 Watermelon Slim SOLD OUT!In December 2006 Watermelon Slim garnered a record-tying six 2007 Blues Music Award nominations for Artist, Entertainer, Album, Band, Song, and Traditional Album of the Year. Only the likes of B.B. King, Buddy Guy and Robert Cray have ever landed six nominations. Slim has again received six nominations this December for the 2008 Blues Music Awards! Slim’s 2006 self-titled release was ranked #1 in MOJO Magazine's 2006 Top Blues CDs, won the 2006 Independent Music Award for Blues Album of the Year, hit #1 on the Living Blues Radio Chart, debuted at #13 on the Billboard Blues Radio Chart ahead of both Robert Cray and North Mississippi Allstars, and won the Blues Critic Award for 2006 Album of the Year.
Bill “Watermelon Slim” Holman was born in Boston and raised in North Carolina listening to his maid sing John Lee Hooker and other blues songs around the house. His father was a progressive attorney and ex-freedom rider and his brother is now a classical musician. Slim dropped out of Middlebury College to enlist for Vietnam. While laid up in a Vietnam hospital bed he taught himself upside-down left-handed slide guitar on a $5 balsawood model using a triangle pick cut from a rusty coffee can top and his Army issued Zippo lighter as the slide. In the following 30 plus years Slim has been a truck driver, forklift operator, sawmiller (where he lost part of his finger), firewood salesman, collection agent, and even officiated funerals. At one point he was forced to flee Boston where he played peace rallies, sit-ins and rabble roused musically with the likes of Bonnie Raitt. He ended up farming watermelons in Oklahoma - hence his stage name and current home base. Somewhere in those decades Slim completed two undergraduate degrees in history and journalism, a masters degree in history from OSU, and became a member of Mensa. “Watermelon Slim and the Workers have been a huge hit at Summer Breeze Concerts the past two summers.” says Nancy McClellan, PAS Executive Director. “Don’t miss this opportunity to hear Slim solo. You won’t be disappointed.” For additional concert information, or to purchase tickets, contact The Performing Arts Studio at 405-307-9320. PAS office hours in the Norman Depot are Tuesday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM, and Sunday from 1:00 to 5:00. Tickets can also be purchased through okctickets.com buy clicking on the "Buy Now" button above. For additional information on Watermelon Slim, visit http://www.watermelonslim.com/. Winter Wind Concerts are made possible in part by grants from: Norman Arts Council; Norman Chamber of Commerce Arts Grants; Oklahoma Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. Sponsors include Tom McAuliffe: Don Cies Real Estate; Mark and Theresa Marsee, Avante Skin Care; and Nancy McClellan. Contributors include Skye Diers: Gingerbread Kindergarten and Nursery School, and Friends Becky Grider and Danna Primm. |
