Doc & Richard Watson - Third Generation Blues (1999)

> The album

 Guitars from the High Country

The Watson clan is from Deep Gap, a small town up in the Appalachian Blue Ridge Mountains (called the High Country), in the northwest corner of North Carolina. The High Country overlooks the Piedmont foothills region famous for its finger-picking guitar style, a detail which has to be considered when acoustic folk music is concerned.
Arthel Lane Watson aka "Doc", born in 1923, played both flat-picking and finger-picking styles, but is best known for his outstanding flat-pick technique. He also built a vast repertoire of mountain ballads learned via the oral tradition of his Deep Gap home area. He died in May 2012. His grandson Richard followed him three years later, in June 2015.

Doc was already 76 when this album was recorded, while Richard was around 33. The latter had all genetic cards in hands (rather in DNA) to become a talented guitar picker : in his veins flowed not only the blood of his grandfather but also of his father Merle Watson, who was also a gifted and famous guitar player but untimely died in 1985 at only 36.

The album's title might mislead a bit orthodox blues purists : these third generation blues are closer to folk, and by certain aspects to Piedmont style. Nevertheless, it features a good number of classics of the country, folk and blues traditional repertoire, from the opening track, Big Joe Williams' "Turn The Lamps Down Low" (titled "Honey Please Don't Go" on the other release, but it's the same song anyway) to Gershwin's "Summertime" (in a nice version) and the popular "If I Were A Carpenter" to the over-covered "House Of The Rising Sun" and "St. James Infirmary" (with an unusual new intro though), and to "Milk Cow Blues" featuring Doc's harmonica.

◄ The grandson was the eyes of his blind grandfather.

Apart from these standards, the other songs fully deserve their presence, and maybe even more : Woody Guthrie's ballad "Gypsy Davey", the tender "Uncloudy Day", the story-telling folk "South Coast", Jimmie Rodgers' "Train Whistle Blues" (Doc once confessed that Rodgers was his first idol), the sad but beautifully melodic "Moody River", the catchy "Columbus Stockade Blues" and "Walk On Boy", and finally the nostalgic gospel "Precious Lord Take My Hand".

These fourteen songs are all delivered in a neat, highly skillful guitar picking virtuosity and gently swinging tempo, with Doc's immediately identifiable voice, that of a man who has decades of practice, performances and recordings behind him. It is difficult to distinguish Doc's guitar from his grandson Richard's, except that the "third generation" is apparently in charge of most of the solo lines, and nicely too.
Just underlined by the bass of T. Michael Coleman, the sound of their acoustic guitars is deep and warm, perfectly balanced and recorded, a treat for the ear.

Both play a special Gallagher guitar model designed for and baptized "Doc Watson", a type of guitar whose Martin-like sound is generally favored by folk, bluegrass and country players, contrary to Gibson-like models generally more appreciated by blues musicians. But this in no way means that the Watsons' blues songs are at a lower level of performance. Both artists master their music with eyes closed (which actually was the case for Doc who was blind !) and were able to play any genre. This pleasing grandfather-grandson collaboration is the best proof of this. ■


◄Two Gallagher guitar models.

Documents
► Deciphering Doc Watson, A look at his life and influences : https://youtu.be/P1LRSrihy00
► Audio interview of Doc Watson in 2002 : https://youtu.be/WEQwTCp9ZX4

Doc Watson at 18. ►

Doc Watson
► At the Wayne Henderson Festival in Grayson County, Virginia, in 2004 : https://youtu.be/neud2Ai5t_A & https://youtu.be/1U_aLhIgzH8
► At Papa Joe's "Banjo-B-Que" Music Festival in 2011 : https://youtu.be/R8VXgxKWPmg

► With fiddler Bill Monroe at the Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival in 1990 : https://youtu.be/eg9nh3K1_HA
► Live with the younger generation in 1978 : https://youtu.be/-4SAkCv6ri4
► Live with son Merle in 1983 : https://youtu.be/5xaHl5ryeJ0

◄ Merle and Doc

Doc Watson with grandson Richard

► At the Neighborhood Theater in Charlotte, NC, in 1999 (2h16) : https://youtu.be/vkZdLfiUsEs
► "Walk On Boy" : https://youtu.be/5tnYNtLSSkE
► "Train Whistle Blues" : https://youtu.be/ZZpqGjo9V8s
► "Trouble in Mind" : https://youtu.be/JZPat3DpTa4
► "Deep River Blues" (with Charles Welch) in 2009 : https://youtu.be/kB3mxonkgS0

► "Precious Lord Take My Hand" at the MerleFest 2008 : https://youtu.be/ITJ54wcbgxE
► "Milk Cow Blues" at the MerleFest. : https://youtu.be/TXYycvVKJlA
► "Nine Pound Hammer" at the Sugar Grove Music Fest., NC, in 2011 : https://youtu.be/pAiBfXYMnJo
► "Working Man Blues"
→ at the Neighborhood Theatre in Charlotte, NC, in 2010 : https://youtu.be/xChQ_hN6lNk
→ at the Sugar Grove Music Fest. in 2009 : https://youtu.be/j17F0XcVoVM

► "The Cat Came Back"  at the Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival 2005 : https://youtu.be/2TjUZ1MbUQ4
► "I'm Gonna Buy Me A Pistol" at the Sugar Grove Music Fest. in in 2009 : https://youtu.be/F2RKHsUx6M8
► "Summertime"
→ at BB King's, NYC, in 2007 : https://youtu.be/n29S4fq5Nfg
→ at the Romp Bluegrass Festival 2010 in Owensboro, KY : https://youtu.be/M9-dSjgXy9A

 

► At the Springfest in 2002 : https://youtu.be/GvFbtAYyiT0

► An Evening with Doc & Richard Watson around 1997 : https://youtu.be/6mh_PuYjBjc

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