Willie Watson "Folk Singer, Vol. 1"

Nashville – On his first ever solo album, Folk Singer, Vol. 1, Willie Watson plays ten recycled tunes. They are stripped down and vulnerable, naked as the day they were born. He’s reviving the roots from which the modern folk movement has blossomed. At a time when traditional instruments and music have morphed beyond recognition (e.g., Mumford & Sons), Willie Watsonis stepping up as a musical historian and devotee of forgotten songs and sounds. After spending over a decade playing to thousands with the sprawling neo-bluegrass band Old Crow Medicine Show, Watson is opting for simple songs, small venues, and an even smaller stage setup.

Willie now has a new sort of band. Willie, his guitar, and his banjo are backed by the legions of blues and folk singers that passed before Willie was born. Willie summons the ghosts of W.C. Handy, Lead Belly, and the like by playing their songs with the same straightforward intimacy as is found on their original recordings.

A big thanks is due in part to the album’s producer, David Rawlings, who delivered the warmth and razor-sharp precision found on his own recordings and those with Gillian Welch. Willie recorded the album in two days in Woodland Studios, the recording studio owned by Welch and Rawlings in the Five Points neighborhood of East Nashville.

With the aid of Rawlings, Watson reclaims simplicity on blues/folk staples like “Midnight Special” and “James Alley Blues.” Its revolutionary in a way to keep the original strumming and picking patterns on these songs, as Watson does, after decades of hearing these songs morphed into fully fleshed studio productions by fellow blues-lovers like Wilco, Van Morrison, and The Band.

It’s a particular relief to hear “Stew Ball” restored to the kicky rhythm of Lead Belly’s version. Back in the 1930’s, Lead Belly and Woodie Guthrie picked this 18th century British folk song up and recorded it in a chain-gang, call-and-response style. Joan Baez and Peter, Paul & Mary took it up thirty years later and dried it out in a waltz-style ballad devoid of any “umpf.” Willie Watson, thankfully, has brought it into the 21st century with a heartbeat worth hearing. Willie successfully navigates a call-and-response style all by himself and isn’t far from yodeling when he hits the high notes.

With his ubiquitous scruff and suspenders, Watson appropriately looks like a page out of history books. Like some folk minstrel plucked up from Dust Bowl, Watson travels the country with his banjo and guitar and sings songs that are ageless and true.

Watson has said that songs like “Stew Ball” and other early blues and folk tunes had been bouncing around his brain for a while before they were recorded. He had humble intentions when he arrived at Woodland Studios with a handful of songs in his pocket. He recorded more tracks than what made it to the final album, and he recorded them quickly.

For this, the songs have a living room quality to them, as though Watson were standing in front of you picking his guitar while time-tried lyrics roll out of his mouth like those to “Mother Earth”: “Don’t care how great you are. Don’t care what you’re worth. When it all ends up, you gotta go back to Mother Earth.” The inherent honesty is disarming.

It doesn’t seem like Watson recorded these songs for lofty purposes, but it’s hard to listen to them and not think of the greater body of artists, some remembered and many forgotten, who gave shape to blues and folk music when recording processes were newly invented. The songs on Folk Singer, Vol. 1 are of the caliber that they can be stripped to their bones, and they still stand up tall and strong. Surely they inspire Willie Watson to do the same as he embarks on the next phase of his career.

Watson will spend three days in Nashville releasing his album before he goes on a national tour. Keep up with him on Facebook for dates added, interviews, etc.

Photo By Sarah Meyers

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Caroline McDonald

My first memory is of singing Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You” quietly to myself during preschool naptime. Perhaps it’s because I’m from Nashville where an instrument lives in every home, but music has gripped me for as long as I can remember.

After dabbling in many parts of the music industry—recording studios, PR, management, labels, publishing—I’m expanding into music journalism because I’m yet to find anything more rewarding that finding and sharing new music.

A longtime sucker for girls with guitars, my musical taste unabashedly follows the songwriting lineage of Dolly Parton and includes Patty Griffin, Gillian Welch, and Neko Case. But not to pigeonhole myself, my music love is big love that stretches from R.L. Burnside to Animal Collective to Lord Huron.

I’ve recently moved home to Nashville after living in Boston and Big Sur for several years. I’d forgotten how music pours onto the streets ten hours a day, seven days a week. I’m honored to share the creative explosion happening here. If your band is in the area or of the area, please reach out!