Doc Watson at 100: His Influence Lives On Through MerleFest, New Tribute Album

This year’s MerleFest, slated for April 27-30 at Wilkes Community College in Doc Watson’s old North Carolina stomping grounds, falls during what would have been the great man’s centennial year. Watson was born 100 years ago this past March in the tiny crossroads of Deep Gap, where he resided for his entire life. But even though Watson himself has been gone for more than a decade, since his passing in May of 2012, his presence is still very much felt at the festival he launched in memory of his late son Merle Watson way back in 1988.

“The first MerleFest I went back to after Doc’s passing, he was bigger than life to me,” says legendary resonator guitarist Jerry Douglas, a MerleFest perennial who has played there almost every year and is on this year’s schedule as well. “Everywhere I looked, I saw Doc in some way and I heard him onstage all the time. He was just ever-present. Not seeing and hearing him made me really want to see and hear him again. Him not being there is still a huge hole for me. It hurts. But even if he’s not there physically, he’s there spiritually. I think the festival survives and is what it is because of Doc Watson, not because of who comes to play there.”

If MerleFest’s ongoing popularity remains the most visible manifestation of Doc Watson’s enduring influence, it is far from the only one. Watson was blind from the age of 1 and became a professional musician for the most practical of reasons, that it was one of the few ways he could make a living. And being sightless hardly slowed Watson down at all. Discovered by folklorist Ralph Rinzler in the waning years of America’s pre-Beatlemania folk revival, Watson was a flat-picking guitarist of such speed and precision that he remains a major touchstone to this day. From Molly Tuttle and Billy Strings on down, just about every notable guitar player in the contemporary folk and bluegrass cosmos still bears his stamp as a touchstone.

“Doc led the way,” says Douglas. “He plowed the ground, sewed the seeds and he’s responsible for all the guitar players out there now playing Tony Rice-style guitar. Doc is the acoustic guitar star.”

But Doc’s far-ranging influence goes well beyond just folk and bluegrass. Exhibit A to that effect would be I Am a Pilgrim: Doc Watson at 100 (FLi Records/Budde Music), a multi-artist tribute compilation released around the time of Watson’s birthday last month. I Am a Pilgrim has contributions from a lot of the artists you’d expect covering songs associated with Watson, starting with Douglas in the first-track pole position with “Shady Grove.” Also present are Dolly Parton with the Tom Paxton composition “The Last Thing on My Mind,” Steve Earle rambling through Mississippi John Hurt’s “Make Me a Pallet,” Rosanne Cash singing a lovely version of the title track, Watson’s longtime accompanist Jack Lawrence picking “Florida Blues” and Punch Brothers guitarist Chris Eldridge giving “Little Sadie” a soulful turn.

The album includes a fair amount of less likely contributors, too, including the American bluesman Corey Harris, West African guitarist Lionel Loueke, Tom Waits sideman Marc Ribot and electric slide guitarist Ariel Posen. The latter gives the old standard “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” a sacred steel feel that would be perfect for the Sunday morning gospel set that Watson used to lead at MerleFest every year.

Perhaps no musician’s presence on I Am a Pilgrim is more unexpected than Bill Frisell, a guitarist primarily known for an avant garde strain of atmospheric jazz. John Zorn is one of his regular longtime collaborators, and Frisell never met or played with Watson. But even though he himself admits he’s not the first musician you’d think of in regards to Watson, Frisell makes for an intriguing wild card on this album, the lone artist appearing on multiple tracks. He accompanies the Tennessee singer/songwriter Valerie June on “Handsome Molly,” adding some six-string sonic fairy dust to the arrangement. And he closes the album with a lovely solo instrumental rendition of the Doc/Rosa Lee Watson co-write, “Your Lone Journey.”

“For me, Doc Watson has been important even though there’s quite a few steps removed from him to me,” says Frisell. “He had extraordinary command and technique. But what attracted me the most was his spirit and the feeling that it came from such a deep, spiritual place. I’m inspired by people who find their own way. He’s the root of the tree and invented this whole world, took what was around him and made it his own. People I look up to – Thelonious Monk, John Cage, Bach, Doc Watson – somehow look through a different lens, find things the rest of us don’t see and show it to us with clarity. It inspires you to try to do something good, too.”

Almost as important as how Watson played guitar was the way he carried himself in his interactions with others, offstage as well as on. Pretty much everybody who knew Watson still sings his praises as someone who had exactly the right attitude about all the hosannas that came his way over the years. Winning seven Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts and countless other awards did not seem to change his outlook one bit. When the town of Boone commissioned a sculpture of Watson toward the end of his life, the only way he agreed to cooperate was if the city called it “Just one of the people.” It occupies a bench on King Street in Boone, near where Watson began his career busking for change.

“Doc was a humble man,” says B. Townes, Watson’s MerleFest co-founder. “He never met a stranger and, in his own words, he was not a star, just a person. Not only was he the legendary award-winning flatpicking guitarist, he had a warm welcoming way with people, no matter who you were. To me, he was a father type. He was my ears to the music. I guess I was his eyes to what a festival might be. Doc’s spirit is certainly still with us at every MerleFest. So many artists when they’re onstage will bring up memories of Doc. That helps keep the spirit alive.”

 

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MerleFest has always been billed as “traditional plus,” meaning traditional music plus every other style Watson was interested in – everything, in other words. This year’s lineup offers the usual impeccable mix of old and new artists bearing his stamp, from Country Music Hall of Famer Tanya Tucker to modern-day hitmaker Maren Morris. There’s also classic rock with Little Feat and Chris Robinson’s Brothers of a Feather, and the classically influenced bluegrass of Kruger Brothers. Along with latterday keepers of the flame Josh Goforth and Presley Barker, MerleFest 2023 has the return of the Avett Brothers, who launched their career at the festival in 2004. And most all the usual suspects will be there, too, regulars like Sam Bush, Peter Rowan, Roy Book Binder and Douglas.

“MerleFest is the first place we all gather every year,” says Douglas. “It’s in the right place at the right time – in North Carolina, the cradle of bluegrass civilization as we know it. Earl Scruggs, Doc Watson, Don Reno, Bobby Hicks, all these great musicians who drank the water and became great musicians because of where they came from.”


Top photo courtesy of the Doc Watson Archive. Pictured (L-R) Stuart Duncan, Bela Fleck, David Grisman, Jerry Douglas, Jack Lawrence, and Doc Watson

LISTEN: Songs From the Road Band, “Worlds Apart” (Feat. Darren Nicholson)

Artist: Songs From the Road Band
Hometown: Asheville, North Carolina
Song: “Worlds Apart” (Feat. Darren Nicholson)
Album: Pay Your Dues
Release Date: April 28, 2023
Label: Lucks Dumpy Toad Records

In Their Words: “‘Worlds Apart’ was written on April 2, 2020. I think the whole world was dealing with isolation and loneliness at this time. Covid was a new thing and it felt like the world was shutting down. Although some of these feelings surely motivated the title, the song itself deals with the loneliness found within a relationship that has changed.

“The singer in this song finds himself isolated from the person he loves. They’ve grown apart and nothing he does can rekindle their love. It truly is one of the saddest situations a person can find themselves in and be forced to cope with. While in ‘shut down,’ Darren Nicholson and I easily penned over 20 songs together, maybe more. I feel like we were really hitting our stride with this one.

(Read more below the video player.)

“Songs From the Road Band has a history of incorporating guests into their studio albums. We were a recording band starting in 2006 with our first release, Songs From the Road. We transitioned to being a touring band in 2018 when the founding members were able to put the band on the road full time. Sticking with the tradition of incorporating collaborators, Darren Nicholson handles the lead vocals on ‘Worlds Apart.’ Mark Schimick and Sam Wharton absolutely nail the harmonies on this ballad and it is reminiscent of the stylings of some of the greatest bluegrass harmony bands of all time. Think Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver or IIIrd Tyme Out. The band is incredibly proud of this track and it sits in a nice place in the track order of the new album, Pay Your Dues.” — Charles Humphrey III, Songs From the Road Band

“The title in itself describes a place we’ve all been. When you find yourself sitting next to someone that once you were close to and over time you find that you’ve drifted apart. Or discovered that they’re not the person you thought they were all along. This can be quite painful and unsettling. The reason I love music and writing with Charles is because he’s willing to dig deep on a lot of the human subjects that some folks shy away from. But in my opinion these are the only things that are really worth writing about.

“I’m so excited that the band chose to record this song and asked me to be a part of it. I always thought it was special and would find a home. My songwriting with Charles and a few others has been a big catalyst in my reignited passion for music. It’s part of the reason that I’m choosing to record and write my own songs now and tour with my material. Surrounding yourself with the right people will inspire you. My hope is to keep milling out songs with Charles and sharing music like this. I hope you all enjoy.” — Darren Nicholson


Photo Credit: Keith Wright

LISTEN: Chessa Rich, “Mary”

Artist: Chessa Rich
Hometown: Durham, North Carolina
Song: “Mary”
Album: Deeper Sleeper
Release Date: April 7, 2023
Label: Sleepy Cat Records

In Their Words: “My grandma Mary was a painter, but not the kind who ever sold a painting or did it for anyone but herself, and managed to amass a collection of work despite raising nine kids with my grandpa in a small house in rural Eastern North Carolina. Her paintings are mostly zoomed-in landscapes and still-lifes that I grew up staring at on the walls of my grandparents’ house. One showed a lake with a bass jumping out and sat right beside the deer head mounted above my grandaddy’s recliner. Their house, the one my mom grew up in, shows up in my dreams quite frequently.

“I had the great privilege of knowing my Grandma Mary for most of my life, but she passed away while I was living in Spain after college so I missed her funeral. It was only after she was gone that I began taking my own art more seriously, and I started having all these questions for her. As kids, we rarely think about our parents and grandparents as real people with unique thoughts and lives before we existed. They often don’t get acknowledged as the wise teachers they are until it’s too late. When I started writing songs, I found myself wanting to ask her about her own art-making and to chat with her about leaning into creative work in the midst of a busy life. I was experiencing a real spiritual transformation triggered by the work I was creating and felt a deep kinship with her. ‘Mary’ is a kind of letter to her, artist to artist, grand-daughter to grandmother, and person to person.” — Chessa Rich


Photo Credit: Chris Frisina

LISTEN: Spencer Thomas Smith, “Gas Station Blue”

Artist: Spencer Thomas Smith
Hometown: Tennessee-raised. Currently in Durham, N.C.
Song: “Gas Station Blue”
Release Date: March 10, 2023

In Their Words: “It came out of a feeling I kept getting. A longing and a joy. ‘Gas Station Blue’ took me the longest to write off the album, working and reworking it. I actually named the album Gas Station Blue before I wrote the song. That feeling kept nagging at me and I just couldn’t put it into words. I was trying to find a way to reconnect to the world around me and take in life as it passed me by. And wrap that feeling in the freedom of the road and a drive in the dark and the underlying loneliness and of that pure joy you get picking up your favorite snack after filling your tank with some regular 87. So the song had to feel like the breeze in your hair or the sun on your chest laying in the grass. A loved one beside you trying to make things better. ‘Let’s make up, Let’s make love, all we can do is make love up.'” — Spencer Thomas Smith


Photo Credit: Maddie Walczak

On ‘Simple Things,’ The Band of Heathens Find Hope in a Heartless Year

Even with more than a dozen releases that have accumulated over 400 million streams, The Band of Heathens are adamant that their best work still lies ahead, and with their latest album Simple Things it’s easy to see why.

Split between Austin, Texas, and Asheville, North Carolina, band members Ed Jurdi and Gordy Quist turned the pitfalls of a crippling pandemic into ten of their most hopeful and inspiring songs yet for Simple Things, released on their own BOH Records. They sing about everything from not letting the bad times beat you down (“Don’t Let the Darkness”) to an appreciation for the little things in life (“Simple Things”), hanging on when nothing seems to be going in your favor (“Heartless Year”) and the importance of family (“All That Remains”), all the while helping to chart a better path forward for themselves and society as a whole as we navigate a new normal.

The group’s sustained success for nearly 20 years is even more significant considering the Band of Heathens have operated independent of a record label the entire time. Without anyone pulling the strings and dictating what they do behind the scenes, the group has been able to focus on creating the music they want on their own terms, ultimately thriving in the process.

Speaking on Zoom from Austin, Jurdi and Quist spoke with BGS about the band’s recipe for success, the inspiration behind the new songs, and how bluegrass influences their music.

BGS: Tell me about how your “Remote Transmissions” live streams and ensuing “Good Time Supper Club” Patreon community have helped to grow your fans and spark your own creativity?

Quist: The Patreon is an extension of what we did during the pandemic when we began a weekly livestream over Facebook. We were all spread out in different cities at the time and couldn’t play music together so we made what we could out of the situation. We did everything from individually trading songs to trading verses on the same song, reading Shakespeare and even fitting in Grateful Dead segments. It became this strange variety show that we did every Tuesday night for 52 weeks. Through it we discovered an amazing community online who looked forward to the show every week, so when touring began to pick back up we moved the show to Patreon where we continue to host weekly chats, live streams, give early access to new songs — including many on the new record — and other behind-the-scenes looks from our creative lives.

Jurdi: The pandemic really forced us to improvise in a way we never had before. The irony with the online variety show we were doing was that it’s the closest thing we’ve done in a while to the origins of the band when we had a weekly residency in Austin. Those shows were almost entirely improvised, so returning to that was a very cathartic and full circle experience.

Given the community and successful careers you’ve built up over the past two decades, what advice would you give other independent artists trying to make it in the age of streaming and social media?

Quist: We started out right as labels were beginning to lose their grip on the power structure and being gatekeepers of distribution, but we were never a part of that system. That made being independent out of necessity to begin with. We ended up being offered a record deal on our second album but were wary of becoming indentured servants to some corporation for potentially our entire careers. We turned it down and used the opportunity to instead double down on ourselves, always looking out for new technology and investing in things that further allowed for us to make music on our own terms. We weren’t afraid of streaming and we weren’t afraid of downloads, we embraced it all.

Jurdi: The idea is to be creative making music and to build a community that you can always come back to which, in a strange way, is more accessible than it ever has been due to the technology now at our disposal. At the same time I think more work goes into it than ever before, not just in making music but promotion and all the other aspects of operating a business.

One of my favorite songs on the new record is “Stormy Weather,” which I saw [Ed] play solo during the day party for Warren Haynes’ Christmas Jam last December in Asheville, as well as with the full band on CBS This Morning. Can you tell me a bit about the song and how it came to be?

Jurdi: That’s a song we’d worked out a while back for another record that didn’t end up making the cut. There’s always a million reasons why that happens, but the song itself was always one that I really liked due to its imagery and overall theme. In a weird way it’s almost like the band’s theme song. It really represents our spirit, our struggles, being able to overcome the obstacles put in our path and, in some capacity, triumphing over them. Whenever we got to work on this new record, that song crept back into my head. We ended up taking the bones of it and putting a new arrangement on it that helped to change the feel and give the song a new look. Within five minutes of reworking it we knew we were onto something.

Are there any other songs on Simple Things that you reworked or had in your back pocket for a while?

Quist: Nope, “Stormy Weather” was the only older tune. Even it’s so far from where it once was that it’s practically new, too. Everything else was freshly written for this record.

As for the rest of the songs, this is very much a pandemic record. Can you describe the band’s emotions when getting back into the studio to work on these songs after being away from each other for so long?

Quist: It was joyful to be back playing rock ‘n’ roll together again. The inspiration for the songs largely came from that feeling when something gets taken from you how it makes you appreciate it a whole lot more. Throughout the record you can definitely feel the excitement in the room. There was very little analysis and thinking going on and a whole lot more inspiration and playing.

Jurdi: For us art has always been cathartic. Gordy and I are both optimists, always looking toward the future, but at the same time there’s no concept of the future without first being very present in the moment you are experiencing now. For example, the first verse of “Don’t Let the Darkness” talks about all this stuff that’s gone on in the past that you can’t do anything about other than putting your best foot forward, showing up and being available now. The most magical moments that have ever happened to me have come when I’ve been open and available to that.

In terms of your music, how would you say that bluegrass impacts your creative perspective, if at all?

Jurdi: The foundation of The Band of Heathens explores the roots of American music while aiming to carve out our own voice within it, and bluegrass certainly plays a part in that. You can hear it on “Single in the Same Summer,” which is a very acoustically driven song with a string band-like melody. How it sounds on the record doesn’t have a huge bluegrass feel to it, but the melody and roots of it absolutely do. It’s reminiscent of the mountain music of Appalachia. Living in Asheville the past ten years or so it’s seeped its way into everything. It’s the indigenous music of the region.

Quist: The improvisational nature of the band when we play live has been informed by bluegrass along with blues, jazz and country. That spirit is definitely something that is part of our live approach to playing in terms of taking solos and trying to say something on your instrument as well as within a song.

What kind of challenges or opportunities have come from a decade of being split between Austin and Asheville, two very music-forward cities in different corners of the country?

Jurdi: In a weird way I think the distance has actually helped in terms of appreciating the time we do have together to the best of our ability. Sometimes things that might be perceived as a weakness or a disadvantage can be turned into a strength. In our case we’ve found a really good way to make it work and have grown closer because of it.


Photo Credit: Alysse Gafkjen

WATCH: Maura Shawn Scanlin, “Nuala’s Tune”

Artist: Maura Shawn Scanlin
Hometown: Based in Boston, Massachusetts; from Boone, North Carolina
Song: “Nuala’s Tune”
Album: Maura Shawn Scanlin
Release Date: May 5, 2023

In Their Words: “We recorded this track out in the Catskills of New York at a beautiful studio called Spillway Sounds at the end of September, with Eli Crews engineering. I was really lucky to be joined by Owen Marshall on bouzouki and Conor Hearn on guitar — some of my favorite musicians ever! We had a sweet day at the studio recording this tune and one other that will also be on the album, and our friend Dylan Ladds came out to shoot a video for this track during the golden hour. The name for this tune comes from a very sweet and very energetic dog named Nuala! This is the first single from my upcoming album and I am so excited to share it. Thank you for listening and watching this video! I hope you enjoy the music.” — Maura Shawn Scanlin


Photo Credit: Louise Bichan

LISTEN: Libby Rodenbough, “Easier to Run”

Artist: Libby Rodenbough
Hometown: Durham, North Carolina
Song: “Easier to Run”
Album: Between the Blades
Release Date: May 12, 2023
Label: Sleepy Cat Records

In Their Words: “I’ve been what I’d loosely call ‘grown-up’ for a decade-plus now, long enough for the early days of that period to come into relief. 22 has an intensity that would be impossible to bear for the rest of your life. On the other hand, isn’t it sad when things don’t cut as deep? I used to feel a longing for someone so fervent I was afraid it would use me all up if I couldn’t shake it off. To my surprise, it’s still with me, but duller these days, like an old heartbeat. I’m starting to think you remember everything, only increasingly pastel. This is a good thing for survival, but it makes me want to cry. Even the crying’s softer now.” — Libby Rodenbough


Photo Credit: Chris Frisina

LISTEN: Grizzly Goat, “Raleigh, NC”

Artist: Grizzly Goat
Hometown: Raleigh, North Carolina
Song: “Raleigh, NC”
Release Date: December 14, 2022

In Their Words: “On the eve of moving to Raleigh, North Carolina, I received some terrible news about the future of this band, Grizzly Goat. It was the type of blow that nearly ended the band right then and there, a real gut punch. The next morning in a fog of disappointment and heartbreak, I wrote this strangely upbeat song. Who knows why it came out that way. Fortunately, the band overcame and out of this harrowing close call, we had our next single! Grizzly Goat has been together in some form since 2013, when we were in our early 20s. We’ve all had so many path altering experiences over the last decade; college, marriages, birth and loss, cross-country moves. Our unwavering passion for creating music together hasn’t come without its challenges and sometimes navigating the turbulence is fatiguing. Though this song has an upbeat vibe, I wrote it in response to feeling that weight.” — Nate Waggoner, Grizzly Goat

Grizzly Goat · Raleigh, NC

Photo Credit: Mike Mather

WATCH: Joseph Decosimo, “The Fox Chase / Lost Gander”

Artist: Joseph Decosimo
Hometown: Durham, North Carolina
Song: “The Fox Chase / Lost Gander”
Album: While You Were Slumbering
Release Date: November 11, 2022
Label: Sleepy Cat Records

In Their Words: “Here’s one for all of y’all who’ve lost a dog. I recorded it at home, DIY style, singing and playing all the instruments — fiddles, banjo, pump organ — a while back, thinking it was a lovely pairing of old pieces, but when my dear dog Charlie died last August, this ballad about a dog wandering into the cosmos opened up some space for me to grieve my departed friend. I drew both pieces from the beautiful singing and playing of the Tennessee ballad singer and banjo player Dee Hicks, who sang over 400 songs — 200 of which he learned from his family. An old English hunting ballad, ‘The Fox Chase’ dates to the late 1600s but made its way with the Hicks family onto Tennessee’s Cumberland Plateau, where their hounds sounded out across the tablelands and gorges. The second piece, the ‘Lost Gander,’ is a rare, regional banjo number in a special tuning that allows the shimmering chimes that Dee Hicks said sounded like geese honking in the sky at night. My friend and label pal Gabe Anderson had his departed hound Amos in mind as he put this video together with beautiful watercolors and sketches from N.C. visual artist Larissa Wood. I grew up on the southern end of the plateau and love how her watercolors capture this special landscape.” — Joseph Decosimo


Photo Credit: Libby Rodenbough

LISTEN: Julia Sanders, “Place Where We All Meet”

Artist: Julia Sanders
Hometown: Asheville, North Carolina
Song: “Place Where We All Meet”
Album: Morning Star
Release Date: December 2, 2022

In Their Words: “‘Place Where We All Meet’ is the oldest song on the record. It was written when I lived in Montana, which was six or seven years ago. I was part of a Buddhist dharma meditation center there, and I went to a lecture where the monk was talking about the expression ‘this too shall pass,’ and how that’s a version of clinging. The First Noble Truth, one of the primary philosophies of Buddhism, is ‘life is suffering.’ I remember hearing that in middle or high school and being uncomfortable with it, thinking it was so dark. But coming back to it as an adult, you realize that it doesn’t mean the world is horrible; it just means that you can’t run from suffering, you can’t run from heartache. There’s always going to be something. Yes, this too shall pass, but there’s going to be something else that’s challenging. When we try to constantly run from hard feelings or difficulty in our lives, that’s where our suffering comes from. So that’s where the song began. I joke that it’s my Buddhist old-time song.

“When I first wrote ‘Place Where We All Meet,’ I had two other verses because I was very long-winded in my songwriting at the time. And then I came back to it during Covid because it kept popping into my head. It was a similar study of, now we’re all collectively in this big suffering, and people are raging about it and constantly asking, ‘When is it going to be over?’ Also I had a friend from Montana who was diagnosed with cancer during that period, who was part of that same Buddhist center — that came to mind as well. I felt like the song deserved to come back, and we recorded it not sure if it would make it on the record, but it ended up fitting in really well. In terms of the arrangement, I really like how it starts out super-sparse, just me and the banjo, and then slowly fills in with more complexity like the rest of the album by the end of the song. It’s a really good representation of my journey as a songwriter. — Julia Sanders


Photo Credit: KM Fuller