Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Doc Watson V1

DOWNLOAD/LISTEN 

1) IN>
2) Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down/Doc Watson (guitar & vocals) – 12/31/61 – Deep Gap Tapes 
3) Dream of the Miner’s Child/Doc Watson (guitar & vocals) – 5/17/63 – Ashegrove/LA, CA 
4) Peach Pickin’ Time in Georgia/Doc Watson (guitar & vocals) – 6/21/69 – Bean Blossom Workshop 
5) Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad/Doc & Merle Watson – 8/22/69 – Philly Folk Festival 
6) Blackjack County Chain/Doc & Merle Watson – 3/1/73 – Lisner Auditorium/Washington, DC 
7) Country Blues/Doc & Merle Watson – 4/27/74 – Marin County Bluegrass Festival 
8) Deep River Blues/Doc Watson & Merle Travis – 1976/Walnut Valley Festival/Winfield, KS 
9) Wild Bill Jones/Doc Watson (banjo & vocals) – 8/19/78 – Fiddler’s Convention/Mountain City, TN 
10) Cyprus Grove/Doc & Merle Watson w T. Michael Coleman & Marty Stuart – 9/21/79 – Oberlin College/Oberlin, OH 
11) The Cuckoo/Doc & Merle Watson w T. Michael Coleman – 7/4/80 – Freedom Park/Charlotte, NC 
12) Tennessee Stud/Doc & Merle Watson w T. Michael Coleman – 8/7/80 – the Whitehouse/Washington, DC 
13) Brown’s Ferry Blues/Doc & Merle Watson w T. Michael Coleman – 9/14/82 – PB Scotts Music Hall/Blowing Rock, NC 
14) Southbound Passenger Train/Doc Watson w the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band – 2/8/83 – Great American Road Show/Houston, TX 
15) Smoke, Smoke, Smoke/Doc & Merle Watson w Mark O’Conner – 3/6/83 – Starry Night Club/Portland, OR 
16) The Last Thing On My Mind/Doc & Merle Watson w T. Michael Coleman – the Downhome/Johnson City, TN – unknown date 
17) Windy & Warm/Doc & Merle Watson w T. Michael Coleman – mystery filler 
18) Black Mountain Rag/Doc Watson w Jack Lawrence, T. Michael Coleman & Sam Bush – 6/21/86 – Telluride Bluegrass Festival
Merle & Doc in 1971, with high-tech taper of the day.
This is a repost of an earlier podcast with some obviously dated discussion, but the music is timeless...

  I used to make tie-dye t-shirts for the Winterhawk Bluegrass Festival, that's my initial tie-in, so to speak. Spent most of the years '88-94 or 5 working at the festival as well as delivering the shirts, although I liked showing up early and getting a good spot up on the hill back behind the big trees and I had a lot of good times there with friends old & new. As a volunteer complete backstage access was included, food and staging. And one dusky night a forlorned and drunken me was watching the end of Alison Krauss & Union Station's set from the dark side of the stage when I noticed Doc Watson by himself, traipsing guitar in hand into the din towards a few gathered folding chairs facing out to warm up for his impending set. I felt my steps drawn towards his and when caught up I folded my legs and dropped to the dirt directly in front of him as he poised his guitar on his lap and grunted some acknowledgment of my presence, quiet as I remained. He scurried up and down the neck of his guitar a foot and a half from my eyes and settled on the old English ballad Jack a Roe, a song I've never seen on any of his albums or concert set lists, so I perked up further to the incredible speciality of the moment. As Alison's stage grew quiet with set preparation, Doc's guitar rang out further into the surrounding summer dusk, turning some faces in our direction behind me. Around that time Alison's album I've Got That Old Time Feeling was gaining her and her band Union Station some wide spread attention and I was a big fan of her guitarist Jeff White's version of the traditional Wild Bill Jones, before I'd never heard Doc's banjo version that is included here today. As if by intuition, Doc launched into a gorgeous guitar version of the song so much closer to Jeff's recorded style and that of course just heard on stage, as Jeff himself quietly stepped forward from behind and crossed his arms standing, drawn to the moment in much the same way I was. There were tears streaming down my face by that point and I'm not sure if it was because of that realization or the shear beauty and power of his playing and presence at that moment in my life, I'd never felt anything like that before. Luckily it was dark and I quietly stepped away, in some kind of emotional bluegrass shock. I still remember the steel bands of concentration in his temples.

(l-r) Pres. Carter, Merle, T. Michael & Doc - Whitehouse 1980
When I returned to Winterhawk in later years I brought with me my trusty old video camera and a box of vhs tapes, because as a volunteer you have access to the area between the audience and the stage cut off with a snow-fence and a plug about 25 feet worth of electric cord away.. I brought my tri-pod too, and have been having a ball transferring this stuff to youtube recently. I kept coming back to the stage and grabbing different bands when I could break away from my volunteer duties that weekend (which included parking the late John Duffey and some of the other guys in the Seldom Scene on their way in for their set in a huge Lincoln Continental cracking jokes at me with the air conditioning blaring and drinks in their hands (with a driver, of course), awesome, awesome, we'll be seeing a bunch from those guys coming up on the show as well) and I'll be adding those videos to the blog here from time to time when I can. You can check out my YouTube channel to see what I already have up, I think they'll let you know when I add stuff if you sign up. The stuff here today is from Doc's three sets the last weekend of July, 1994.   

Here's the introduction and Hold the Woodpile Down from the early set, as well as I'm Troubled.
 
These next songs are from the later set that night, a Friday where it started off as the duo but brought up a few guests as the set went along. These include T. Michael Coleman & Mike Auldridge on Solid Gone and Way Downtown.
Same thing the next night but with some different guests. Here we have T. Michael Coleman again (he had just left as Doc's long-time bassist earlier in the year for the Seldom Scene but still shares an incredible musical bond) as well as Jerry Douglas, Pete Wernick & Tim O'Brien on Greenville Trestle and the Farewell Blues.
 
Lots more Doc next time with Volume 2 and more vids from Winterhawk '94...
Thanks for Listening!
PERTINENT LINKS:
Phasinated/Doc Watson (wonderful listening page)
Kris Kehr News/Info
Dr. Bubba's Youtube Channel
Listen to Kris Kehr on Bandcamp
Listen to Kris Kehr on Archives
Download Kris Kehr on itunes
Kris Kehr on Facebook
Kris Kehr on Youtube
Kris’s Music Blog/Podcast Black Mountain Underground
Julie’s Myspace page
Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Let me know what you like, and ask any questions or make a request...

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)