Oklahoma to dispose of when one can drive bandmates around the United States to play music and entertain? Pleasingly, the blues community has officially recognized him as one of the best contemporary blues artists with a nomination for a 2005 W.C. Handy Award for Best New Artist Debut. One would think that the experiences and tribulations of heart attacks, relationships, and decades behind the wheel would be sufficient foundations for his blues and roots songwriting. Not quite. Over the years Slim has satisfied his thirst for academic knowledge. In 1986 he earned an honors degree in History and a degree in Journalism from the University of Oregon in Eugene. In 2000 Slim received a masters degree in History from Oklahoma State University. Outside the classroom Slim was a member of MENSA International, an exclusive society limited to those with genius range IQs. There is no bravado in his voice when he states "I am probably the most literate bluesman in the world - or no less than Taj Mahal anyway. However," he cautions, "the further through things I think, the more it ends up being the blues. 'Who increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow', the scripture reads, though I can't quote you the chapter and verse. It's enough to make a saint cuss, enough to make a strong man cry."

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