Doc Watson - Memories (1975/1993)

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The mountain folk master

Imagine clouds of mist hanging around the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, the autumnal russet color of the trees, and a little town called Deep Gap nested below a mountain pass. There lived a blind mid-19th century looking man whose face evokes Abraham Lincoln. He played guitar and banjo like nobody else, and sung old country-folk and bluegrass songs. The photograph of this man adorns the front cover of the album “Memories”. The man’s name is Doc Watson (1923-2012).

Country, bluegrass, folk, ragtime, blues… why bother to put a name on the kind of songs he plays as long as he plays them because they’re just a pure pleasure for the ears, the mind and the soul. His banjo and guitar picking mastery is amazing, and his voice is warm as a wood fire in an old cabin’s fireplace.

Sometimes alone, even a-Capella on “Wake Up, Little Maggie”, most of the times with his son Merle (rhythm, lead and slide guitar, dulcimer, banjo) and backed by extra musicians on piano and organ (Chuck Cochran), banjo (Courtney Johnson), mandolin and fiddle (Sam Bush), acoustic and electric bass (Joe Allen, Michael Coleman), drums (Jim Isbel)..., the Doc goes through 22 songs with incredible ease and taste. When it ends, you’re surprised : you didn’t feel time passing.

Doc & Merle

Of course, when one thinks of Doc, the first word that comes to mind is “bluegrass”, and he plays a lot of it, but his music is wider than that. “Memories”, recorded in Nashville and originally released as a double vinyl LP in 1975 and reissued on CD in 1993, is not a kind of “Best of” though its title might sound like it, but an original album which sums up Doc Watson’s style in all its splendor : “old time” mountain songs whose roots come as much from traditional European folk, and especially from Ireland, brought by the immigrants, as from the music of the South (rag, jug, blues, bluegrass).

John Hurt & Doc (right)

There’s the opening banjo instrumental “Rambling Hobo”; the Celtic-sounding “Shady Grove” and “Peartree”; the gospel “Keep On The Sunny Side”; blues songs like “Blues Stay Away From Me”, his nice version of Mississippi John Hurt’s “Make Me A Pallet”, “You Don't Know My Mind Blues” or a countrified one like “Columbus Stockade”; homage songs to his early idol Jimmie Rodgers like the nostalgic “Miss The Mississippi And You” and “In The Jailhouse Now”; country numbers like Bob Willis’ “Hang Your Head In Shame” or Roy Acuff’s “Don't Tell Me Your Troubles”; sorrowful mountains ballads like “Moody River” and Merle’s “Thoughts Of Never”; the mischievous traditional jug band song “Mama Don't Allow No Music” (one of his signature piece); his yodeling on “Curly Headed Baby”; and indeed some of his famous bluegrass titles like “Double File And Salt Creek”, “Wabash Cannonball’, “My Rose Of Old Kentucky”, “Steel Guitar Rag”.

From left, Clarence Ashley, father-in-law
Gaither Carlton, Doc and his wife Rosa Lee

One f the great talents of Doc was to appropriate songs from the others and make them totally his own as if he had written them himself. Another one of his special skills was also to adapt fiddle tunes (that he generally learned from his father-in-law Gaither Carlton) to guitar, a complex process which proves his real mastery of the instrument as well as an exceptional ear, a gift generally developed by blind people.

The whole album is rather swinging and totally rejoicing. “Memories” is certainly “the” album of Doc Watson to have if you own only one. RIP Doc. ■

Doc (!) to read

● “Imposing on Doc Watson: A Hitchhiker’s Musical Memoir”, a fascinating article by John C. Wagner about his encounter with Doc Watson in 1966 : https://www.fretboardjournal.com/features/imposing-doc-watson-hitchhikers-musical-memoir/

Live videos

Many links to live videos of Doc, alone or with son Merle and grand-son Richard, have already been posted here and there.

Here are some new ones.

Note : Jack Lawrence, who appears numerous times below, became Doc’s usual guitar partner on stage after Merle’s accidental death in 1985.

● Interviewed on WRAL-TV, Raleigh, North Carolina, 1965 : https://youtu.be/bl63N_gxhPg

● With Clint Howard & Fred Price, 1967 :

→ #1 : https://youtu.be/RBb9OZhTUSI

→ #2 : https://youtu.be/50dm5b6eDVo

● Live in Concert 1978 : https://youtu.be/-4SAkCv6ri4

● "Tennessee Stud", 1979 : https://youtu.be/dq-1G6Wif8s

● “Black Mountain Rag” jam, Telluride Fest.,1979 : https://youtu.be/J8Y6dp3l1BU

● With Chet Atkins, Tonight show, 1980 : https://youtu.be/X98fM-KAdXQ

● On Blue Sky Bluegrass (WFSU-TV), 1981 : https://youtu.be/BjyySIR17uM

● The Three Pickers : Earl Scruggs, Doc Watson & Ricky Skaggs : https://youtu.be/jpzuI4Ycwkk

● With Jack Lawrence & Michael Coleman, 1986 : https://youtu.be/JsnbU90953E

● With Jack Lawrence, Philadelphia Folk Festival, 1988 :

→ “Stranger's Blues” : https://youtu.be/AQ5-uLZ0mbs

→ “Give Me Back My Fifteen Cents” : https://youtu.be/la4pLa8cQFM

→ “Lonesome Road” : https://youtu.be/pK67GbymbJY

→ “Make Me A Pallet” : https://youtu.be/kTFUhRe8CtQ

● "Shady Grove" & "Summertime" with David Grisman & Jack Lawrence : https://youtu.be/1a8nGdHDXcU

● "Ragtime Annie" & "Blue Ridge Mountain Blues" with Tony Rice, Dan Crary, Steve Kaufman & Jack Lawrence : https://youtu.be/qgB8qp2bUI8

● “Southbound”, 1991 : https://youtu.be/pjTikRS7LhA

● “Make Me A Pallet” with Merle Watson & Michael Coleman : https://youtu.be/oSgAuP7qCOE

● “Wabash Cannonball” with Jack Lawrence, Michael Coleman, Pete Wernick, Jerry Douglas & Tim O'Brien, 1994 : https://youtu.be/AoJwNwB2N9E

● “Hold the Woodpile Down” with Jack Lawrence, 1994 : https://youtu.be/xd3npq8zClU

● “Solid Gone” with Jack Lawrence, Michael Coleman & Mike Auldridge, 1994 : https://youtu.be/pEF3-GpoR7g

● “East Tennessee Rag” & “Beaumont Rag” : https://youtu.be/PT4gmBppXhY

● An Evening with Doc Watson (and grand-son Richard), a UNC-TV production from around 1997 : https://youtu.be/6mh_PuYjBjc

● “In The Jailhouse Now” with Jack Lawrence, Winterhawk Bluegrass Festival, 1999 : https://youtu.be/2ErJG03CEA4

● "Last Thing on My Mind" with Dolly Parton, Merlefest, 2001 : https://youtu.be/oaK0V5otwE8

● “Mama Don't Allow No Music”, Sugar Grove, North Carolina, with the Krüger Brothers, 2006 : https://youtu.be/eJz8R1JQy2w

● Honored by The University of North Carolina, Asheville, 2009 : https://youtu.be/Z30PGaRw0rM

● "Shady Grove" with David Holt, Newport Folk Festival, 2010 : https://youtu.be/SO4amkq3RmU

● "The Orphan Girl", Newberry, South Carolina, 2010 : https://youtu.be/ZAc9YIytTnc

● “Frosty Morn", Merlefest, 2010 : https://youtu.be/P0bWMvb36X8

● Doc’s last public performance, with The Nashville Bluegrass Band, Merlefest, 2012 : https://youtu.be/grqO11hWCos and https://youtu.be/XQea_rmH2QY

"A blind mid-19th century looking man whose face evokes Abraham Lincoln."

Doc Watson, 1923-2012

A lot of musician friends played in homage
to Doc during his funeral