The Ottawa Citizen Published:”Tuesday, December 11, 2007 Any farmer will tell you it takes warm, sunny weather to cultivate watermelons. But in the worldwide garden of blues, one of the juiciest new acts, Watermelon Slim, hails from a label with its roots in snowy Ottawa. Watermelon Slim is the stage name for William P. Homans, a toothless Vietnam vet with a master’s degree in journalism, who, according to his bio, picked up the name when he ran a watermelon farm.

His past two albums have come out on NorthernBlues Music, an independent record company specializing in blues. It’s owned by Montreal native Fred Litwin, a music fan who retired from the tech business in his early 40s and settled in a stately home in Ottawa. The CDs that line the walls of his basement represent the spectrum of his tastes, from Joan Armatrading to Frank Zappa.

The collection is organized in categories, including folk, country, jazz, classical, blues, rock, Jewish music, comedy and soul. Half of one shelf is devoted to copies of Watermelon’s latest, The Wheel Man, the latest success story in the seven-year history of NorthernBlues.

The swampy concoction looks at life from the matter-of-fact perspective of a grizzled bluesman, the razor-sharp lyrics accompanied by greasy sides of harmonica and guitar, with guest appearances by blues great Magic Slim and pianist extraordinaire David Maxwell. The disc was recently named blues album of the year by Mojo magazine, and is nominated for six Blues Music awards, including best album and band of the year. (Formerly the W.C.