Rating:
Genre:
Blues
Release Date: 02/14/2006
You could see this one coming.
Watermelon Slim's last album, 2004's sparse and arresting
Up Close & Personal, revealed a contemporary bluesman with a scholar's understanding of the genre and a truly skewed, passionate approach to performing it that hinted at even deeper possibilities.
Watermelon Slim & the Workers is the payoff. The sound on this record (which was produced by
Chris Wick, who also plays bass on one of the tracks) is simply huge, and yet
Slim's songs and field holler vocals keep it all appropriately intimate, making this release one of the best
contemporary blues albums in years. On the surface
Slim (his real name is
Bill Homans) seems always to be working on the edge of parody, but this ex-truck driver who is also a member of MENSA (and owns several university degrees) is after bigger things. His passion for the
blues makes these songs pulse with a
gospel-like joy and intensity, and his new band
the Workers gives him the kind of raggedly perfect backdrop to make it all slam home. Beginning with the opener, the shuffling and stomping
"Hard Times," things never let up through the loose-limbed
"Dumpster Blues," the spooky
"Devil's Cadillac" (which sounds a bit like a revamped take on
Screamin' Jay Hawkins'
"I Put a Spell on You"), the revealing and convincing
"Bad Sinner," and the rolling rhythms of
"Juke Joint Woman." One of the highlights on an album that is filled with them is a version here of
Fred McDowell's
"Frisco Line," which
Slim and company tackle like they're on a careening
blues train, and while
Slim isn't quite the fluid slide guitar player that
McDowell was, he's still darn good. This remarkable set is capped off by the closing
"Eau de Boue," which outlines
Slim's passionate devotion and commitment to the
blues, and since he is perhaps the smartest ex-truck driver to ever sing this stuff,
Slim sings it in French, maybe just because he can. For
Watermelon Slim the
blues isn't so much a musical genre as it is a calling, and beyond that, a shot at redemption. This guy is the real deal, and this is a great album.
~Steve Leggett, All Music Guide
;)
Listen
