[Harp-L] An evening with Watermelon Slim

[David Payne <dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Watermelon Slim put on an awesome show in Marietta, Ohio Saturday. Awesome. He was using the house's sound, they had wireless, he took full advantage of it, he walked around in the crowd while he played harp and sang to people. You might be seeing more of that of shows, he said he loved being able to do that and he was looking at going wireless himself. 

I hadn't seen him in a couple years. I got to hang out with him some before and quite a while after the show.  It was awesome to see him again.  I'd rather sit down and talk to him than just about any human being on earth, cause not only is he a wonderful guy and a great bluesman, he's a very deep, educated individual. We sat around talking, in our Appalachian drawls (his is NC, mine WV) about harps, fishing, baseball, moonshine whiskey, God, our own mortalities, history, Hemmingway and Shakespeare. He's going to Denmark this week, so we talked some about Europe, I told him to make sure he checks out the Museum Erotica museum of sex (a must-see) in Copenhagen, etc.
 
We were talking about Shakespeare's "King Henry V"  and he says out of the blue: "Would you like to hear a sonnet I wrote on the occasion of the death of the Queen Mother?" 
Of course, I said "hell yeah!" He recited his sonnet from memory, it traced the Queen Mother's life from the days she and England stood alone against Hitler to her death and England's mourning, etc. It reminded me of that sonnet Shakespeare wrote about Queen Elizabeth's death (my googling says it was Sonnet CVII), only, and I don't say this lightly, I think Watermelon's sonnet was a mite better. 

He finished his sonnet, looked off to the side and said "I specialize in iambic pentameter."
 I will remember Watermelon saying that, in a voice that sounded half Sir Lawrence Olivier and half Gabby Hayes, until the day I die. 


I put up some pics I took and a video of a Watermelon harp solo. You might have to click the play button on the media bar to get it started.
www.elkriverharmonicas.com/watermelon

I also came across this video on You Tube of Watermelon that is very good:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lqxj1yjXWS0


Dave Payne
_________________
Dave Payne 
Elk River Harmonicas
www.elkriverharmonicas.com