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The Vanguard Years

Doc Watson - The Vanguard Years Audio CD

A fair review of the Doc Watson "The Vanguard Years" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Doc Watson reviews here, or go back to the Doc Watson tabs.

Band: Doc Watson
Title: The Vanguard Years
Rating:

Release Date: 1995-11-21
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Rambling Hobo - Doc Watson 2: Train That Carried My Girl From Town - Doc Watson 3: Coo Coo Bird - Clarence Ashley, Doc Watson 4: Reuben's Train - Doc Watson 5: Hicks' Farewell - Doc Watson, Merle Watson 6: Grandfather's Clock - Doc Watson, Merle Watson 7: Beaumont Rag - Doc Watson, Clarence White 8: Farewell Blues 9: Footprints in the Snow 10: Intoxicated Rat - Doc Watson 11: Talk About Suffering - Doc Watson 12: Omie Wise - Doc Watson 13: Country Blues - Doc Watson 14: Black Mountain Rag - Doc Watson 15: Doc's Guitar - Doc Watson 16: Deep River Blues - Doc Watson 17: Muskrat - Doc Watson, Merle Watson 18: Dream of the Miner's Child - Doc Watson 19: Rising Sun Blues - Doc Watson, Merle Watson 20: Otto Wood the Bandit - Doc Watson, Merle Watson 21: Little Sadie - Doc Watson 22: Windy and Warm - Doc Watson 23: Tennessee Stud - Doc Watson 24: Blue Railroad Train - Doc Watson 25: Down in the Valley to Pray - Doc Watson 26: Dill Pickle Rag - Doc Watson 27: F.F. V. - Doc Watson 28: Childhood Play - Doc Watson 29: Sreamline Cannonball - Doc Watson 30: Old Camp Meeting Time - Don Stover, Doc Watson 31: I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes 32: Girl in the Blue Velvet Band - Clint Howard, Fred Price, Doc Watson 33: Corrina, Corrina - Clint Howard, Fred Price, Doc Watson 34: What Does the Deep Sea Say - Clint Howard, Fred Price, Doc Watson 35: There's More Pretty Girls Than One - Doc Watson 36: Way Downtown - Doc Watson 37: Brown's Ferry Blues - Doc Watson 38: Spike Driver Blues - Doc Watson 39: Roll on Buddy - Arnold Watson, Doc Watson 40: I Am a Pilgrim - Doc Watson 41: Wabash Cannonball - Doc Watson 42: Roll in My Sweet Baby's Arms - Doc Watson 43: Lawson Family Murder - Doc Watson, Merle Watson 44: Cuckoo - Doc Watson 45: Alabama Bound - Doc Watson 46: Bye Bye Bluebells - Doc Watson 47: Kinfolks in Carolina - Doc Watson, Merle Watson 48: San Antonio Rose - Doc Watson, Merle Watson 49: Blow Your Whistle Freight Train - Gaither Carlton, Doc Watson 50: Cannonball Rag - Doc Watson, Merle Watson 51: I Am a Pilgrim - Doc Watson, Merle Watson 52: Arrangement Blues - Doc Watson, Merle Watson 53: I Got a Pig at Home in the Pen - Doc Watson, Merle Watson 54: My Rough and Rowdy Ways - Doc Watson, Merle Watson 55: Deep River Blues - Doc Watson, Merle Watson 56: Banks of the Ohio - Doc Watson, Merle Watson 57: A-Roving on a Winter's Night - Doc Watson, Merle Watson 58: Southbound - Doc Watson, Merle Watson 59: Memphis Blues - Doc Watson 60: Salt Creek/Bill Cheatham - Doc Watson, Merle Watson 61: Brown's Ferry Blues - Doc Watson, Merle Watson, Doc Watson, Merle Watson 62: Windy & Warm - Doc Watson, Clarence White 63: Windy and Warm - Doc Watson, Clarence White

Historically Important
Together, father and son (who also sings and plays banjo) had two minor Country hit singles, both for United Artists, the first coming in 1973 with a # 71 cover of The Fireballs' 1968 Hot 100 hit, Bottle Of Wine b/w Corrina, Corrina on United Artists 276, and the other in 1978 with a cover of the 1963 Peter, Paul & Mary hit, Don't Think Twice, It's All Right, which went to # 88 b/w Under The Double Eagle on United Artists 1231. Blind singer/guitarist/banjo and harmonica player and, not least, songwriter, Arthel "Doc" Watson was born in Deep Gap, North Carolina on March 2, 1923, and his son Merle (named after Merle Travis who also appears in this box-set in the previously-unreleased tracks in disc 4) came into the world in North Carolina on February 8, 1949.

But Doc Watson's music was never about hit singles. His simple singing style, alternating between ballads, rags and blues, often only involving himself and his masterful flat-picking guitar playing, is the embodiment of that stripped-down off-shoot of Country known loosely as Country-Folk. Like its "high-lonesome" cousin Bluegrass, Country-Folk rarely employs drums when more than one instrument is involved, relying instead on fiddles, guitars, banjos and harmonicas. And in this marvelous and definitive box-set, all recorded at Vanguard Records between 1963 and 1971, Doc is joined by these artists:

Disc 1 - track 3 - "clawboard" banjo picker Clarence Ashley; track 4 - banjo player Arnold Watson; track 5 - fiddler (and father-in-law( Gaither Carlton; tracks 7, 8 and 9 - guitarist Clarence White (born Clarence LeBlanc and a one-time member of Nashville West, The Byrds, Muleskinner, and the Kentucky Colonels);

Disc 2 - tracks 1, 3 and 4 - son Merle; track 14 - banjo player Don Stover (one-time Blue Grass Boy with Bill Monroe);

Disc 3 - tracks 3, 4 and 5 - guitarist Clint Howard and fiddler Fred Price; track 14 - son Merle;

Disc 4 - tracks 1 to 6 - Country Music Hall Of Famer Merle Travis; tracks 7 to 17 - son Merle.

The sound varies from track to track, as they were compiled from studio sessions over a wide period and, naturally, the live cuts on disc 4, some from his many appearances at the Newport Folk Festival, are the least defined. An insert contains liner notes by the noted compilation producer and annotator Mary Katherine Aldin. .

Doc Watson's great solo guitar and singing.
It was done at a time when Folk Music was getting out to the general public, and there is no greater Folk Guitarist and Singer than Doc Watson. September 5, 1998

Doc Watson, the Vanguard Years has to be one of the all time great Recording Collection.

Here is Doc at his very best, alone on the first three discs. His Intoxicated Rat is so funny. Deep River Blues is great finger style guitar, along with Doc's singing.

13. Country Blues 14. Black Mountain Rag 15. Doc's Guitar

These cuts are some of the most wonderful solo guitar playing you have ever heard.

13. Streamline Cannonball 14. Old Camp Meeting Time 15. I'm Thinking Tonight Of My Blue Eyes

Great old country, so old they are really folk music. And Doc singing, his guitar playing, just him alone, you will never forget.

7. Brown's Ferry Blues 8. Spike Driver Blues 9. Roll On Buddy 10. I Am A Pilgrim 11. Wabash Cannonball 12. Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms

If you missed Doc Singing and picking these songs, you would have missed so very much.

Doc Watson is one of the most gifted musicians of our times. His musicianship is showcased in a combination of his picking and singing.

Doc is not just a country boy, though he is that. Doc listened to all kinds of music, including Black Blues singers and big bands. He can play the country tunes with such great feeling, and he can play very sophisticated Jazz.

I saw Doc Watson with Doctor John in University City Missouri. They were great as solo artists, then they played a show together, country, blues, and jazz. It was pure artistry. To bad these two great artists have never recorded together.

Though Doc Watson is good with a large band, he is in my opinion the best when he is solo, which he is on three of these disks. Someone at Vanguard saw his great artistry as a solo act and exploited it, to its utmost degree, in these three great CDs. Thank goodness, for this great exploitation. What would we have done without these recordings?

I bought the Vanguard album, "Doc Guitar," before 1965. All the songs on that album are in these three CDS that you get with the boxed set.

With these three solo CDs, you get Doc with his son Merle, named after Merle Travis, Doc's most admired Guitar Player. Doc and Merle traveled together, after Merle grew up. Merle flew a private owned plane, owned by Doc. This way the two could jump around the Country without being on the Road all the Time.

Merle was killed a few years ago while driving a tractor on his farm. Doc grieved much, but he went on. Doc has a music festival each year named for his beloved son, Merle Watson.

Doc Watson now appears with a two other musicians: another guitar player who Doc swaps licks with; a bass player. Doc does little Solo Work on Recordings anymore. Vanguard preserved the great solo work of Doc Watson for all time. If you love old time Country Music, great flat picking, and/or great finger style guitar, order this four CD set today. You will love it.

By the Dobroman in Denver.

You can see a complete list of all Doc Watson discography, or go back to the Doc Watson tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.