Watermelon Slim And The Workers visited Cartoons on April 12, bringing his Mississippi Delta styleof blues to Springfield. His specialties are harmonica and the slide guitar. Watermelon Slim, whose real name is Bill Homans has been performing since the 70's and has shared the company of several notable blues musicians, including John Lee Hooker, Robert Cray, Bonnie Raitt, Champion Jack Dupree, "Country" Joe McDonald. Watermelon Slim and The Workers were nominated for six awards at the Blues Music Awards this year, winning "The Blues Album of The Year" for "The Wheel Man" and "The Blues Band of The Year."

Slim was born in Boston and raised in North Carolina. He enlisted for Vietnam where he was injured. He taught himself upside-down left-handed slide guitar while laid up in a Vietnam hospital bed. Returning home an fervent anti-war activist, he had a variety of vocations including truck driving where many of his songs began while singing in his rig to keep him awake and entertained. He ended up farming watermelons in Oklahoma where he picked up his stage name Watermelon Slim.

An avid storyteller, his blues performances are interlaced with interesting tales from his storied past. If you didn't catch this concert, you missed an extremely entertaining evening and a true old-school blues artist.