Bill "Watermelon Slim" Homans has built a remarkable reputation with his raw and passionate intensity. HARP Magazine wrote, "From the sparkling slide guitar to the crisp harmonica sound to the raspy, resonant Okie twang, Slim delivers a deeply personal blues with both hands on the wheel of life, a bottle

of liquor in his pocket, and the Bible on the passenger seat. Paste Magazine wrote, "He's a terrific

bottleneck guitarist, and he's got that scream in his voice that only the greatest singers of the genre have had before him."

Slim was born in Boston; his father was a progressive lawyer and a Freedom Rider, while his brother is a classical musician. He grew up in North Carolina listening to his housekeeper sing John Lee Hooker songs, but left early to enlist in Vietnam, where, while hospitalized, he taught himself to play the left-handed slide guitar upside-down using a pick made from the cap of a soda can. rusty coffee pot and an Army-issue Zippo lighter as a slide. He first appeared on the music scene with the only known protest record by a Vietnam War veteran, a protest-influenced 1973 LP featuring songs that Country Joe McDonald would later cover.

Over the next 30 years, Slim worked as a truck driver, forklift operator, sawmill worker (where he partially lost a finger), firewood salesman, debt collector, funeral director, and, at times, a petty criminal. Because of these crimes, Slim was forced to flee Boston, where he had held peace rallies, sit-ins, and stirred up trouble with artists such as Bonnie Raitt. Recently, during a performance in the summer of 2009, Raitt had

called him a living legend of the blues. From Boston, Slim landed in Oklahoma, growing watermelons—hence his stage name—where he completed two undergraduate degrees and a master's degree, and enrolled in Mensa, the group reserved for people with particularly high IQs.

In 2002, Slim suffered a near-fatal heart attack, which gave him a new perspective on mortality, direction, and life ambitions, marking his second ascent as a musician. Eleven albums later, he states: "Everything I do now has a more intense pleasure. I've lived a fuller life than most people could live in two. If I left now, I'd have a good education, I've lived on three continents, and I've played with a group of immortal bluesmen. I've fought in a war and against a war. I've seen a lot and I've done a lot. If my plane crashed tomorrow, I'd come out on top."

And when you watch him perform, you know every word is true.

About him

2021 Blues Music Awards – 42nd Annual Acoustic Blues Album ‘Traveling Man’

2020 Blues Music Awards – 41st Annual Album of the Year ‘Church of the Blues’ and Traditional

Blues Album ‘Church of the Blues’

2011 Blues Music Awards – 32nd Annual Best Blues DVD Live at Ground Zero Blues Club /

Watermelon Slim & The Workers

2009 Blues Music Awards – 30th Annual B.B. King Entertainer of the Year, Band of the Year,

Contemporary Blues Album of the Year ‘No Paid Holidays’. Contemporary Blues Male Artist of the

Year

2008 Blues Music Awards – 29th Annual Album of the Year, B.B. King Entertainer of the Year,

Band of the Year. Contemporary Blues Album of the Year ‘The Wheel Man’, Contemporary Blues

Male Artist of the Year,Song of the Year ‘The Wheel Man’

2007 Blues Music Awards – 28th Annual Album of the Year, B.B. King, Entertainer of the Year,

Band of the Year, Song of the Year ‘Hard Times’, Band of the Year ‘Watermelon Slim & the

Workers’, Traditional Blues Male Artist of the Year

2005 W.C. Handy Blues Awards – 26th Annual Best New Artist Debut ‘Up Close & Personal’

2009 Blues Blast Music Awards - Best Blues Band

2008 Blues Blast Music Awards - Best Contemporary Blues Recording, Best Blues Song

Blues Review Magazine Awards January 1, 2010 #19 On Best 25 Blues CDs Of The Decade –

Watermelon Slim & The Workers (self-titled 2006)

Blueswax Awards 2007 Artist of the Year - Album of the Year

Blueswax Awards 2006 Artist of the Year - Album of the Year

Cascade Blues Association Muddy Awards 2006 National Recording of Year

Independent Music Awards – Music Resource Group 7th Annual Independent Music Awards,

Album of the Year

6th Annual Independent Music Awards, Album of the Year, Best Blues Song – Hard Times

2008 Making a Scene Magazine 2020 Independent Blues Awards Best Blues Acoustic CD –

Traveling Man

Toronto Blues Society - 2008 Maple Blues Awards International Artist of the Year

2006 Maple Blues Awards - BB King International Artist Award

Mojo Magazine - 2007 Mojo Magazine - #1 Blues Album of the Year – The Wheel Man

2006 Mojo Magazine - #1 Blues Album of the Year – Watermelon Slim & The Workers

Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame - Watermelon Slim Inducted May 26, 2007

Roots Music Association Awards - 2008 Roots Music Association Awards - Artist of the Year

Italian/European booking:

Massimo Bevilacqua - blues@inwind.it - +393939151013

NEW ALBUM OUT ON APRIL 3rd 2026

"On the Edge but in the Groove"

( sacred ground session )

STAY TUNED !!!