Doc and Merle Watson

I’ll never forget the first time I heard Doc Watson’s voice, on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s Will the Circle Be Unbroken. 1973, I think it was.

In the midst of that unique studio recording session, Doc’s down-home mountaineer baritone voice had been caught on the recording session, as he was gearing up the ensemble for the “take” session of Tennessee Stud:

. . . “ 1, 2, 3, Do we wanna try a break? . . . now yer fiddle break comes right after I get back from whoopin’ her brother and her paw, and sing a chorus, yeah. . . now, that is about as pretty a bass line as I’ve heard played in a long time. I compliment that boy back there”. . . (chuckles)’

Then, as the banjo player is rehearsing a lick in preparation for the recording take, Doc offers his assessment of the banjoist’s effort:

“That’s a horse’s foot in the gravel; that ain’t a train.” He chuckles again. Doc’s just messin’ around with his musical buddies; he’s not being critical. Theyr’e just havin’ a good time pluckin’, strummin’, and flat-pickin’ (that’s Doc’s trademark) their good ole down home American tunes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hlxp8OJd6fg

After the flat-pickin’ intro, Doc’s absolutely unique Blue Ridge mountaineer tenor voice began singing the tale: “Long about 1825, I left Tennessee very much alive; I never would’a made it through the Arkansas mud if I hadn’t been a-ridin’ on the Tennessee stud.”

As for my first hearing of it. . .While studying at LSU in the 1970’s, I had a couple of friends, Bob and Bruce, who had come to University from Slidell, Louisiana. They had grown up a little closer to the grass roots than I, me bein’ a city boy. Long about ’73, when I was close to graduating, I happened to be at their apartment while they were listening to the (now)classic folk/bluegrass record album of that period, Will the Circle Be Unbroken,

which had recently been released by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, accompanied by an impressive ensemble of musicians of that era, including, most notably, Doc Watson and his son Merle.

Long story short, and as Providence would have it, I now live about nine miles from the home that Doc had lived in, Deep Gap, North Carolina, with his wife Rosa Lee and son Merle.

I’ve lived in Boone for about 45 years now. About twenty years ago, I happened to be singing some of my own songs at the state/county fair, when Doc’s wife Rosa Lee sat, with her daughter, listening to my tunes. They sat through my whole set and complimented my presentation at the end. I felt extremely honored that Doc’s wife had taken the time to listen to my songs.

Our main downtown street in Boone, North Carolina, features a metal sculpture of Doc, ostensibly playing his guitar — as he often did, right there, on that spot, when he was alive on this earth. Doc’s blindness was absolutely no handicap for that incredibly gifted guitar-picker from the nearby holler that we call Deep Gap.

I look forward to meeting Doc in heaven, where we’ll never say goodbye!

. . . because the circle of this life will be eternally broken when we reach our eternal home with Jesus (and I’m tellin’ the truth, y’all) where we’ll never again say goodbye!

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