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Three years ago I went to a concert in San Pedro, California. I had bought my ticket to see a British folk band, which shall remain nameless to keep focus of this article on the brilliant voice of Willie Watson, but I left the concert intensely curious about the band that had played alongside them. At that time Watson was playing with Old Crow Medicine Show and the vitality he brought to the stage was striking. He played banjo, guitar and sang; needless to say I was mesmerized by his artistry. Unfortunately a few years ago I had\u00a0very forgetful\u00a0tendencies and by the end of the set I couldn\u2019t for the life of me remember his name. Then, a few months ago, I saw an\u00a0ad for Willie Watson’s Record Release with a picture of him right in it. I jumped up and exclaimed with excitement; considering the fact that I was\u00a0in the middle of a\u00a0library my reaction probably\u00a0wasn\u2019t appreciated but was quite unpreventable.<\/p>\n

I was ecstatic and honored to see Willie in action again, this time as a solo act, so on\u00a0May 28th\u00a0I strapped on my boots and headed to Hollywood with a big smile on my face. The show was at the Bootleg Theater, a venue I\u2019d never attended before, and the dark wood floors with low lighting seemed to fit perfectly. The crowd was diverse in style and nature; one group had donned cowboy hats and boots while another rocked Vans and graphic t-shirts. Some of the people attending lived near Willie in Los Angeles and were there to support him. Others had been following him since his early days in music and sat waiting with stars in their eyes.<\/p>\n

Willie was born in Watson Glen, New York and was introduced to great music at a young age, with Roy Orbison standing out from the crowd as Willie\u2019s first vocal influence. Later on he became fascinated with Neil Young\u2019s high singing register, which can be heard in Willie\u2019s voice today. Willie spent time travelling around New York developing his sound with Ben Gould in their band The Funnest Game. The band dissolved when Willie met Ketch Secor and Critter Fuqua and they began to play around the \u201clively old-time music scene\u201d in Ithaca, New York. The group busked around Canada and moved their way down to North Carolina where they officially formed Old Crow Medicine Show and were discovered by folk-country legend Doc Watson. After a long and fruitful career with OCMS, Willie split, saying that \u201cit was time to move on and find a new situation.\u201d I think that Willie\u2019s time flying solo has been fruitful, with his first solo album seeing release on May 6th of this year.<\/p>\n

Folk Singer Vol. <\/em>1 was produced by Acony Records in Nashville, Tennessee and is a mixture of classic folk and blues tunes with Willies\u2019 personal touch added; the mix is brilliant. My favorites include \u201cKeep It Clean,\u201d a blues classic written by St. Louis singer Charley Jordan, and \u201cMother Earth\u201d a blues song from 1951 originally recorded by Memphis Slim. While Willie was intimidated by the \u201csinger-songwriter expectation\u201d (meaning when he tells people that he didn\u2019t write the songs he\u2019s performing they seem less impressed), I think that Willie sticking to the roots of folk and blues is truly incredible. And as his old friend and producer David Rawlings has said, \u201cWillie is the only one of his generation that can make me forget these songs were ever sung before.\u201d<\/p>\n

As he walked on stage the crowd erupted with hoots of delight, quickly replaced by Willie\u2019s gritty voice and quick guitar riffs. Throughout the show Willie transitioned between banjo, guitar, and even harmonica. His performance had a sassiness to it; before one of his songs he asked the audience, \u201cWould you folks like to hear a song about heartbreak or about a prostitute?\u201d Of course the overwhelming response was wholeheartedly for the prostitute. When Willie performs, his voice matches his twangy back and forth gestures and recalls some combination of\u00a0Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan (although he is much too humble to accept that). He had wanted this album to be \u201cmore of a listening experience\u201d that will \u201ctake people through all walks of life,\u201d and he’s certainly accomplished this goal during his performances by bringing in themes of heartbreak, scandalous sexual references, sing-alongs and even a bit of Willie Watson wisdom.<\/p>\n

Many of the artists who Willie draws\u00a0inspiration from have passed on, leaving only their amazing records and songs behind. To Willie these people are legends from the beginning of the folk and blues movement, and have left behind a thriving community in the artists they’ve inspired.\u00a0I truly believe that Willie Watson (jerky dancing motion and all) is the next great voice revitalizing the world of folk music. I can\u2019t wait to see what comes from him next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three years ago I went to a concert in San Pedro, California. I had bought my ticket to see a British folk band, which shall remain nameless to keep focus of this article on the brilliant voice of Willie Watson, but I left the concert intensely curious about the band that had played alongside them. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":8212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[565,638,204],"tags":[1869,1868,1688,8,1687,1685],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/20140428-williewatson-x1800-1398700771-e1401775242348.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8210"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8210"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8258,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8210\/revisions\/8258"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}