Added: 5 years ago
From: Sp33dBr33d
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  • some really good stuff here

  • brilliant video

  • he is actually playing it the wrong way round its a lap style guitar for a right handed player,look closely the thiner string are towards him

  • love it

  • Who dislikes this?

  • just looked closer and yes he is playing a dobro in this one .his usual national is a real wreck but sound pretty good

  • slim doesnt play a Dobro.he plays a National which he plays on his lap

  • Shit version !

    I prefer original.

  • BB King was perturbed when only white people started showing up for his concerts; formerly the audience was virtually all black. Later he understood and was grateful for the business. Blacks had deserted the Blues for Motown, and BB King wouldn't even be known today if not for white listeners beginning to appreciate the genre.

  • it's a nam thing-

  • Anywone know why he is not playing the guitar in the usual posture?

  • @ArianeQube It's not a guitar, it's a lap dobro, and can only be played with a slide.

  • @Sp33dBr33d

    I beg to differ. Why isn't that a guitar?

  • @ArianeQube likely he's LEFT HANDED...plus hes playing lap steel style

  • wow !

    wicked !

    the tuning of his guitar ??

  • @faunoram Open G tuning. DGDGBD

  • @Sp33dBr33d

    thanks a lot !!

  • whiskey is the other missin ingredient, wit a little cheap wine n beer

  • This guy fucking rocks.

  • Good, but doesn't have the visceral power of Howling Wolf.  Great guitar technique, however.

  • Check out lots of Blues harmonica footage on "Blues Harmonica Player" Facebook page.

  • Absolutely amazing performance!

  • i posted this on FaceBook tonight :)

  • forgine my drunkin' misspellings :)

  • his biopic should be played by Tim Blake Nelson haha he looks like withered old version of him but in an amazing master craftsman of delta blues kinda way haha great movie it would make ( to say it like yoda) he's something else :)

  • Can we just dig the music and not make douchebag comments and insult each other. Thanks in advance.

  • Without a doubt, top-notch blues right here.

  • Hey I was at this show, did you get any footage of mike pickett and the amazing tim gibbons? please post it, if you did.

  • I am from Oklahoma City. Every once in awhile, Slim shows up, plays a couple shows, goes to a few jams, and then takes off again... it's somewhat mystical. If we're lucky, he tells us of his acquisition of wing tip alligator dress shoes from a trade on Beale Street in the few months prior. Four times he's spoken of this. Each time; different shoes. Slim is magic.

  • @satansprick13 back to the good old days of white presidents and black bluesmen then, my friend? i think i like these days just fine.

  • @satansprick13 "The Blues ain't nothin' but a good man feelin' bad, thinkin' 'bout the woman he once was with". You don't have to be black or any other colour. All modern popular music comes from The Blues; so by your absurd rationale, only black people can produce pop music - how bizarre! As for white ass killin' The Blues: er, Clapton, Butterfield, Vaughan, Kooper, Zappa, Beck, Shepherd, Lang, Bonnamassa, Allman, Winter, Healey, Wilson, Musselwhite, Rebennack, Baldry, etc. Defence rests.

  • @musiclover9361 John Mayall. No Clapton without him.

  • @musiclover9361 The Blues can be anythin' not only a good man feelin' bad, thinkin' 'bout the woman he once was with!

  • @musiclover9361 Wasn't that 1st part from "Crossroads"? I agree by the way.

  • @jharri1 It was indeed, spoken by Willie Brown to Eugene; Willie was quoting Son House but couldn't remember who said it.

  • WHen one man sits down with one guitar to do a set... magical things can happen. The starkness of one guitar and one vocal. especially one this powerful can almost be mesmerizing. It's super easy to be drawn in and spellbound by this performance.

  • he`s the real deal, he does not need a vocalist!, that would only suppress his creativity, thats the purpose!! this is a treat, another voice of the blues! and what i mean.. is when someone lives the blues and they can express it. you have the real thing, so he does not a singer!! he is the singer!! enjoy!

  • @mr.dalailamaknows. At least somebody knows, because you don't. This is a fine blues man with a fine and natural voice.

  • should get himself a singer, but he's still awesome and definitley has the blues

  • Comment removed

  • Nice to hear him honor The Wolf in his way (75% of the lyrics aren't those of Howlin' Wolf's song, but from other diverse traditional blues songs). Watermelon Slim has a nice rocking slide style. Currently (9/2010) a Viagra commercial runs Wolf's original "Smokestack Lightning" as background soundtrack, (Wolf wanted his images & music to be in ads. We took product shots during our famed photo-shoots. Also, a car commercial now runs Muddy Water's "Mannish Boy"

  • @howlingsandy Even Wolf himself constantly changed the lyrics as well. Just listen to the original, and then watch a video on here of him doing Smokestack Lightning. They're very different.

  • @WindyCityJazz Hello? I was being complimentary - beyond that, non-critical (for example, re slide: Mike Wilhelm, who taught Thorogood, is way better, if you wish to compare) Above all am accurate! Wolf, a CLOSE collaborative friend of mine in *many ways* (+ Arthur Crudup, Brownie McGhee) did NOT change the song. Some MINOR variances whether early 45 or concerts. Do you think I haven't seen all + MANY more? I have to just to fix infringement issues per my & Wolf's work. No need to "defend" WS

  • @howlingsandy I wasn't being defensive or attacking you in any way. Calm down, man.

  • @howlingsandy Actually, the song is based on earlier blues, such as Tommy Johnson's "Big Road Blues" (1928), the Mississippi Sheiks' "Stop and Listen Blues" (1930), and Charley Patton's "Moon Going Down" (1930). Wolf recorded it in 1951, as 'Crying At Daybreak'. It contains the line "O-oh smokestack lightnin', shinin', just like gold, oh don't you hear me cryin' ..." similar to the Mississippi Sheiks "A-ah, smokestack lightnin', that bell shine just like gold, now don't you hear me talkin'. ;-)

  • @musiclover9361 I know the songs. Crying At Daybreak=the version Sam Phillips sent to the Bihari brothers. Lots of that never out til bootlegged by Charly in the 70s. It's a variation of the one sent to Chess; the title change was intentional per that. I don't hear it based much on the listed songs but is influenced, per genre & some language but only up to a point. Sheiks/Patton both use lyric = "smokestack's black/bell shines like gold." "hear me talkin'"? (not "crying") was/is common slang

  • @howlingsandy I only wish there was more of the stuff readily available. I'm a sucker for Delta Blues myself.

  • @musiclover9361 I wrote one, which today only exists on an old-school not so well-mixed fan video (which I was given) from the "Harmonic Convergence" concert in 1986, performed by me singing and playing as unusual a harp sound as ever heard and classic delta slide played by Mike Wilhelm, one of the best at it these days when he wants to be, and I hope to post it to YouTube within 90 days. While not from the seminal era, it will be an instant classic LONG overdue (pathetic story) it's being known

  • God bless America.

  • I've made this gentlman dinner twice. the two times he played at the restaurant I work at he was phenomenal. Apart from that, he is one ofthe most intelligent people I believe I have ever met. He was awarded his Masters in History for a dissertation on the Oklahoma City Bombings. I wish I could read that essay and see his research. trucker, vet, activist, historian, scholar and BLUES MUSICIAN! I recommend reading his blog on his website.

  • Comment removed

  • saw him at calgary folk fest a while ago- he's got he chops and he's been the blues thx for posting!

  • Wow! This is the first time I've heard this guy. He rocks!

  • Hi; I also play left-handed but string for left since I was 16 . thanks .

  • Watermelon Slim and the Workers has been within arms reach in my car for the past 3 years. I don't foresee it moving anytime soon. Reminds me of my roots in Oklahoma.

  • Ive seen him 4 times in Sioux city IA..such a cool guy and is a fellow Vet

  • awesome....

  • Guy's an enigma. He seems to have been everywhere and done everything both good and bad. I heard he's even been in the pen a time or two.

  • I was at that show, sitting on the balcony upstairs. Alfie Smith opened for him if I remember correctly. One of the greatest shows I've been to...

  • First heard this guy a coupla years ago. Fuckin' amazing. Thanks for posting.

  • Super cool!!

  • Saw him in PIttsburgh few years ago, he's incredible !

  • great

  • just Great!!!

  • lefty player, strings aint lefty.... possessed..... no one can be this good....... brings tears to my eyes....... love it

  • @phippen45 I think that most times when you play slide like this the guitar is across your lap like that. Doesn't mean he plays lefty, only that he's playing a damn good slide.

  • slim is a wonderment

  • Great to get to see him at the Linton Feastival in June 2010

  • To all wannabes!!!!!!!!!! THIS IS HOW ITS DONE, Fantastic.

  • I had seen an ad for Slim on Facebook... Decided to listen to a podcast seeing as he was a trucker. Now I've found his videos and they are truly awe inspiring... I can't stop listening to this song... It's truly amazing

  • Heard him do Wreck on the Highway the other day totaly blew me away .Then came here and listened to alot of other versions Nobodys came as close to the honesty of his.Almost made me cry.

  • DAMN! That is some deep Blues! I've heard of him, but never actually heard him.

    That is the GOODS right there!

  • cause everybody funneh

    now you funneh too

  • @6stringedkiller Thanks mr. george

  • why is this in the "Comedy" catagory?!

  • Comment removed

  • the best ive heard for a long time i want moore of that one man gutarr sliding..

  • Thanks, perfectly done, magnificent music.

  • awesome sound

  • at your dumb ass comment theres a vialble option that they are rolling over

  • You can't fake this sound, you in fact, live it.

  • I NEED TO HEAR CATERPILLAR WHINE> WTF LOL Watermelon Slim IS Great

  • excellent...

  • Gold.5*

  • so sod he got rained out in st peter and had to play at a bar,slim,  brother please comeback!

  • man is this on any album of his?

  • @Riffalizer

    yeah, "Up Close And Personal"

    not nearly as good in my opinion

  • @ceepatton

    is it at different show, or is it a studio recording?

  • studio recording, and it's electric guitar

  • damm thats shity but i can just turn this into an mp3 and be good

  • I remember the first time I met Slim, it was 1998 in Stillwater Ok. At first I thought he was a homeless person, then he whipped out his harmonica and started playing the baddest shit I ever heard. One hell of a performer and all around great person.

  • Slim is indeed the real deal.

  • Anyone know the tuning? Is it D-G-D-G-B-D?

  • yup

  • Movie: Slingblade...nuff said.

    W.Slim rocks

  • lol, that's exactly what i thought!

  • a little Billy Bob Thronton. hmmmm, i want some french fried potatoes, uh hmmm

  • I love this song. slim is awesome. just a comment above, not serious

  • thats great thank you

  • why is the category comedy?

    not that it matters

  • because its funny how badass he is :P

  • amazing, and he tuning underneath is most likely correct, it's called open G and a lot of blues musicians use it. looking for my slide momentarily :D

  • mitikooooooooooooo

  • just have to say WOW!

  • Great.

  • correction: you might have a brain but no soul.

  • Authentic blues playing at its visceral best. If you don't feel compelled to howl and moan, well, perhaps you need a check up from the neck up.

  • Fellow Folk Fester! Dunno if you were on it but I caught the 1:30 shuttle out to winnipeg on sunday and slim was on it. 5 minutes in he started playin his harp and singing. I had my banjo on board and worked up the guts to play a song with him. Big night for me.

  • Jealous of that jam!

  • Just saw him at the Winnipeg Folkfest, was friggin amazing.

  • Hi thats strange - great -i like it -greetings from germany - winni

  • i wonder what tuning he's in

  • my stab at it is DGDGBD (low to high) however, would love to hear some other opinions if they're out there??

  • That singing makes me want to shoot myself.

  • My god... what an awesome song. Thanks Slim... So fucking beautiful.... Wolf would have loved this... Keep up the blues and ........

  • would've liked to hear him jammen with ..howlin wolf.. awsome tune

  • 10 STARS!

  • you can hear pain in that voice... a true blues player

  • He is playing a right handed guitar left-hand-lap-steel style. I've never seen that before. Great music too.

  • Yep, he's the real deal.

  • Met him at the Cushing, Oklahoma BBQ and Blues Festival a few years ago when he was still driving truck. Climbed on stage in his work clothes with a cheap guitar and a bucket full of harmonicas. Wowed the audience like no one before or since.......a real pleasure and a treat.......

  • robert johnson....Howlin wolf...and then

    Watermelon Slim!

  • this is what blues is all about. he has the the story, talent, and HEART that blues requires.

  • Great video Mr.Rob

  • this is good...what kind of slide do you preffer

  • I was lucky enough to see Watermellon Slim and Chris Stovall Brown about 3 months ago just outside Boston at a bar . I am amazed at his great voice that night and harp playing but then to find out he plays guitar like this is another treat.. I think that his voice reminds me a bit of Chris Youlden from the old Savoy Brown too...

  • Good stuff.. check out 'glass guitar pick' by Lambsbread

  • One of a kind..

  • category "comedy"??? what's that all about?

  • Really great.

    I can't wait to see the film.

  • one of the best smoke stack lightning covers

  • i actually liked it more than howlin' wolf. thats some fine blues right there.

  • I wouldn't go as far to say that, but yes, some fine blues.

  • WELL I WOULD SO TOO BAD!!!! lol jk

  • i seen he last year in italy and love it...

    Great tribute to Howlin Wolf!

    5 stars!

  • Fantastic real blues man - nothing faked up - no hobo look - real blues!

  • I really really like this, great!

  • Watermelon Slim rules, and he brings the blues to life!

  • Watermelon Slim got some good blues.

    murdock

  • He's actually a member of MENSA, too.

    Goes to show you can't judge a book by its cover, hm? :D

    DAMN, I love how he makes that dobro bark!

  • Wow that was just awsome! Next to Howlin' Wolf this has gotta be the best version of smokestack lightning I've ever heard.

  • man why have i never seen this guy before.. just heard him for the first time, and hes got me buzzin..

  • cool....

  • the best blues that was ever and will ever be made was made with a dobro i think im in heaven right now

  • WHERES HE FROM?

  • Oklahoma

  • great!!

  • watermelon and dallas

  • category

  • Y is it under the catergory:comedy?

  • Very, VERY, nice.

    Lil' Ian

  • Bloody hell!!!!

  • Right..very nice!..Thanks!

  • This my absolute favorite YouTube video. One of the best acoustic slide performances I've ever seen, and I've seen a bunch.

  • I just now noticed that he is left handed playing a right handed set up guitar...

  • This is the first line of the video description:

    This is Watermelon Slim - the only Oklahoma blues musician signed to a major label.

    lol.. clearly says where he's from...

  • Awesome. Just wondering. Anyone be able to tell me where this cat is from?

  • Going to see W/S tonite! Cant wait!!

  • Just saw him live!!

    Awesome preformance

  • I keep coming back to this video... what a fucking visceral performer.

  • just saw him play live an hour ago

  • The man has serious, serious talent. Thanks for sharing. Can't wait to see him play live.

  • Slim! Hey!! Hello from Badalona,Spain...here we are waiting for another of your maginific concerts...you're the best playing teh guitar... the best ive haven't saw never...

    so ROCK ON!! SLIM RULES!!!

  • Muchas gracias por me piensar, mis amigos espanoles!

    Sandi Delgado

  • Watermelon Slim & the Workers

    Appearing Sunday, August 3, at 8PM

    Front Row Bar & Grill

    4000 Emerson Avenue

    Parkersburg, WV  26104

    304-422-7655

    Advance Tickets $15

  • shit hot

  • Hi, can anyone help me in searching for a Watermelon Slim Song?

    I thought the song was Black Water, but the lyrics at the end say something about last words or famous last words.

    I know it's vague, but any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

  • 3:02-3:15, I feel that.

  • Holy shit, and i always feared the death of the real blues, this man just gave it the CPR it needed, get em slim, keep the soul on the steel.

  • Watermelon Slim is the real deal and I play him on my show regularly. He just received at least two awards as top dawg in the blues world. Nita T - Delta's Daughter Show

  • wonderful.

  • I've met him! I'm related to a family that he thanked in his latest album. he's such a laid back guy. his voice is so different too. good stuff.

  • i luv it its just ace

  • how the hell... im in awe at the sound of his guitar, AND he;s playing it lefty reversed?! wtf. how is he this good.

  • Just awesome *****

  • real delta blues served up fresh !!

  • Is he playing with a pick? That's pretty cool all the sounds he gets going all at the same time.