Golden Boy

Watermelon Slim is a singer, guitarist and songwriter from Oklahoma. He's lived a varied life, including serving in the Vietnam War, is politically active and loosely might be called a blues musician. But that's like saying Bob Dylan's a folk singer – across this excellent album Slim demonstrates an extraordinary ability to express himself in blues, country, folk, gnarly roots rock and even a sea shanty. Which is to say that Slim is soaked in vernacular music and his songs reflect a broken, angry US – in ‘WBCN’ he decries the US media's glorification of the alt-right, then recalls fighting American Nazis in Miami in 1972. ‘Mean Streets’ reflects on those left at the bottom of society, ‘Wolf Cry’ laments the destruction of the natural world, ‘Winners of Us All’ is pure working-class anger, while ‘Dark Genius’ is a homage to the late presidents Kennedy and Sadat. Slim is backed by a fluid band, capable of both acoustic and electric work-outs, but always with a light touch. Golden Boy is that rarity: a contemporary US artist making truly essential music.