North Carolina steel lap howler Bill "Watermelon Slim" Homans broke through in the early '70s with the anti-Vietnam bullet Merry Airbrakes, bridging the gap between front-porch past and blue collar present. He soaked himself in as a truck driver for years before 180-ing into academia with a journalism degree and a masters in history, which, combined with a major heart attack, shifted his energy wholly into music in his latter years. That paved the way for his jabberjaw opus, Slim, in 2009 and the soundtrack to environmental documentary Tar Creek, both some of the finest pieces of modern blues in recent memory. (Gavin Paul)
