Doc Watson
Live from Perdue University 3-19-1964
Rockbeat Records
American folk singer Doc Watson left this veil of tears back in 2012, but he left behind a giant stack of material, and it’s now filtering out to give the folk music and county lovers some real treats. They taped this concert over fifty years ago, and while its simple and unadorned, the music is crisp and loveable and straight from the heart. The concert took place at Indiana’s Purdue University, and was one of those wonderful events your student activity fee went to cover.
Watson lets loose with a dozen and a half tracks, all consisting of just his clear, North Carolina hill county voice and his own guitar backing him. “Every Day Dirt” tells us about adultery and loneliness, and never drops in to the maudlin but keeps to the humorous side of the issue. Most of the good country tunes involve a murder or a death, and Watson offers us “Long Black Veil” and the rather brutal “The Lawson Family Murder.” But not all is dark, “The Beaumont Rag,” “Muskrat” and “Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down” keep the energy up, and the traces of rural living survive in “ I Got a Pig at Home in a Pen.” Here a man begs a woman to marry him so she can care for his pig once he dies. And if that’s not true love, I’m from the Big City. Lots of good material here, and all executed with energy and simplicity. I loved the whole show.
