Juke Box - Episode 13
By Request: Country / Bluegrass Legend DOC WATSON
Today the Mighty Wurlitzer spins the special request of subscriber
, who writes:yay, music!! may I propose anything Doc Watson here?
Hello again SkepsisNation, and welcome to another installment of Ol’ Doc’s Juke Box.
Being a former FM radio jazz DJ and professional church singer, my musical interests are many and varied. This is my Substack side-hustle for sharing music both close to my heart and worthy of your time.
Feel free to leave a comment, including suggestions for future Juke Box spins:
TYVM for reaching out, Mary-Lou! This will be the first time I have explored the Country / Bluegrass Musiverse here, and it’s about dang time, too.
From wiki:
Arthel Lane "Doc" Watson (1923 – 2012) was an American guitarist, songwriter, and singer of bluegrass, folk, country, blues, and gospel music. He won seven Grammy Awards, as well as the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004…
Watson was born in Deep Gap, North Carolina…An eye infection caused Watson to lose his vision before his second birthday. He attended North Carolina's school for the blind, the Governor Morehead School…
His earliest influences were country roots musicians and groups such as the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers…In 1960, as the American folk music revival grew, Watson began playing acoustic guitar and banjo exclusively. That move ignited Watson's career when he played on his first recording, Old Time Music at Clarence Ashley's…
In 1986, Watson received the North Carolina Award, and in 1994 he received a North Carolina Folk Heritage Award. He was a recipient of a 1988 National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the United States government's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. In 2000, Watson was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor in Owensboro, Kentucky. In 1997, Watson received the National Medal of Arts from U.S. President Bill Clinton. In 2010, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music degree from Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.
So if you’ve never heard Doc’s name before, you now know that he is a certified LEGEND, and a strong candidate for GOAT (Greatest Of All Time).
Choosing a representative recording has been challenging, but I’ve decided to spin the second of his seven Grammy-winning albums, Two Days In November:
The title refers to the two days it took to complete the recording.
In an AllMusic review, critic Lindsay Palmer wrote of the album, "Doc Watson's amplified approach to traditional melodies as well as the reworking of cover material is decidedly modern, yet the interpretations directly hark back to their acoustic counterparts... Seasoned as well as developing enthusiasts of bluegrass, newgrass, traditional country, and Americana agree that Doc & Merle Watson developed and created some of their finest music in the early to mid-'70s..."
At the Grammy Awards of 1975, Two Days in November won the 1974 Grammy Award for Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording.
Our performance features Doc on guitar, harmonica & vocals and his son Merle on guitar & banjo. They are joined by Chuck Cochran – piano; Joe Allen – bass guitar; Jim Isbell – drums; and Kenny Malone – percussion.
Track list:
【00:00】A1 - Walk On Boy 2:43
【02:47】A2 - Poor Boy Blues 2:20
【05:10】A3 - I’m Going Fishing 2:38
【07:49】A4 - Kinfolks In Carolina 2:30
【10:23】A5 - Lonesome Moan 3:35
【13:18】B1 - Medley: Little Beggar Man / Old Joe Clark 2:08
【15:26】B2 - Kaw Liga 2:47
【18:13】B3 - The Train That Carried My Girl From Town 2:55
【21:12】B4 - Snowbird 2:53
【24:07】B5 - Doc’s Rag 1:43
Note: to play YT clips AD-FREE, use Firefox, Edge or Opera web browser, with browser extension uBlock Origin installed.
I hope you enjoy today’s selection, and TYVM for listening!
I have this album and it rocks. You can’t go wrong with any of Doc’s recordings.
The early collabs with Clarence Ashley are my favorite recordings.