Watermelon Slim
Encyclopedia
Bill Homans, professionally known as "Watermelon Slim", is an American
blues
musician
. He plays both guitar
and harmonica
. He is currently signed to NorthernBlues Music
, based in Toronto
, Ontario
.
, Robert Cray
, Champion Jack Dupree
, Bonnie Raitt
, "Country" Joe McDonald
, and Henry Vestine of Canned Heat
.
The first recording project to feature Homans was "Merry Airbrakes," an album recorded and released on a small label in 1973 after returning from a tour of duty in Vietnam. Homans had become, after his return home, involved with Vietnam Veterans Against the War
, and the Merry Airbrakes album had songs with lyrics reflecting drug use, spiritual exploration, and involvement with the emotional cost of fighting "enemies." The Merry Airbrakes album, originals of which are now highly collectible, has been re-released.
His more recent music is rooted in the Mississippi Delta
style, as he plays his dobro
guitar lap-style, lefthanded and backwards, with a slide
. While for decades typically an acoustic performer, with The Workers he has concentrated more on playing electric
.
In 1998, Homans met two Oklahoma State University philosophy professors, Doren Recker and Mike Rhodes, with whom he started a band called "Fried Okra Jones". This band went through several changes in personnel, including the blues woman Honour Hero Havoc, bass player, and guitarist "Texas" Ray Isom. In 1999, Homans recorded for the first time since 1973, an EP CD called "Fried Okra Jones". in 2002, Homans made his first national release for Southern Records, "Big Shoes to Fill", produced by his longtime musical colleague from Massachusetts, Chris Stovall Brown, with cousins Kyle and Adam Enevoldsen on drums and bass. A few months later, Homans had a serious heart attack, but bounced back quickly and continued to drive truck, hauling industrial waste, and in 2003, used his work vacation time to make his first international tour, a solo journey through southern England.
In 2004, Homans left this last truck driving job to go on tour with his supporting band, "the Workers". In 2005, Homans was nominated for the prestigious W. C. Handy Award
for "Best New Artist Debut", for his acoustic masterpiece CD, "Up Close and Personal", produced by Chris Hardwick. He and his band were also nominated for six more Handy Awards for 2006, in a variety of categories, and for a Maple Blues Award
from the Toronto Blues Society
for the 2006 album Watermelon Slim and the Workers. In early 2007, Homans' "Watermelon Slim & The Workers" won in The 6th Annual Independent Music Awards
for Best Blues Album. Watermelon Slim & The Workers were also nominated for Blues Album of the year for "THe Wheel Man" in the 7th annual Independent Music Awards
.
In 2007, Homans made the CD "The Wheel Man", which was nominated for another six Blues Music Awards. at the awards ceremony in 2008, Homans and his band won the award for Best Blues Band of 2007, and "The Wheel Man" was awarded Best Blues CD of 2007. Besides that, Homans won the Maple Blues Award for B.B. King International Entertainer. "The Wheel Man" also was No. 1 Blues Album in England's Mojo Magazine blues CD poll for the second year in a row.
In 2008, The Workers recorded their third CD for Toronto's NorthernBlues record label, "No Paid Holidays". Homans was also inducted into the Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame at this time.
In 2009, this CD was nominated for another four Blues Music Awards, for a total of seventeen awards from the Blues Foundation. A few months later, "Escape From the Chicken Coop", Homans' first country-and-western CD recorded in Nashville with Paul Franklin, Darrell Scott and other top Nashville session players, was released on NorthernBlues. Future releases will include another Nashville record, reflecting Homans' North Carolina "Grand Ol' Opry" roots, an acoustic duo CD featuring Honour Havoc, and blues CDs with Mississippi bluesmen James "Super Chikan" Johnson and Robert "The Wolfman" Belfour.
Homans is a graduate of Lenox School for Boys
, a boarding school in Lenox, MA. Homans has a bachelor's degree
in journalism and history from the University of Oregon
, and a master's degree
in history from Oklahoma State University. Before dropping out to enlist in the Vietnam War
he had attended Middlebury College
. He came back home a fervent anti-war activist, and remains a member and supporter of Vietnam Veterans Against the War
.
, which is about the Tar Creek environmental disaster in Oklahoma. Music from Big Shoes to Fill, Up Close & Personal, plus a live version of "Oklahoma Blues" score this award-winning documentary by writer/director Matt Myers. Homans and Myers met while attending school together at Oklahoma State University.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
. He plays both guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
and harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
. He is currently signed to NorthernBlues Music
NorthernBlues Music
NorthernBlues Music is a Canadian independent record label, which specializes in blues music. The label was established in 2001, and a number of its artists and albums have since been nominated for and won Blues Music Awards...
, based in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
.
Biography
Homans has been performing since the 1970s and has been linked to several notable blues musicians, including John Lee HookerJohn Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker was an American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist.Hooker began his life as the son of a sharecropper, William Hooker, and rose to prominence performing his own unique style of what was originally closest to Delta blues. He developed a 'talking blues' style that was his trademark...
, Robert Cray
Robert Cray
Robert Cray is an American blues guitarist and singer. A five-time Grammy Award winner, he has led his own band, as well as an acclaimed solo career.-Career:...
, Champion Jack Dupree
Champion Jack Dupree
William Thomas Dupree, best known as Champion Jack Dupree, was an American blues pianist. His birth date is disputed, given as July 4, July 10, and July 23, in the years 1908, 1909, or 1910. He died on January 21, 1992.-Biography:...
, Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Lynn Raitt is an American blues singer-songwriter and a renowned slide guitar player. During the 1970s, Raitt released a series of acclaimed roots-influenced albums which incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk and country, but she is perhaps best known for her more commercially...
, "Country" Joe McDonald
Country Joe McDonald
Country Joe McDonald is an American musician who was the lead singer of the 1960s psychedelic rock group Country Joe and the Fish.-Personal life:...
, and Henry Vestine of Canned Heat
Canned Heat
Canned Heat is a blues-rock/boogie rock band that formed in Los Angeles, California in 1965. The group has been noted for its own interpretations of blues material as well as for efforts to promote the interest in this type of music and its original artists...
.
The first recording project to feature Homans was "Merry Airbrakes," an album recorded and released on a small label in 1973 after returning from a tour of duty in Vietnam. Homans had become, after his return home, involved with Vietnam Veterans Against the War
Vietnam Veterans Against the War
Vietnam Veterans Against the War is a tax-exempt non-profit organization and corporation, originally created to oppose the Vietnam War. VVAW describes itself as a national veterans' organization that campaigns for peace, justice, and the rights of all United States military veterans...
, and the Merry Airbrakes album had songs with lyrics reflecting drug use, spiritual exploration, and involvement with the emotional cost of fighting "enemies." The Merry Airbrakes album, originals of which are now highly collectible, has been re-released.
His more recent music is rooted in the Mississippi Delta
Delta blues
The Delta blues is one of the earliest styles of blues music. It originated in the Mississippi Delta, a region of the United States that stretches from Memphis, Tennessee in the north to Vicksburg, Mississippi in the south, Helena, Arkansas in the west to the Yazoo River on the east. The...
style, as he plays his dobro
Dobro
Dobro is a registered trademark, now owned by Gibson Guitar Corporation and used for a particular design of resonator guitar.The name has a long and involved history, interwoven with that of the resonator guitar...
guitar lap-style, lefthanded and backwards, with a slide
Slide guitar
Slide guitar or bottleneck guitar is a particular method or technique for playing the guitar. The term slide refers to the motion of the slide against the strings, while bottleneck refers to the original material of choice for such slides: the necks of glass bottles...
. While for decades typically an acoustic performer, with The Workers he has concentrated more on playing electric
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
.
In 1998, Homans met two Oklahoma State University philosophy professors, Doren Recker and Mike Rhodes, with whom he started a band called "Fried Okra Jones". This band went through several changes in personnel, including the blues woman Honour Hero Havoc, bass player, and guitarist "Texas" Ray Isom. In 1999, Homans recorded for the first time since 1973, an EP CD called "Fried Okra Jones". in 2002, Homans made his first national release for Southern Records, "Big Shoes to Fill", produced by his longtime musical colleague from Massachusetts, Chris Stovall Brown, with cousins Kyle and Adam Enevoldsen on drums and bass. A few months later, Homans had a serious heart attack, but bounced back quickly and continued to drive truck, hauling industrial waste, and in 2003, used his work vacation time to make his first international tour, a solo journey through southern England.
In 2004, Homans left this last truck driving job to go on tour with his supporting band, "the Workers". In 2005, Homans was nominated for the prestigious W. C. Handy Award
W. C. Handy Award
The Blues Music Awards are presented by the Blues Foundation, a non-profit organization set up to foster the blues and its heritage. The awards were started by the Blues Foundation in 1980, and are widely regarded as the highest honor for blues artists in the United States.The awards were formerly...
for "Best New Artist Debut", for his acoustic masterpiece CD, "Up Close and Personal", produced by Chris Hardwick. He and his band were also nominated for six more Handy Awards for 2006, in a variety of categories, and for a Maple Blues Award
Maple Blues Awards
The Maple Blues Awards are Canada’s blues awards, "honouring the finest in Canadian blues". They are the only comprehensive national best in blues awards program. The program's goal is to promote blues music across Canada, and to recognize outstanding achievement...
from the Toronto Blues Society
Toronto Blues Society
The Toronto Blues Society is a provincially funded Art Service Organization based in Toronto, Ontario. Founded in 1985, a Board of Directors governs the Society.BACKGROUND...
for the 2006 album Watermelon Slim and the Workers. In early 2007, Homans' "Watermelon Slim & The Workers" won in The 6th Annual Independent Music Awards
The Independent Music Awards
The Independent Music Awards is an international program that honors top-ranked independent artists and releases in more than 50 Album, Song, Music Video and Design categories....
for Best Blues Album. Watermelon Slim & The Workers were also nominated for Blues Album of the year for "THe Wheel Man" in the 7th annual Independent Music Awards
The Independent Music Awards
The Independent Music Awards is an international program that honors top-ranked independent artists and releases in more than 50 Album, Song, Music Video and Design categories....
.
In 2007, Homans made the CD "The Wheel Man", which was nominated for another six Blues Music Awards. at the awards ceremony in 2008, Homans and his band won the award for Best Blues Band of 2007, and "The Wheel Man" was awarded Best Blues CD of 2007. Besides that, Homans won the Maple Blues Award for B.B. King International Entertainer. "The Wheel Man" also was No. 1 Blues Album in England's Mojo Magazine blues CD poll for the second year in a row.
In 2008, The Workers recorded their third CD for Toronto's NorthernBlues record label, "No Paid Holidays". Homans was also inducted into the Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame at this time.
In 2009, this CD was nominated for another four Blues Music Awards, for a total of seventeen awards from the Blues Foundation. A few months later, "Escape From the Chicken Coop", Homans' first country-and-western CD recorded in Nashville with Paul Franklin, Darrell Scott and other top Nashville session players, was released on NorthernBlues. Future releases will include another Nashville record, reflecting Homans' North Carolina "Grand Ol' Opry" roots, an acoustic duo CD featuring Honour Havoc, and blues CDs with Mississippi bluesmen James "Super Chikan" Johnson and Robert "The Wolfman" Belfour.
Homans is a graduate of Lenox School for Boys
Lenox School for Boys
Lenox School for Boys was a New England preparatory school for students in grades 9-12 in Lenox, Massachusetts, USA established by the Protestant Episcopal Church of New England. It existed from 1926 under Rev. G. Gardner Monks, the school's first Headmaster until 1946. Then his successor, The Rev....
, a boarding school in Lenox, MA. Homans has a bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in journalism and history from the University of Oregon
University of Oregon
-Colleges and schools:The University of Oregon is organized into eight schools and colleges—six professional schools and colleges, an Arts and Sciences College and an Honors College.- School of Architecture and Allied Arts :...
, and a master's degree
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
in history from Oklahoma State University. Before dropping out to enlist in the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
he had attended Middlebury College
Middlebury College
Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college located in Middlebury, Vermont, USA. Founded in 1800, it is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges in the United States. Drawing 2,400 undergraduates from all 50 United States and over 70 countries, Middlebury offers 44 majors in the arts,...
. He came back home a fervent anti-war activist, and remains a member and supporter of Vietnam Veterans Against the War
Vietnam Veterans Against the War
Vietnam Veterans Against the War is a tax-exempt non-profit organization and corporation, originally created to oppose the Vietnam War. VVAW describes itself as a national veterans' organization that campaigns for peace, justice, and the rights of all United States military veterans...
.
Film Work
Watermelon Slim's music is featured in the 2009 environmental documentary Tar CreekTar Creek
Tar Creek is a feature-length environmental documentary about the Tar Creek Superfund Site, which at one time was considered the worst environmental disaster in the United States. The land within the perimeters of this environmental disaster was bad enough that the federal government bought out the...
, which is about the Tar Creek environmental disaster in Oklahoma. Music from Big Shoes to Fill, Up Close & Personal, plus a live version of "Oklahoma Blues" score this award-winning documentary by writer/director Matt Myers. Homans and Myers met while attending school together at Oklahoma State University.
Albums
- Merry Airbrakes (1973)
- Fried Okra Jones (1999)
- Big Shoes to Fill (2003)
- Up Close & Personal (2004)
- Watermelon Slim & the Workers (2006)
- The Wheel Man (2007)
- No Paid Holidays (2008)
- Escape From the Chicken Coop (2009)
- Ringers (2010)
- Watermelon Slim & Super Chikan Okiesippi Blues (2011)
External links
- Official site
- NorthernBlues Music Official Site
- Video of Watermelon Slim playing
- http://www.oregonquarterly.com/winter2009/web_extra_slim.php
- http://www.watermelonslim.com/PDF/Mojo.pdf
- http://www.watermelonslim.com/PDF/WSCDReviewBluesRevue2009.pdf
- Tar Creek Tar Creek Documentary website
- http://www.opednews.com/articles/Energy-Reconfiguration-for-by-William-P-Homans-110408-283.html
- http://www.opednews.com/articles/Merry-go-rounds-for-Our-Fu-by-William-P-Homans-110413-678.html
- http://www.vietnamsongbook.org/show_press.htm
- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1212060
- http://www.barrelhouseblues.com/watermelon_slim.htm
- http://www.watermelonslim.com/MP3/Oklahoman012005.pdf
- http://www.opednews.com/articles/How-Does-America-Retain-Fr-by-William-P-Homans-110404-773.html
- http://www.opednews.com/articles/Out-In-The-Garden-It-s-Ano-by-William-P-Homans-110517-488.html
- http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Real-Significance-of-t-by-William-P-Homans-110406-886.html
- http://www.opednews.com/articles/Call-It-Love-But-Please-D-by-William-P-Homans-110419-616.html
- http://www.opednews.com/articles/Fred-Karger--A-Gay-Republ-by-William-P-Homans-110427-527.html