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If Doc Watson has had an influence on your life;
if you are a fan of his music, his singing, his
guitar picking, harmonica playing, or his banjo
picking; if you like to hear him tell stories;
or if you have any interest in Doc Watson at all;
you have to buy this new three-CD set. You will
be very glad that you did.
On the first two CDs David Holt interviews Doc
and you are given the rare opportunity to hear
Doc's life story in his own words. The conversation
is interspersed with Doc playing various instruments
and performing the songs in the order he learned
them during his life.
On the first CD, Doc talks about his early years
growing up blind in the mountains of North Carolina.
He talks about his early musical influences, the
songs his father taught him and how the old Victrola
changed his life. As the story unfolds, Doc performs
the tunes that were of the greatest significance
in his life. You get to hear his first harmonica
piece, the tunes his dad taught him on the cat
skin fretless banjo, and his first guitar tunes.
On the second interview CD, Doc looks back over
his career from performing on the streets of Boone,
NC to becoming a National Treasure and multi Grammy-Award
winner. He talks about how his career got its
start, the "folk boom" era, life on the road with
his son Merle, and highlights of his career. Once
again you hear Doc tell of how he learned the
tunes that he has made famous and you get to hear
Doc play them as the story unfolds. He plays everything
from tunes that he played on the streets in Boone
to the ones that propelled his career forward,
like "Tennessee Stud."
Of special interest to readers of this magazine,
Doc talks about how he learned to play the guitar
and why the guitar became his instrument of choice.
He talks about how he learned chords, how he learned
how to hold a pick, and how he learned how to
play fiddle tunes on the guitar. He also lends
advice to young pickers about how they can best
go about learning to play the guitar.
On disc number three Doc and David Holt perform
live in Asheville, NC. The disc contains 18 tunes,
some of them never before recorded by Doc, and
it is Doc Watson at his best. As Doc said of the
concert, "Everything came together for us that
night."
As if the three CDs weren't enough, the folks
at High Windy Audio went the extra mile and provided
a 72-page companion book that is filled with historical
photos, stories and interviews from Doc Watson,
and dozens of quotes from Doc's family and friends.
All told what you get on these three CDs is a
chronicle of Doc Watson's life told in his own
words, a live Doc Watson concert, Doc performing
a total of 34 songs, and a wonderfully designed
72-page booklet. Short of a private lesson at
Doc's house, what more could a Doc Watson fan
want?
Doc Watson has made a lot of recordings during
a recording career that spans nearly 50 years.
Most people who subscribe to this magazine no
doubt own dozens of them. However, I think that
this project will immediately rise to the top
of Doc's long list of recordings as it is the
only one that chronicles the life and music of
a man who has been named one of America's true
National Treasures. It is Doc Watson telling his
own story. You can't get more authentic than that. |
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