SCARLET AND BLACK

Friday. January 20, m1

 

An Interview With Doc Watson

By RICK EXNER

(To most of us the name
Doc Watson meant nothing
until Saturday nlghr‘s superb
concert. Those who collect
tradiiiunal country m u s i c,
however, know Watson as
one (If the best artists in the
lielil. He possesses a sensi-
tive vocal style and an instrn<
mental technique that is com-
plex and precise . . . and ex-
iremely diliieult to duplicate)
It was with a certain amount
of awe that Jeff Burnham and
I interviewed Watson and his
son, Merle, for the 5&3 Satur-
day afternoon. Before we iin—
isheil though, things had
warmed up all around, and we
had on tape an invaluable
guitar lesson and a delineation
of the Individual who owns the
name Doc Watson. The follow
Ing is a condensed Version of
the interview:

“You come from Deep Gap,
light?"

“Yes, it's a little community
east of Boone. North Carolina
— l was born in that pal'licu-
lar country."

“How did you get the name
Doc?"

“It was sort of accidentall
When I was about Merle’s age,
I was workllig with a boy _ we
were playing on a radio pro-
gram by remote control from
a furniture store in Lenore.
N,c. — My given name’s Ar-
thell, and this radio announcer
said, ‘Whal’s a good short
name to Call you like Bill or
something?’ and some little gal
hack in the crowd that was in
there said, ‘Call him Ddc!’ and
it stuck!”

“The first banjo 1 ever heard,
I liked it. I didn’t know what
Il was, actually. A couple of
years later someone brought a

banjo by the house . . . My
Dad played a few tunes on it,
and he finally let me see the
tiling . Arid Dad turns
around right outa' the blue skies
and says, ‘Son, I’ll make you
one at those Ihlngs,’ he says,
‘You might learn to play it.’
The guitar came along a little
later."

“Is the music around Deep
Gap all tradilional?"

“No. Actually, there’s less
traditional music down there
where I Live now than there is
around the university cam-
puses, because except for the
revival in the cities, tradition-
al music, except for just a
handful or people, is a thing or
are past. . . . I said now it
isn‘t traditional. when I was
growing up, learning music, a:
such. It was quite the dominate
ing factor in music theory. . . .
I learned the old musicl l

ooc warson and his son Merle at Saturday night

concert

liked it because it was . . .
the music in [he first part of
my life. . . .

What about folk rock?"

“It's a fad. Like springs up
lrom every other kind at mu-
sic, I think — Where the two
musics meet. Except you hear

letfl by Susan Kaesu

very little traditional sound in
folk rock -— unless, in a few
cases, it might be they‘ve kind
of warped the Delta bluel
sound."

DOC WATSON—
(Cnntlnued on Page 8)

 

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