Ah, to have a nom de musique like Watermelon Slim. Better yet, to have a new blues album that's as rough and ready as Slim's latest, "The Wheel Man" (NorthernBlues Music), released today.

It's Slim's follow to last year's "Watermelon Slim and the Workers," which has six 2007 Blues Music Awards nominations lined up for next month's Blues Awards.

It's also full of take-no-prisoners vocals and slide guitar that create a primitive backdrop for contemporary blues tales that Slim makes you believe could well be his life story. And they could be. His bio includes a stint in Vietnam (where better to have gotten the blues?), and jobs as a truck driver, forklift operator and an Oklahoma watermelon farmer -- which was where Bill Homans became Watermelon Slim and where he still calls home.

I know he's been around for years, cutting his first album as a recently returned and anti-war Vietnam vet, but he didn't really begin to record until a few years ago, turning the truck-driving theme of his life into the double-clutching blues mantra you can hear on this excellent CD.

The first and title track is a great example. Slim grabs the metaphorical wheel at the beginning and never takes his eyes off the road of music ahead. [Listen to a clip of Wheel Man]

Not that these are all just wheel-man songs. They are all tough blues sung in Slim's gravelly, southern-honed voice, covering the blue spectrum from big wheels through the Delta to lusty thought mingled with blue notes.

He plays slide guitar, harp and dobro, all with the feeling good blues demands. You can bathe in the harp on "I've Got News" and catch the heat of the slide on "Black Water," among other tracks.

"Got Love If You Want It" almost makes you forget the swampy Slim Harpo original.

One particular track, "Newspaper Reporter," caught my ear, having done that job myself. It's the sad tale of a reporter whose editor wants him to drink water on the job, and not beer, and Slim takes umbrage. [Listen to a clip from Newspaper Reporter]

Magic Slim does vocal and guitar turns on "The Wheel Man," and piano guy David Maxwell contributes bluesy keyboards.

There's much more of interest in Slim's life: His blue-collar work history, his university degrees, his truck-driving days -- check his elaborate Web site.

Or you can just enjoy this great "new" blues artist.