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Willie Watson on the Road Again

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American singer-songwriter

Willie Watson
Playing five-string banjo Ossipee Valley Music Festival in Hiram, Maine July 25, 2014.

Playing five-string banjo
Ossipee Valley Music Festival in Hiram, Maine
July 25, 2014.
Groundwork information
Nativity proper name William Currie Watson
Born (1979-09-23) September 23, 1979 (age 42)
Watkins Glen, New York
Genres Bluegrass, folk
Occupation(s) musician
Instruments Guitar, banjo, harmonica, vocals
Years active 1996–present
Labels Acony Records
Associated acts Aoife O'Donovan, Josh Hedley, Dave Rawlings, Gillian Welch, Sometime Crow Medicine Show
Website http://world wide web.williewatson.com/

Musical artist

William Currie Watson (born September 23, 1979) is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, banjo player, actor and founding member of Sometime Crow Medicine Show. His debut solo album Folk Singer, Vol. I, was released in May 2014;[1] its follow-up Folksinger, Vol. 2 was released September fifteen, 2017 on Acony Records. He has appeared at the Newport Folk Festival[ii] and other major music festivals. He currently resides in the Woodland Hills district of Los Angeles.[3]

Watson appears as The Kid in Joel and Ethan Coen'due south 2018 motion picture The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, also performing on the soundtrack.

Biography [edit]

Early [edit]

William Currie Watson[4] was born in Watkins Glen, New York (Schuyler County), and raised there, in Upstate New York, around Ithaca.[v] Growing up in the '80s and '90s, Watson listened to music on the radio – from Michael Jackson to Nirvana – but also his father's record albums, including The Rolling Stones and Neil Young. He recalls:[half-dozen]

I was but exposed to all kinds of stuff and . . . it could have been annihilation, and I would still exist playing music considering I could sing like anybody or anything I wanted to. I guess I still tin . . . That'due south why I feel then fortunate – a lot of people don't have that, and I never have it for granted. I found a direction in life at a very immature age.

He first met Ben Gould in high school and they began playing music together. Effectually Ithaca and next-door Tompkins County "a lot of old-time fiddle music" was being played, some of it by banjo player Richie Stearns and the group Donna The Buffalo. Watson was exposed to old-time music firsthand at a weekly sometime-fourth dimension jam.[vii]

Both Watson and Gould dropped out of school and formed the band The Funnest Game, which like Richie Stearns' group The Horse Flies had "clawhammer banjo, electric guitar, drums."[7] Their brand of electric/former-time was heavily influenced by the old-time scene prominent in Tompkins and Schuyler County, New York, including The Horse Flies and The Highwoods Stringband.[7] Performing locally, the young band earned the respect of local musicians and gained a post-obit, actualization weekly at the Rongovian Embassy with Richie Stearns and annually at the Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival of Music and Trip the light fantastic toe in Trumansburg, New York.

Hereafter bandmate Ketch Secor described information technology as a "young folksy kind of jam element acoustic ring that was really popular in the southern tier region of New York Land." Watson, he says, "was playing shows statewide by the time he was sixteen" with "this group that had some congas and some clawhammer banjo."[eight] : seven

Old Crow Medicine Show [edit]

Playing guitar with Old Crow Medicine Show at Golden Plains music festival in Australia March 8, 2009.

Watson met future co-founder of Old Crow Medicine Show Ketch Secor after the latter finished high schoolhouse in New Hampshire, his band broke upwardly in Virginia, and he enrolled in Ithaca College.[eight] : five [ix] Secor brought friend and former bandmate Chris "Critter" Fuqua upwardly to New York Land from Virginia. Watson dissolved The Funnest Game while the three assembled musicians effectually Ithaca, New York "where at that place is a very lively sometime-time music scene." According to Mac Benford, Ithaca had for 40 years "been a eye of old time music, nationally,"[ten] including Kevin Hayes[viii] : 5 They recorded Trans:mission, a cassette of ten songs they could sell on the route.

Ithaca and that surrounding area was a large influence on u.s.a.. We wouldn't be hither without a lot of the people we met there, similar Richie Stearns, the Red Hots and Mac Benford. All those sometime-time banjo players brought the music from the South back up to New York, and it was kind of a hotbed.[11]

– Critter Fuqua

The group left Ithaca for their Trans:mission bout in Oct 1998, busking west across Canada. They circled dorsum east in Spring of 1999 and moved into a farmhouse on Beech Mountain, well-nigh Boone, Due north Carolina. They were embraced past the Appalachian community, and their repertoire of old-time songs grew as they played with local musicians."[9]

After being discovered busking in Boone, North Carolina by Dr. Watson—while "playing on Doc's old corner" where he'd "started playing in the 1950s" on Male monarch Street[12] —the famed folk-country legend said, "Boys, that was some of the most authentic old-time music I've heard in a long while. You almost got me crying."[9] Md invited the band to participate in his almanac MerleFest music festival, founded in 1988 in memory of Doc's son Eddy Merle Watson, who died in a farm tractor accident in 1985, as a fundraiser for Wilkes Community College and to celebrate "traditional plus" music.[13] [xiv] There they met Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings who introduced them to the Nashville music scene, where they promptly relocated.

Watson performed with the group, writing and singing many of their more notable songs. He left to embark on a solo career in the autumn of 2011, a couple months before Fuqua rejoined the grouping,[xv] citing time on the road, new parenthood, and direction the band was headed as reasons for the split.

Solo career [edit]

Watson's transition to solo appearances began slowly with an invitation from siblings Sean and Sara Watkins to bring together them on a Cayamo cruise—a "vocaliser-songwriter, folk, rootsy festival on a ship effectually the Commonwealth of the bahamas." Sean "took the freedom" of putting Watson on the operation schedule. He subsequently would "go pretty oftentimes and ... sing a few songs" at "this little revue called the Watkins Family Hour at Largo" where the Watkins would encourage him to try appearing solo.[16]

In 2012–2013 Watson began appearing in venues in and around Venice Beach, California, making appearances with the John C. Reilly band and John Prine,[17] [18] and opening for acts such equally Punch Brothers, Sarah Jarosz, and Dawes.[xix] Initially he was performing original music, then realized he got more out of performing the former songs—and his audience seemed to relish them more than. As he explains:

Once I was on my own, I wasn't sure what my adjacent move was–if I was going to have some other band, or try to write a bunch of songs. At first, I did start writing songs, just I don't call up I was satisfied with what I was writing. I was starting to practice some solo shows, and I had a few songs I'd written, and I would practice a mix of those with one-time traditional songs, at those early shows. I was a lot happier doing those old folk songs, and I think the crowd was a lot happier, too. I idea those were neat songs that people should be hearing, and that I wanted to exist singing.[7]

In 2014, he performed at SXSW in Austin, Stagecoach Music Festival in Indio, California, Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Isle, Pickathon Music Festival in Oregon, Fayetteville Roots Festival in Arkansas, and Steelfest in Missouri. A tour of the United Kingdom and Ireland takes him to Bristol, Glasgow, Manchester, Sheffield, London, and Dublin.

He appears at the Americana Music Festival in Nashville during September.[20] Of his transition to a solo career, Watson says:

I don't take any regrets, but I'm actually happy that I'm where I'thou at at present. I'm playing the music I desire to play, and it's real uncomplicated, and I don't have a big light testify–I'm in a skillful place with that.[7]

In 2018, Willie made his pic debut every bit "The Kid" in the Coen brothers pic The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, and performed "When A Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings" on the film's soundtrack with Tim Blake Nelson.

Folk Singer Vol. 1 [edit]

Watson'southward debut solo anthology, Folk Singer Vol. 1, was released May 6, 2014 by Acony records. It was produced by David Rawlings, producer of Old Crow Medicine Prove albums. The release features 10 songs, from folk standards to "obscure gems." Equally Watson himself describes it,

[The album] happened naturally ... as before long equally I was playing solo, I started remembering all these erstwhile tunes which led me to dig through my 78'due south for more. When we got in the studio, I just played everything a couple times. It reminded me of making O.C.K.Due south., where a lot of times we'd only play songs and permit Dave sort information technology out.

Tour stops to promote the album release included dates at Nashville area'southward Music Metropolis Roots at the Loveless Café, New York Metropolis's Mercury Lounge, Philadelphia's World Café Live, and Berkeley's Freight & Save.[one] Rolling Rock named the anthology one of The 26 Albums of 2014 You Probably Didn't But Really Should Hear, stating, "Watson's voice carries the weight of generations past, merely on Folk Vocalizer, it'south still appropriate for the ane we live in, correct now."[21] Rawlings, who produced the anthology, said: "Willie is the only ane of his generation who tin make me forget these songs were e'er sung before."[22]

Folk Singer Vol. 2 [edit]

While at work on the second volume of Folk Vocalizer, Watson stated: "Volume ii will be a continuation of Volume one, and consist of old songs."[22] Released September 15, 2017, Folk Singer Vol. 2 was produced by David Rawlings and featured collaborations with Gillian Welch, The Fairfield Four, Morgan Jahnig of One-time Crow Medicine Bear witness, and Paul Kowert of Dial Brothers.[23] In its review of the new album, The Guardian states nobody makes "the erstwhile songs audio fresher" than Watson, "cheers to a voice that'south young just weathered, strong but eerie, and comes backed past intricate banjo and guitar picking."[24]

Tracks [edit]
  1. Samson and Delilah (westward/ The Fairfield Four)
  2. Gallows Pole
  3. When My Babe Left Me
  4. Dry Bones
  5. Walking Dominate
  6. On The Road Again (westward/ The Fairfield Iv)
  7. The Cuckoo Bird
  8. Always Elevator Him Up And Never Knock Him Downwards
  9. John Henry
  10. Leavin' Dejection
  11. Take This Hammer (due west/ The Fairfield 4)[25]

Watson says of "Samson and Delilah" past Reverend Gary Davis:[26]

When yous hear him play, it stops you in your tracks and makes a guy like me question every musical thing I've ever done. It's 1 of those songs I wouldn't have thought I could pull off, but thankfully I had the Fairfield Four to help me out.

Films [edit]

Watson appeared as The Kid in the Coen brothers' The Carol of Buster Scruggs (2018), performing in "When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings." Written by his personal friends and professional colleagues Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings, the song came about in an interesting way, as Welch explains:[27]

There was just a really bones conversation [with producer-director Joel Coen]. He was like, "Expect, at that place's the singing cowboy – he's been around for a while. Now hither comes the new guy. He's cuter, he's faster and he sings better. He'southward only better. Information technology's the new model. He'southward coming for him." And, of form, it made it really special for us that onscreen, that younger, better, faster gunslinger was gonna be our dear friend Willie Watson.

Coen also said, "They have to be able to sing information technology together. They have to be able to sing it once [the other graphic symbol] has been shot and is dead and is floating up to heaven." So it was meant to be a duet between singing cowboys, i of whom is dead.[27]

Watson performed on "Lazy One-time Moon" for some other Coen film, Hail, Caesar!, from 2016. He performed in "We'll Sympathise Information technology Better By and By" for the Ben Affleck pic Alive by Dark (2016).[28]

Tours [edit]

Watson regularly tours solo and with other acts. In Summertime 2016, he toured Australia with Josh Hedley for "a cord of joint-headline shows throughout the east declension" of that country, including the Bello Wintertime Music Festival in Bellingen.[29] The tour included stops in the major cities of Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney where regional "back up" acts opened for them—e.k., Imogen Clark, Matt Walker, Freya Josephine Hollick,[29] and Elwood Myre.[30] In Fall of 2016, Watson toured with Aiofe O'Donovan, "captivating" lead vocalist of Boston progressive string band Crooked Still—with stops in Ohio,[31] N Carolina,[32] and Virginia.[33] Featured vocalist on The Goat Rodeo Sessions—a Grammy-winning album by Yo-Yo Ma, et al. – O'Donovan released her debut solo anthology Fossils in 2013.

Influences [edit]

Watson started with his begetter'due south record collection, which included artists like Bob Dylan and Neil Young, as well as Atomic number 82 Abdomen. He afterward discovered Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music[five] – which helped trigger the folk music revival in the 1950s and 1960s.

The Ithaca-Tompkins County area played host to a number of erstwhile-time musicians, including banjo thespian Richie Stearns whose group The Horse Flies mixed old-time fiddle music with 1980s popular.

They had a drum gear up and they all plugged in, and Richie Stearns was playing clawhammer banjo. Judy Hyman played the fiddle and would dance effectually the stage, doing this headbang-y thing with her optics rolling dorsum in her head. I was nigh 13, and I would run across this stuff and thought it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. It was trip the light fantastic music, and it really moved me in a large way. That was my introduction to sometime-time music.

Nirvana's Unplugged includes a take on Lead Abdomen songs "In the Pines/Where Did You lot Sleep Last Night." Knowing his male parent had a Lead Belly record in the basement, Watson went and got it out. He says: "Really, that changed everything for me right there. It was all coming together at the aforementioned time."[vii] After which followed the "culling scene", like the Pixies and They Might Be Giants.

Vocally, his first influence was Roy Orbison – when he "was, like, ix" – when Orbison had the comeback with "You Got It" and joined the Traveling Wilburys. And he was really into Neil Young, sitting up in his room singing Young songs in "that college annals." When he somewhen started listening to old-time and "mount music," he found that "singing up there, that high lonesome audio, sort of put a little more volume behind it."[sixteen]

All of these influences informed the style and substance he brings to traditional and old-fourth dimension music. As Watson himself says of his songs:

More than than two-thirds of the songs I'thousand doing, no ane knows where those things come from. So the guys that I heard them doing were substantially borrowing and reworking it themselves, and that's the beauty of it.[3]

Instruments [edit]

Watson performs on a Larrivée guitar and Gibson v-string banjo.[34]

Discography [edit]

Solo [edit]

  • Folk Vocaliser Vol. 1 (2014)
  • Folksinger Vol. two (2017)

Former Crow Medicine Bear witness [edit]

  • Trans:mission (1998)
  • Eutaw (2001)
  • Greetings From Wawa (2001)
  • OCMS (2004)
  • Large Fe World (2006)
  • Tennessee Pusher (2008)
  • Comport Me Dorsum (2012)

Appearances [edit]

  • Hello Dear – The Exist Skilful Tanyas (2006)
  • A Friend of a Friend – Dave Rawlings Machine (2009)
  • Out on the Open West – Frank Fairfield (2011)
  • Tractor Beam – Richie Stearns* & Rosie Newton (2013)
  • Nashville Obsolete – Dave Rawlings Auto (2015)[35]

References [edit]

  1. ^ a b "Willie Watson to Release Debut Album 'Folk Vocalizer Vol. 1' on May vi and Tour Dates Appear". Guitar World. March 4, 2014. Retrieved July 28, 2014.
  2. ^ Rodgers, Jeffrey Pepper (July 27, 2014). "Newport Folk Festival: Nickel Creek, Willie Watson, Milk Carton Kids, and Jack White All Shine". Acoustic Guitar . Retrieved July 28, 2014.
  3. ^ a b Guzman, Richard (Feb 9, 2017). "Vocalist Willie Watson plays on afterwards leaving Old Crow Medicine Show". Press-Telegram . Retrieved February xiii, 2017.
  4. ^ "Willie Watson". discogs. Retrieved December 30, 2018.
  5. ^ a b "About Willie Watson". MTV Artists . Retrieved July 29, 2014.
  6. ^ Gentry, Shannon Rae (April 17, 2018). "A COMMUNAL Feel: Willie Watson brings 'Folksinger Vol. 2' to Bourgie Nights | | "Your Culling Weekly Voice"". encore . Retrieved December xxx, 2018.
  7. ^ a b c d eastward f Liptak, Carena (April 14, 2014). "INTERVIEW: Willie Watson". AudioFemme. Retrieved July 28, 2014.
  8. ^ a b c Goodman, Frank (April 2004). "A Conversation with Ketch Secor of OCMS". Puremusic . Retrieved November 24, 2012.
  9. ^ a b c Dellinger, Matt (March–April 2003). "Hardcore Troubadours: This own't your daddy's state music. It's your grandaddy'southward". THE OXFORD AMERICAN. Archived from the original on October 15, 2013. Retrieved September 28, 2012.
  10. ^ Greenfield, Josh (November one, 2012). "New York Banjo Summit moseys on down to Ithaca". The Ithacan . Retrieved November 26, 2012.
  11. ^ Catalano, Jim (May 17, 2013). "Erstwhile Crow Medicine Testify comes to Cooperstown on May 26: String band to play at Brewery Ommegang". stargazette.com . Retrieved May eighteen, 2013.
  12. ^ Premo, Cole (November 12, 2012). "Curiocity Interview: Ketch Secor Of 'Erstwhile Crow Medicine Show'". CBS Minnesota . Retrieved November 13, 2012.
  13. ^ "MerleFest Mission". MerleFest Official Website. Wilkes Customs College Endowment Corporation. Retrieved Nov 23, 2012.
  14. ^ Hinton, John (Nov 23, 2012). "Rosa Lee Watson, widow of Doc Watson, has died". Winston-Salem Journal . Retrieved November 24, 2012.
  15. ^ Comaratta, Len (July 26, 2012). "Interview: Critter Fuqua (of One-time Crow Medicine Show)". Consequence of Audio . Retrieved September 25, 2012.
  16. ^ a b Hight, Jewly (May v, 2014). "Willie Watson: The Foam Interview". Nashville Scene . Retrieved July 28, 2014.
  17. ^ "John C. Reilly And Friends: Aug 8, 2012 – New Monkey Studio, Van Nuys, CA". Retrieved July 28, 2014.
  18. ^ Riemenschneider, Chris (July 1, 2012). "John Prine visits the Minnesota Zoo alone (and gets lost)". Star Tribune . Retrieved July 28, 2014.
  19. ^ Harwood, Garland (January 20, 2014). "Waiting for Willie Watson's Solo Album". blog. Grassclippings. Retrieved July 29, 2014.
  20. ^ "Willie Watson: Tour Dates". Official Site . Retrieved July 28, 2014.
  21. ^ "The 26 Country Albums of 2014 Y'all Need to Hear". Rolling Rock . Retrieved February 13, 2017.
  22. ^ a b Gibney, Cara (July 27, 2015). "Willie Watson: Gearing Upward for 'Folk Vocalizer Vol. 2'". No Depression . Retrieved February 14, 2017.
  23. ^ "Willie Watson Announces Details of Folksinger Vol. 2". Timber and Steel. July 24, 2017. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
  24. ^ Spencer, Neil (September 10, 2017). "Willie Watson: Folksinger Vol two review – no ane makes old songs sound fresher". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved September 11, 2017.
  25. ^ "Willie Watson'south 'Folksinger Vol. 2' Out on Acony Records This September". Broadway Earth. July 17, 2017. Retrieved September 11, 2017.
  26. ^ Betts, Stephen (July 17, 2017). "Hear Modern Folksinger Willie Watson's Rousing 'Samson and Delilah'". Rolling Stone . Retrieved September 11, 2017.
  27. ^ a b Freeman, Jon (January 22, 2019). "Oscars 2019: Gillian Welch on 'Buster Scruggs' All-time Song Nomination". Rolling Stone . Retrieved February 5, 2019.
  28. ^ "Willie Watson". IMDb . Retrieved December xxx, 2018.
  29. ^ a b "Willie Watson and Josh Hedley – East Coast Australian Tour Dates – July 2016". LifeMusicMedia . Retrieved February thirteen, 2017.
  30. ^ "United states of america Acts Willie Watson & Josh Hedley To Embark on Aus E Coast Bout". theMusic . Retrieved February 14, 2017.
  31. ^ "Aoife O'Donovan & Willie Watson". stuartsoperahouse.org . Retrieved February 14, 2017.
  32. ^ "Willie Watson & Aoife O'Donovan – Tickets – Cat's Cradle – Carrboro, NC – October 20th, 2016". Ticketfly . Retrieved Feb fourteen, 2017.
  33. ^ "Excited about Aoife O'Donovan & Willie Watson". Alive Nation. October 26, 2016. Retrieved Feb xiii, 2017.
  34. ^ "Willie Watson: Folk Singer Vol.2 (Album Review) | Folk Radio United kingdom". Folk Radio Great britain – Folk Music Magazine. September 12, 2017. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
  35. ^ "Nashville Obsolete by Dave Rawlings Automobile". Metacritic . Retrieved Feb fourteen, 2017.

External links [edit]

  • Official website
  • Spotify: Willie Watson
  • Discogs: Willie Watson
  • Willie Watson at IMDb

lewisformem.blogspot.com

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Watson_(musician)

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