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Doc Watson

Doc Watson image
Parent Issue
Day
12
Month
July
Year
1974
OCR Text

Doc and Merle Watson, Two Days in November, Poppy PP LA 210 G.

In case you haven't been to your local record store lately, I have to tell you that most record companies have raised their standard single disc to $6.98 list. This means that in AA you probably pay anywhere from $4.75 on up for most LP's. It is no longer possible for most of us to buy a record on faith without hearing it. Well, my point is, if you have to pick your records carefully, stay away from this one.

Oh, it's a Doc Watson album and therefore it has some very good moments, but I can't recommend it to you people with limited funds. Doc has lately been into making commercially acceptable albums even when he sticks to traditional folk music. His choice of material on this LP is some of the most common and, consequently, uninteresting stuff Doc has ever done.

lt's possible that this record company (Poppy) is forcing this on Doc. (This is his third album since leaving Vanguard Records). Also this album is incredibly short, ten songs (22 min.).

There is no arguing that Doc is one of the finest country guitar pickers alive, but if we only had this record to prove it, we would be in trouble. You see, on this LP we never know who is playing the guitar. The liner notes say Jim Colvard and Doc and Merle Watson on guitar, but who is playing which guitar and when? Also, two cuts, "Kawliga" and "The Train that Carried My Girl From Town ," have clawhammer and bluegrass banjo respectively, but no one gets credit for them. Then Doc DUBBED the harmonica. OVERDUBBED! For a man who has been playing guitar and harp at the same time for years on stage, what does he have to double track for? It is things like this that take all the fun out of this record. And I'm afraid to mention that this album has piano solos. Yep, that's right, piano on a Doc Watson album.

I have the sneaking suspicion that producer Jack Clement is responsible for some of this nonsense, but to take himself off the hook he includes some dialogue from the recording sessions which he got on tape between songs. It's Doc's voice telling the other musicians how much fun he's having playing these tunes. If this were really a great album, we would be able to tell from the performances that they were enjoying themselves.

If you really like Doc Watson, as I do, save your money and buy "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" on United Artist records, a three-record set well worth it. I hate to continue to harp on the price of this record, but I can't urge you to pay 21 cents per minute for this half-hearted attempt by a great musician.