Artpark Singing Big-Time Blues On August 6!

(Lewiston, NY)  Artpark presents a double-dose of incredible blues music on August 6 as Walter Trout, the ex-Bluesbreakers leader, pairs up with slide guitar phenom Watermelon Slim to co-headline the venue's "Wednesdays on the Gorge" free outdoor concert series, presented by HSBC Bank and HSBC Mortgage Corporation.  All of Artpark's free concert events begin at 6:30pm and include hands-on art workshops for children.

The evening's concert sponsor is FCS Administrators.

WATERMELON SLIM

Born in North Carolina, raised in Boston, Bill ‘Watermelon Slim' Homans was schooled at Middleberry College until he enlisted in Vietnam. While laid up in an Army hospital he taught himself upside down left handed guitar with his military issued Zippo as a slide and a plastic pick cut from the top of a coffee can. He has been a truck driver, watermelon farmer, sawmiller, funeral officiator and small time criminal. He's earned two masters degrees in history and journalism and hauled industrial waste. In the early 2000s, a near fatal heart attack clarified his focus on mortality and he hit the road on a new career as a singing/songwriting/guitar playing/harmonica blowing/ performing bluesman.

In 2008 Slim was nominated for six Blues Music Awards (formerly W.C. Handy Awards), a feat matched only by the likes of B.B. King, Buddy Guy, and Robert Cray. Slim has twelve nominations in the last two years, a feat unmatched in the event's 29 years.  Additionally, the U.K.'s MOJO Magazine ranked Slim's last two records #1 on its annual "Best Blues Albums of the Year" list.

WALTER TROUT

New Jersey-born blues-rocker Walter Trout spent decades as an ace sideman, playing guitar behind the likes of John Lee Hooker, Big Mama Thornton, and Joe Tex. In 1981, he was also tapped to replace the late Bob Hite in Canned Heat, remaining with the venerable group through the middle of the decade. While filling in one night for an ailing John Mayall, Trout (also a Bluesbreaker for some five years) was spotted by a Danish concert promoter who agreed to finance a solo tour. Assembling his own backing band, in 1990 he released his debut LP, Life in the Jungle, trailed a year later by Prisoner of a Dream. Albums including 1992's Live (No More Fish Jokes), 1994's Tellin' Stories, and 1997's Positively Beale Street followed.

Trout continued a steady release schedule, issuing Livin' Every Day in 1999, a live album the following year (recorded at the Tampa Bay Blues Fest), the 2001 studio album Go the Distance, 2003's Relentless - which Trout and his band, the Radicals, recorded in front of a live audience - and 2005's Deep Trout, a compilation of early and unreleased recordings. On the 2006 release Full Circle, Trout realized his dream of creating an album with some of his most admired musicians, including John Mayall, Coco Montoya, and Joe Bonamassa, among others.

Trout co-headlined an Artpark blues bill last July with Coco Montoya.

EVENT DETAILS

Like all of Artpark's free concert events, each evening includes a wide variety of free family-friendly hands-on art workshops, including drawing, face-painting, dress-up, self portraits and more.

"Wednesdays on the Gorge" is also supported by Certo Brothers Distributing Company, Modern Corporation, the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation and the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission. 

Artpark's Outdoor Amphitheater opens to the public at 2pm on event nights, and can be accessed via the Upper Park's Portage Road entrance off of Center Street or through South 4^th Street nearest the Mainstage Theater.

Carry-ins (food and beverages) are prohibited at all of Artpark's free concert events while on-site parking is .

For a full schedule of 2008 events, call the Artpark Box Office at (716) 754-4375 or visit artpark.net.

The Earl W. Brydges Artpark is being operated by Artpark & Company, Inc. for the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation under a license agreement.

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