Sparky's celebrates 9 years with burgers and blues
The tradition of the blues will combine with the southern New Mexico tradition of green chile cheeseburgers when the Watermelon Slim Band performs in a free concert at Sparky's Burgers, BBQ and Espresso from 7 to 9 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 24.
It may seem surprising that Sparky’s — located in Hatch, New Mexico, about 40 miles north of Las Cruces — is only celebrating its 9th anniversary, as its World Famous Hatch Green Chile Cheeseburgers have become a foodie staple for the area.
“I’m just a guy having a blast with my family supporting me,” said Teako Nunn, owner of Sparky’s. “Most people used to know my name before (Sparky’s) got as busy as it is now. Now I’m just the old guy handing out sausages.
“But I hope that I do get to stay around for as long as I can,” he added.
Bill “Watermelon Slim” Homans can likely relate. He was 55 when he left a life of truck driving and hard labor to dedicate himself to music. Now in his late 60s, his lifetime of work has inspired him to create the soul-baring lyrics for his albums, most recently for this year’s “Golden Boy.”
Slim said when he is writing the blues, he is writing about four things: “Work, which is what I did for most of my life; relationships — and not teenager angst, but long-term relationships; mortality, which is a part of blues people aren’t ready to hear about, and my commitment to a bigger analysis, beyond how there is bottle of whiskey in my pocket,” he said.
Slim said he calls himself a geopolitical analyst.
“Wars and the conniving, and the lack of control by the United States people of what their government does gives me the blues worse than any bottle or any woman I’ve ever had,” he said.
Slim was born in Boston and raised in North Carolina, listening to the housekeeper sing John Lee Hooker songs. Slim attended Middlebury College in Vermont on a fencing scholarship but left early to enlist for Vietnam. While in a Vietnam hospital bed, he taught himself upside-down, left-handed slide guitar on a $5 balsawood model, using a triangle pick cut from a rusty coffee can top and his Army-issued Zippo lighter as the slide.
Slim eventually landed in his current home state of Oklahoma, farming watermelons, which gave him his stage name.
According to Slim’s biography, his first appearance on the music scene was back in 1973 with his album “Merry Airbrakes,” a protest of the Vietnam war. The jobs rattled off on his resume are vastly different, including truck driver, forklift operator, sawmiller (where he lost a partial finger), firewood salesman, collection agent and funeral officiator. But all of those professions had one thing in common: a backbreaking element (or partial finger-stealing, as was the case in the sawmill gig).
Even though his music tends to lean towards the sadder topics in life, the blues still brings Slim joy.
“I’m an evolutionary existentialist,” he said. “I still have not made final my disbelief that the human species can’t evolve. The world can still be saved by people who look to the universe and find a way to evolve and stop certain things while acquiring a different consciousness.”
Slim said he has hope for all the young musicians he works with and continues to join other musicians to “play upstream.”
“I play music, not just to make a living, but to actually say something,” he said. “I am given joy by the fact that there will be people there who are listening for the same thing.”
Nunn said he encourages everyone to attend the free concert and anniversary celebration.
“We’re just throwing a big party and want everyone to enjoy the music,” he said.
Cassie McClure is a freelance writer and may be reached at cassiemcclure@gmail.com.
If you go
What: Watermelon Slim at Sparky’s 9th anniversary celebration
Where: 115 Franklin St., Hatch, New Mexico
When: 7-9 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 24. Doors open at 6 p.m.
Cost: Free
Info: sparkysburgers.com