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| | Issue #21.02 :: 01/09/2008 - 01/15/2008 | The Hills of Home
Doc Watson and David Holt at Newberry Opera House Saturday, Jan. 12
| BY KEVIN OLIVER
| Name the most influential musicians in folk music and North Carolinian Doc Watson has to be at or near the top, right there with Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger. Where Guthrie brought the politics, Dylan the electricity and Seeger the historical viewpoint, Watson’s contribution was a flatpicking guitar style that inspired many who followed. Combined with his immense mental catalog of old-time standards, blues riffs and folk tunes, this made Watson a major figure in the 1960s folk revival and it continues to place him among the genre’s most respected artists.
Watson came to folk music in the early ‘60s after playing electric guitar in a country band, bucking the upcoming tide of folk musicians who were soon to be headed in the opposite direction.
Folklorist Ralph Rinzler discovered the blind guitarist from Deep Gap, N.C., during a trip to record old-time artist Clarence Ashley in 1960. Within a year, Watson and some of his local friends traveled to New York City to play a group concert sponsored by the Friends of Old-Time Music, and by 1962 he was playing his own solo shows. Rave reviews from the New England folk crowd followed, as did a long list of albums on vaunted folk labels the likes of Vanguard and Rounder.
One cannot talk about Doc Watson without including his son Merle, who played with his father from 1964 until his tragic death in a 1985 tractor accident on his farm in North Carolina. Merle’s legacy has been upheld through the annual Merlefest music festival in Wilkesboro, N.C., which will celebrate its 20th anniversary in April. In 2005, Wilkes Community College awarded their first-ever Honorary Associate in Arts degree to Doc Watson, thanking him for his many years of supporting the Wilkesboro community with the festival. Watson’s own peers in the National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences have also recently acknowledged his many contributions to the business, bestowing upon him a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2004 Grammy Awards ceremonies.
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| David Holt and Doc Watson |
Watson’s most recent album was 2006’s Black Mountain Rag, a collection of songs from three albums he released on the Flying Fish folk music label between 1980 and 1982. Even in such a short time span, the albums Doc and Merle Watson’s Guitar Album, Red Rocking Chair and Watson Country have different enough themes that the collection is a fairly diverse representation of Watson’s sound.
Watson will be 85 years old in March, but with the help of longtime sideman David Holt he has continued to tour and play shows, most of them centering on the “Hills of Home” concept. Though the set list changes from night to night, Holt and Watson have been playing variations on this theme for a decade now. It gives audiences a retrospective of Watson’s career amid stories of his life, which itself has intertwined with the music for almost 50 years now. Expect to hear classic traditional tunes galore, from “Deep River Blues” to “Tom Dooley,” “Darlin’ Cory” and “Sittin’ on Top of the World,” amid some fine guitar picking from both Watson and Holt, who wear the concept as if they were playing on the cast album for a well-worn Broadway musical revue, fulfilling their parts as the songs keep coming all night long.
A version of this show was released on 2002’s Legacy, which earned Watson a Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Recording. The three-disc set features two discs of Holt interviewing Watson about his life, though it sounds more like a conversation between old friends than a formal journalistic inquiry. Holt is in a unique position to have this kind of rapport with Watson, having served as his on stage foil for a number of years. The third disc puts all those words into music in a concert recording of Holt and Watson together, much like you can still hear them today.
Doors open at 8 p.m.; tickets are $37.50. The Newberry Opera House is located at 1201 McKibben St. in Newberry; call (803) 276-6264 or visit newberryoperahouse.com for tickets and more information. | |
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