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Across the Blue Ridge #143 - Impact of Doc Watson

by Paul Brown

The Piney Woods Boys with Margaret Martin (L-R Wayne Martin, Matt Haney, Jim Collier, Margaret Martin) onstage at Muddy Creek Music Hall. Three of the four band members were personally acquainted with the late Doc Watson and his family. Their show explores his impact on all four band members’ lives, and on the music and lives of thousands of people around the world. Paul Brown

Arthel Lane “Doc” Watson (1923-2012) was a North Carolina mountain musician who made a global impact, playing fully traditional music, rockabilly, blues, jazz and other styles with grace and warmth.  Other musicians revered him as a guitarist, banjoist, harmonica player and vocalist. He was equally loved as a human being who brought great focus and deep emotion to his music and his interactions with people around him. 

Among the many younger musicians he influenced heavily were the Piney Woods Boys and Margaret Martin, all of whom either knew Watson or started taking music seriously because of him.  The group loves to spread the word about what it was like interacting with Doc Watson and his family in the North Carolina mountains in the early 1970s.  And in their shows reflecting Watson's impact on them, they tell stories emblematic of the experiences of thousands of other people. 

Hear excerpts from their July, 2017 performance at Muddy Creek Music Hall in Winston-Salem, NC, and discussion of Doc Watson and his significance with ATBR host Paul Brown.

Playlist

  1. My Rose Of Old Kentucky
    Doc Watson
    Memories
    Sugar Hill
     
  2. How Many Biscuits Can You Eat
    Piney Woods Boys & Margaret Martin
    ATBR recording
     
  3. Watson Family Medley
    Piney Woods Boys & Margaret Martin
    ATBR recording
     
  4. Peartree
    Doc Watson
    Memories
    Sugar Hill
     
  5. Break 1 - Peartree
    Doc Watson
    Memories
    Sugar Hill
     
  6. Rude & Rambling Man
    Piney Woods Boys & Margaret Martin
    ATBR recording
     
  7. My Home Is Across The Blue Ridge Mountains
    Piney Woods Boys & Margaret Martin
    ATBR recording
     
  8. House Of The Rising Sun
    Piney Woods Boys & Margaret Martin
    ATBR recording
     
  9. Walking Boss
    Clarence Ashley
    Original Folkways Recordings of Doc Watson & Clarence Ashley V.2
    Smithsonian Folkways
     
  10. Break 2 - Steel Guitar Rag
    Doc Watson
    Memories
    Sugar Hill
     
  11. The Cuckoo
    Piney Woods Boys & Margaret Martin
    ATBR recording
     
  12. Down The Road
    Piney Woods Boys & Margaret Martin
    ATBR recording
     
  13. Tom Dula
    Piney Woods Boys & Margaret Martin
    ATBR recording
     

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