Blues

Watermelon Slim & The Workers- Bull Goose Rooster (2013)

2013-08-04T13:48:12Z

Watermelon Slim & The Workers- Bull Goose Rooster (2013)


01. Tomorrow Night
02. Bull Goose Rooster
03. Over The Horizon
04. Vigilante Man
05. A Wrench In The Machine
06. I'm A King Bee
07. Prison Walls
08. Blue Freightliner
09. Scratch My Back
10. I Ain't Whistling Dixie
11. Take My Mother Home
12. The Wobble
13. Trucking Class
14. Northwest Passage
15. The Foreign Policy Blues
16. Words Are Coming To An End

Musicians:
Watermelon Slim - Acoustic Slide Guitar, Dobro, Handclapping, Harmonica, Vocals
Cliff Belcher - Bass (Electric), Vocals
Ike Lamb - Guitar (Electric)
Ronnie "Mack" McMullen - Guitar (Electric), Handclapping, Vocals
Michael Newberry - Arranger, Drums, Handclapping, Percussion, Vocals
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Dennis Bobycki - Piano
Doctor Lacumba - Gong
Fred Litwin - Handclapping, Vocals (Background)
Gary Nicholson - Guitar (Acoustic)
Danielle Schnebelen - Duet, Vocals

Watermelon Slim hasn't worked with his backing band the Workers since 2008, so this 2013 reunion is something of a big deal, and the old bluesman treats Blue Goose Rooster as something of an event. During his time away from his backing band, Slim cut some country, so he uses this lengthy album to consolidate all of his musical interests, dabbling in that driving hardcore country, but also old-fashioned folk hollers, Woody Guthrie covers, a bit of gospel, and a whole lot of hard-charging roadhouse blues which, of course, is the Workers' forte. As that high-octane blues kicks off the record, it first seems that Blue Goose Rooster covers familiar ground, but by the time Slim is duetting with Trampled Under Foot's Danielle Schnebelen on the skeletal "Over the Horizon," it's clear that Slim is taking chances. At times, his grizzled, toothless, close-miked voice can be somewhat wearying -- it is not as versatile as his music -- but it's hard to deny the restlessness and adventure that drives Watermelon Slim, nor is it impossible to acknowledge the element that the Workers bring to the equation on the varied Bull Goose Rooster. --- Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi

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Watermelon Slim & The Workers - Bellinzona Switzerland 2006

2010-01-24T22:27:29Z

Watermelon Slim & The Workers - Bellinzona Switzerland 2006


01 - Hard Times 05:13 
02 - Truck Driving Mama 02:59 
03 - I'm a blues man (?) 08:10 
04 - Black Water 07:12 
05 - The Ashtray's Full 04:35 
06 - The Devil's Cadillac 05:21 
07 - Tomorrow Night 08:29 
08 - The Wheel Man 05:38 
09 - The Oklahoma Blues 06:00 
encore 
10 - Would you like to go riding (?) 04:10 


Watermelon Slim: vocals, harp, slide guitar 
Ronnie Mack: guitar 
Cliff Belcher: bass (and cigs) 
Michael Newberry: drums

This was the first concert by WS & W on the old continent, they were supposed to play Rome the previous night but the gig never happened due to many circumstances. Watermelon makes up a great stage show, he can hardly stand still a second, even while soloing on the slide guitar.

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Watermelon Slim and the Workers - No Paid Holidays (2008)

2009-10-30T13:10:10Z

Watermelon Slim and the Workers - No Paid Holidays (2008)


   1. Blues For Howard
   2. Archetypal Blues No. 2
   3. Call My Job
   4. Dad In The Distance
   5. You're The One I Need
   6. Bubba's Blues
   7. And When I Die
   8. Into The Sunset
   9. Gearzy's Boogie
  10. This Travelling Life
  11. Max The Baseball Clown
  12. The Bloody Burmese Blues
  13. I've Got a Toothache
  14. Everybody's Down On Me

Musicians:
Watermelon Slim - Vocals, harmonica, electric and acoustic dobro slide guitar, percussion, co producer.
Michael Newberry - Drums, percussion, vocals, song arrangements.
Cliff Belcher - Electric Bass, vocals
Ronnie "Mack" McMullen - Electric and acoustic guitars, vocals.
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Lee Roy Parnell - Electric slide guitar on "Bubba's Blues"
David Maxwell - Acoustic piano, Tracks 1 & 6.

Watermelon Slim has a fresh contemporary vision of country blues, a personal one that still allows listeners to feel right at home, and while he hasn't varied his approach too much over the course of his past couple of albums (No Paid Holidays is his third release for Northern Blues), what he does fits and works so well that that's undoubtedly a good thing. Here he hits his usual touchstones, pounding out a couple of full-tilt blues-rockers, shining on slide guitar, stripping things down on occasion for one of his unique "hollers." There aren't really any surprises, but again, that's fine. Well, actually, hearing Slim's stripped-down harmonica version of Laura Nyro's "And When I Die" is a bit of a surprise, and a delight at that. Also a delight is the slide guitar bonanza of "Bubba's Blues," which features guest slide guitarist Lee Roy Parnell and Slim tearing the rafters down. Slim's sharp narrative sense emerges on "Max the Baseball Clown," which conjures long-ago boyhood summers while the opener, "Blues for Howard," contains the remarkable line "You can't stay neutral on a moving train." The blues is such a conservative genre in so many ways, depending on familiar progressions and purposely clichéd sentiment to convey universal emotions. Watermelon Slim manages to work within that framework and still somehow make it all seem hushed and personal, even intimate. It's not an easy line to walk, but he does it as well as anyone currently on the contemporary blues scene. No Paid Holidays may not cut into any new territory, but it doesn't really have to because what this guy does is wonderfully solid right where it is. ---Steve Leggett, Rovi

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