HeavyDrunk with Watermelon Slim

Bluesland Theme Park

Independent

With a band name evocative of thick dizzying vibes, the Nashville based blues-soul HeavyDrunk continues to solidify their reputation. The nine-piece group’s name originated from blues icon Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, later relayed to HeavyDrunk frontman Rob Robinson, when he called a no-playin’ so-and-so…a heavy drunk. The players who contribute to the HeavyDrunk sound create their own intoxicating blend of musical flavors including Mississippi Delta blues, rousing gospel, sultry soul, and muscular rock ‘n’ roll. Robinson’s feet are planted in the dual worlds of Southern music and food, as he is also the owner of the award winning “Puckett’s Grocery and Restaurant” in Leiper’s Fork, Tennessee, 45 minutes south of Nashville.

William P. Homans III a.k.a. Watermelon Slim was born in Boston but raised in North Carolina where he first heard the blues. He rejected his family’s career aspirations and served in Vietnam. When he returned home in 1973 he became involved in “Vietnam Veterans Against the War” and recorded an anti-war album called “Merry Airbrakes”. Homans worked as a forklift driver, newspaper reporter, watermelon farmer and truck driver, while learning to play guitar and harmonica. He once “said that watermelons were the one crop on which he never lost money”. He recorded again in 1999 with his then band “Fried Okra Jones”. Homan’s first national release under the name Watermelon Slim was 2002’s “Big Shoes To Fill”, and we will refer to him going forward with his new alias. Slim followed up with 2004’s “Up Close and Personal”, with his band now called The Workers, featuring fourteen new originals and four covers, resulting in a 2005 Blues Music Award nomination for “Best New Artist Debut”. 2007’s self-titled “Watermelon Slim and The Workers” received six additional nominations in multiple categories. Finally, also in 2007, his album “The Wheel Man” received six more nominations this time winning for both “Album of The Year” and “Band of The Year”.

“Bluesland Theme Park” is the title track written by Robinson who sings “come on down, come on down, to Bluesland theme park, sneak down the alley with Junky in the dark”, as the horn filled narrative invites the listener to join the fun at this music carnival. “New Wine” adds the voice of Etta Britt “in the winner’s circle, pointing up to God, on the mountain top, pointing up to heaven, must be something to it, pointing up to God”.

“Little Big Horn” is the first of four songs on which we get to hear the slide guitar, and vocal of Watermelon Slim on a philosophical lament, “well I’ve had some bottles, and I’ve had some women, but the bottles get empty, and the women drift away”. “Church Bells (Little Zion), written by vocalist Robinson and Eddie Wilson, feature the lyric “Church bells ringing in the delta, guiding lost souls through the night”.

“Watermelon Girl” was written by vocalist Robinson and the late legendary Tony Joe White, included are steel drums giving the song a beautiful islandly sound, “Watermelon girls make the world go round”. My favorite “Road, Food & Cheap Motels” once again features Slim on this reflection about life on the road, “I know these beds and I know them smells, rolling down this highway while my song still sells”.

“You Make Me Want To”, is a take on unfulfilled desires “you make me want to up and run astray, and leave the only one, that was ever truly mine”, once again with the beautiful voice of Etta Britt. “Better Worser Too” is a foreboding tale, “Voodoo woman and the preacher looked in his bible, shook their heads, looked down at me and you, washed their hands in holy water, for better worser too”.

Slim reprises “Little Bighorn” from an earlier album “with my hand on the wheel as I roll”. On “Australia”, the last of the songs with Slim, we get to hear him play some mournful harmonica, as he croons “now underneath the southern cross, every man is his own boss, but you better take some water on the outback, cause if you drink ‘alkall’, know your gonna die…”

The closer “Fresh”, is a good old fashioned R ‘n’ B dance number, “hold steady baby, I’m focused and ready, gonna’ lift you up and celebrate you”.

“Watermelon Slim” is a multi-award winning blues artist with a colorful past. Robinson, leader of HeavyDrunk, is a singer-songwriter with his feet firmly grounded. Together they find a group of like-minded musicians and “smoke” on this well-crafted “Bluesland Theme Park” collaboration.

Richard Ludmerer
Contributing Editor/Making A Scene

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