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Thread: Favorite Doc Watson albums

  1. #1
    not a donut Kevin Winn's Avatar
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    Default Favorite Doc Watson albums

    Been listening to 'Riding The Midnight Train' a lot. Loving Sam Bush's playing on there, but also really enjoying the songs and Doc's voice. I want to get some more of Doc's albums, but there's a ton of them.

    What are your favorites?

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    Default Re: Favorite Doc Watson albums

    All of them I guess, I was of course introduced by Folkways "The Essential Doc Watson" and his appearances on The Circle Album "have to compliment that bass player back there..." - but I am very partial to "Down South" with Merle and Sam (on a couple of tracks ) "Sliding Delta", "Bright Sunny South", "Solid Gone", There was a live album with T Micheal Coleman and the Frosty Morn band, can't think of the name if it "Doc and the boys" maybe, they did "Southern Lady" and "Tennessee Stud" and "Little Maggie". "Pickin the Blues" that's why I'm cryin, can't keep from cryin Mississippi Heavy water blues with Merle, Sam is on one or two there as well. Red Rockin Chair with the T. Micheal Coleman group was another one we played the grooves off, I remember we had very worn vinyl - "Square Deal in Nashville" where Doc is holding up a deck of cards, pretty sure that was intentional, and of course Doc driving the Cadillac on the cover of "Doc-a-Billy". I saw him play a few times with Jack Lawrence and with Tony and Norman, always a little closer to the sunny side of the mountain when you hear Doc singing and playing.
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    Oval holes are cool David Lewis's Avatar
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    Default Re: Favorite Doc Watson albums

    Chalk the live album with Bill Monroe. It’s a nice collection. And well played.
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    Default Re: Favorite Doc Watson albums

    Doc and Dawg.

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    Default Re: Favorite Doc Watson albums

    I was going to say Doc and Dawg, On the last track be sure to let it play as there is a hidden tune quite a few seconds after the last tune! David on his Acoustic Disc label released a live 2 cd set of Him and Doc, also the great Jack Lawrence, maybe called live at Watsonville? There may be others on his label? YouTube is a treasure trove of different Doc stuff!

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    not a donut Kevin Winn's Avatar
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    Default Re: Favorite Doc Watson albums

    Thanks, guys!

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    Default Re: Favorite Doc Watson albums

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    Default Re: Favorite Doc Watson albums

    The first self titled album. Doc Watson. Simply the best, this recording has everything going for it, it is Doc at his purest.
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    Registered User Timbofood's Avatar
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    Default Re: Favorite Doc Watson albums

    Just get them all!
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    Notary Sojac Paul Kotapish's Avatar
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    Default Re: Favorite Doc Watson albums

    I really like Doc Watson - On Stage. Learned a bunch from that one.

    And I think that The Watson Family is pretty essential listening, too.
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    Default Re: Favorite Doc Watson albums

    There’s no bad one; you can’t go wrong. I’ve got about half of his catalog! Most recent acquisition is the Bear’s Sonic Journals set. Great audio on a full week of live performances by Doc & Merle.

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    Default Re: Favorite Doc Watson albums

    Ditto "On Stage" - one of my favs. Doc and Dawg too.


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    Default Re: Favorite Doc Watson albums

    For me it is a tie between the untitled first Doc Watson album and Southbound. But I have never heard a bad one.

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    Default Re: Favorite Doc Watson albums

    Often overlooked is "Doc and Merle Watson's Guitar Album" from 1983. Doc, Merle, Michael T are joined by Mark O'Connor on fiddle and mandolin.


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    Default Re: Favorite Doc Watson albums

    I just downloaded Old Timey Concert with Doc Watson, Clint Howard and Fred Prince. As the title suggest, they are playing some old time favorites.

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    Default Re: Favorite Doc Watson albums

    I really like the "Legacy" record with David Holt. There is a lot of story telling and interesting bits here and there about Doc's early years. Lots of good tunes as well.

    "Doc and Dawg" of course. "Southbound" has lots of great tunes.
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  25. #17
    Mando Training Wheels kegcrowe's Avatar
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    Default Re: Favorite Doc Watson albums

    This isn't about a particular album, but a love for Doc Watson. Just the other day, this song came on the radio in the car and I sat in the car until it was done



    edited to add that his version of Tennesse Stud (thems good hosses) is my fav!

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    Default Re: Favorite Doc Watson albums

    While I agree that for pure essence of Doc, the early albums are essential, in particular the self-titled first Vanguard album and Southbound, I am also partial to the somewhat obscure "Portrait", a 1987 album on Sugar Hill with a fuller sound compared to his usual solo acoustic guitar style, and with a stellar backing band: Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Mark O'Connor, Mike Compton and (for the first time) Jack Lawrence. The main reason is that this was the first Doc Watson album I bought, picked up more or less at random from a used record bin, but it also has wonderful versions of two Jimmie Rodgers songs (Blue-Eyed Jane and Nobody Knows But Me) as well as his definitive versions of Country Blues, Storms on the Ocean and I'm Worried Now. There's a nice review here.

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    Default Re: Favorite Doc Watson albums

    If you belong to a music service such as Amazon music unlimited, you can try out a great many albums for free. If you really like them, I would advise to purchase them. The music that’s included in Amazon unlimited varies, so what is free today may not be available at all tomorrow.

    I’ve just put the porrait album in “my music”

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    Default Re: Favorite Doc Watson albums

    Watson+Ritchie and Good Deal

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    Default Re: Favorite Doc Watson albums

    I'm a sucker for tragic ballads: Murder ballads, hangin' tunes, etc. One of my favorites is to hear Doc do Mattie Groves.



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    Default Re: Favorite Doc Watson albums

    From a pure pickin' standpoint, I always liked the instrumental trio album Doc did with Lester & Earl. Good one to study and learn from if you're a guitarist trying to learn his style.

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    Default Re: Favorite Doc Watson albums

    Gina's post reminded me of another great one, The Three Pickers! Doc, Earl and Ricky Skaggs. Lots of guests as well. Available in CD or DVD of the concert. Very cool show!
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    Default Re: Favorite Doc Watson albums

    Not an album, and no mandolin content as such, but plenty of potential.


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    Default Re: Favorite Doc Watson albums

    For early Doc, the two Folkways albums, Old Time Music at Clarence Ashley's and The Watson Family, are really interesting, with Rosa Lee Watson and Gaither Carlton et. al. as well as Ashley. Just when Rinzler was about to drag Watson from playing Saturday dances into touring as a "folk singer." And I love that first eponymous album; it came out just about the time I saw him for the first time, at Club 47 in Cambridge. You could tell the guitar players in the audience, they all stood up for a better look when he did Black Mountain Rag.

    I saw him later in Rochester with Fred Price and Clint Howard, and that was special too. I really liked his takes on traditional material; when I read his bio, Blind But Now I See, I learned that he had to learn the traditional songs in order to be accepted as a "folkie" as he did his first college/coffeehouse gigs. They weren't songs that came down in his family; he was used to playing country, rockabilly, dance music on the electric guitar. The fact that he played with the "rediscovered" Clarence Ashley for northeastern folk song collectors, directed his performance path into folk and traditional music. Later, of course, he played whatever he liked, lots of newer, even pop material -- but I still have a soft spot for A-Roving On a Winter's Night, Down In the Valley to Pray, Omie Wise, Deep River Blues, and the other songs I heard in the 1960's. Plus, his banjo playing, which got generally downplayed as his career advanced -- and, his mandolin playing (Muddy Roads on the Watson Family LP).
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