Watermelon Slim was born in Boston and raised in North Carolina listening to his maid sing John Lee Hooker and other blues songs around the house. 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, collection agent, and even officiated funerals. He ended up farming watermelons in Oklahoma – hence his stage name. Last year 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. His 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, and won the Blues Critic Award for 2006 Album of the Year. His most recent album, The Wheel Man, was released last April and hit #1 on the Living Blues Radio Charts, #2 on the Roots Music Blues Charts and debuted in the Top 10 in Billboard's Blues charts. If these reviews and awards are any indication, Watermelon Slim may have finally settled in on his chosen vocation.

www.watermelonslim.com