Watermelon Slim is William P. Homans III, a multi-award-winning singer/songwriter whose raw intensity pours out through his razor-sharp slide (a spark plug socket), soulful harp and passionate vocals, and whose nickname comes from his work on a watermelon farm many years ago. HeavyDrunk is Rob Robinson. Gritty vocals and soulful songs lead a superb nine-piece band that effortlessly blends blues, soul and musical creativity. The band’s name is credited to the legendary Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, speaking about Stevie Ray Vaughan one night at Antone’s in Austin: “Man, he’s a no-playin’ so-and-so … and a heavy drunk!”

Slim has released 14 albums; Robinson 11, and this is Rob’s fourth with HeavyDrunk. They joined forces for this session of original songs after Robinson and Slim first met in Clarksdale, MS. “Once I heard Slim play “Little Bighorn” I was blown away,” Robinson says. “He told me it had never been recorded, so I booked the studio and called the band!” Slim and HeavyDrunk then went on tour to the UK and Europe in 2024.

The raucous, horn-filled title track opens with an invitation to join the fun at Robinson’s original “Bluesland Theme Park,” looking through the glass darkly at what’s to come and what you never know you’ll find in this musical carnival: “Sneak down the alley with junky in the dark / at the bluesland theme park.” “New Wine” adds a chorus, including the iconic voice of Etta Britt, behind a funky beat with lyrics that make a spiritual point: “In the winners’ circle, pointing up to God / on the mountain top, pointing up to heaven / must be something to it, pointing up to god.” Slim’s “Little Bighorn” features his slide and laconic vocals 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.” A handclapping chorus and blue gospel harmony takes us to Delta church in “Church Bells (Little Zion)” by Robinson and Eddie Wilson: “Church bells ringing in the delta / Guiding lost souls through the night.”

The lilting melody of “Watermelon Girl” (no relation to Slim!), by Robinson and legendary songwriter, Tony Joe White (R.I.P.), offers a fruitful observation: “Watermelon girls make the world go round.” Slim slides in again with his observations about life on the road in “Road Food & Cheap Motels”-“I know them beds and I know them smells / Rolling down this highway while my song still sells.” The delicate balladry of “You Make Me Want To” offers a gentle take on unfulfilled desires: ‘You make me want to up and run astray / And leave the only one that was ever truly mine.” The foreboding rhythms of “Better Worser Too” surround cryptic observations: “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” with just his starkly eloquent acoustic guitar, then leads a chant-like “Australia” that is almost a capella, except for his mournful harp interlude, in an ode to the perils of the outback: “Now underneath the southern cross / Every man is his own boss / But you better take some water on the outback / Cause if you drink alkali know your gonna die….”

The closer, “Fresh,” with its chunky rhythms and backup singers, is a good old-fashioned R&B dance number with Motown overtones and a joyous message: “Hold steady baby, I’m focused and ready / Gonna lift you up and celebrate you.” Bluesland Theme Park combines the inventive music of Rob Robinson and Watermelon Slim for a trip through a portal into another musical dimension, filled with imaginative lyrical adventures spun on ethereal slide guitar moans and floating on brassy big-band carousels. Buckle up and enjoy the ride!

Jim White (a former music writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette & now writes the Blues Roadhouse)

BIOGRAPHY

Bill “Watermelon Slim” Homans is a multi-award-winning blues artist with a colorful past. Born in Boston and raised in North Carolina, he served in Vietnam, worked as a long-haul trucker, forklift operator, sawmiller, collection agent, funeral officiator, and firewood salesman. He got his blues monicker during a stint farming watermelon in Oklahoma. Never one to let the day-to-day grind suppress his dreams and creativity, Slim completed two undergraduate and a master’s degree, painted art, started a family and is a member of high IQ society Mensa. But his driving force has always been the blues; his blistering guitar playing, bottleneck guitar playing and raw intensity has brought international acclaim as an authentic practitioner of Delta Blues. Slim, now 75, resides in Clarksdale, MS.

A Louisiana-born, Mississippi-raised singer-songwriter and restaurateur with feet firmly planted in the dual worlds of classic – and decidedly Southern – music and food, Robinson was the longtime owner of multi-award-winning and historic Puckett’s Grocery and Restaurant in Leiper’s Fork, Tennessee, 45 minutes south of Nashville. Responsible for feeding the smoker at Puckett’s in order to serve up the restaurant’s distinctive, slow-cooked barbecue and other famed dishes, Robinson found a group of like-minded musicians to “smoke” onstage with a 9-piece blues and soul band as HeavyDrunk.