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Doc Watson

Doc Watson
1 disc

1. Nashville Blues
2. Sitting on Top of the World
3. Intoxicated Rat
4. Country Blues
5. Talk About Suffering
6. Born About Six Thousand Years Ago
7. Black Mountain Rag
8. Little Omie Wise
9. Geirgie Buck
10. Doc's Guitar
11. Deep River Blues
12. St. James Hospital
13. Tom Dooley
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Additional Info

Manufacturer Part Number (MPN): 79152
Credits

Producer
Engineer
Solo performer: Doc Watson (vocals, guitar, 5-string banjo, harmonica).
Includes liner notes by Ralph Rinzler.
This legendary singer/guitarist is viewed primarily as a bluegrass musician, but as this solo debut makes clear, his work encompasses folk, country, and blues as well. Watson is first and foremost an avatar of American music. Doc had already been recorded singing with his family, but this 1964 release was his real introduction to the world at large. Watson's strong, fluid (but never showy) flatpicking and subtle, penetrating singing are well displayed, as he's unaccompanied for most of the album.
His version of the Dock Boggs favorite "Country Blues" captures all the pathos and regret of the song's narrator, a man undone by his vices, by maintaining a calm, unruffled tone even at the most stirring moments. On the a cappella spiritual "Talk About Suffering," Watson gives off an air of determinism, unflinchingly cataloging the world's misery with the certainty of one who expects a better world in heaven. It's Watson's ability to express bleakness and hope with equal sincerity and humility that makes him such a convincing vocalist, and it's his prowess as an acoustic guitarist that makes this sparse sonic landscape so inviting.