Mysteries of a Hobo’s Life (T-Bone Slim/the IWW) My Mind Is Trying to Leave (Percy Mayfield) My Creole Belle (John Hurt/meanings of Creole) Monday Morning Blues (Mississippi John Hurt) Mole In the Ground (Bascom Lamar Lunsford) Michigan Water (ironies of the Great Migration) Martian Love Song (Lee Hays/Earl Robinson) Maple Leaf Rag (Scott Joplin/Dave Van Ronk) Lovesick Blues (Hank Williams/Emmett Miller) Lonesome 7-7203 (resisting and singing country) Lone Star Beer And Bob Wills Music (Red Steagall) Let’s Get Drunk Again (Bo Carter/busking) Let the Mermaids Flirt with Me (John Hurt/William Myer) Let Me Hold You In My Arms Tonight (Jesse Fuller) King Jelly’s Good Morning Irene Song (Bill Morrissey) Kansas City Blues (I’m Going to Move to Kansas City) Jones, Oh Jones (Bahamian Blind Blake/Paul Geremia) Johnson City Blues (Clarence Greene, Ida Cox) Jamaica Farewell (Harry Belafonte, Perry Lederman) Is Anybody Going to San Antone (Doug Sahm) Iko Iko (David & Roselyn/ African guitar) If You Leave Me Pretty Mama (Germany/Austria) I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate I Was Born About 10,000 Years Ago (Doc Watson) I Take a Lot of Pride in What I Am (Merle Haggard) I Know What It Means to be Lonesome (Bill Williams) I Double Dare You (Jimmy Mazzy and Sandrine) I Can’t Help But Wonder Where I’m Bound (Tom Paxton) Hesitation Blues (deep history of a dirty blues) He’s In the Jailhouse Now (Pink Anderson) He Was a Friend of Mine (Dave Van Ronk &co) Hallelujah, I’m a Bum (Mac McClintock, hobos) Green Rocky Road (Len Chandler, Bob Kaufman, etc.) Got the Blues, Can’t Be Satisfied (John Hurt) Going Down the Road Feeling Bad (Samantha Bumgarner/proto-blues) Gimme A Ride To Heaven, Boy (Terry Allen) Get Thee Behind Me, Satan (Almanac Singers) Georgia Rag (with advice from Dave Van Ronk) Receive news of new song posts no other emails (I promise)Ī Man’s a Man (Bertolt Brecht/Dave Van Ronk)Īin’t She Sweet/ Five Foot Two (Guy Van Duser)īattle of Maxton Field (Malvina Reynolds)īest of All Possible Worlds (Kris Kristofferson)īig Rock Candy Mountain (Mac McClintock/ censorship)īlues In the Bottle (The Holy Modal Rounders)īout a Spoonful (Davis/Lipscomb/Van Ronk)īrand New Tennessee Waltz (Jesse Winchester)Ĭannonball Blues (Woody, Carters, Leslie Riddle)Ĭaptain Don’t ‘Low that Here (Larry Johnson)Ĭasey Jones (Furry Lewis/banjo to guitar)Ĭhicken Is Nice (Dave Van Ronk/Howard Hayes)Ĭomin’ In on a Wing and a Prayer (Joseph Spence)Ĭontrabando y traicion (Los Tigres del Norte)Ĭrow Jane (Carl Martin, country blues LPs)ĭanville Girl (Cisco Houston/hopping freights)ĭon’t Think Twice, It’s All Right (Dylan/Paul Clayton)įishing (Blues) (Chris Smith/Sweetie May) So I just kept this as something to play for my own enjoyment or when I got requests, with the result that I’ve never really solidified an arrangement and keep having fun with it, playing Doc’s basic part as best I can and experimenting with how I might vary it if I took the time to work up my own version of his version. Of course, I could have gone back and learned the piece properly, but by the time I had the chops to do that I was trying to learn pieces that everybody else didn’t already play - and boy, did everybody play “Deep River Blues.” I learned it from the tablature in the Doc Watson songbook, which, as usual, was a mixed blessing - without the tablature I wouldn’t have been able to learn it when I did, but because I learned it from tablature I never got the quirks and variations that make Doc’s version so great. But my favorite guitar arrangement was and is “Deep River Blues,” his reworking of the Delmore Brothers’ “ I’ve Got the Big River Blues” - a preference shared by virtually every fingerpicker I’ve met. I learned and remember a half-dozen songs from that album, including “ Sitting on Top of the World,” “ I Was Born About 10,000 Years Ago,” “ Omie Wise,” and “Black Mountain Rag,” which I struggled with for years but could never play even halfway competently - my battles with that piece were what confirmed I would never be a serious flatpicker. But that first album still defines him for me, and is on my short list of all-time favorite records. I also had a fairly passionate love affair with the Watson family LP he made for Folkways with his wife and other relatives, and his live recordings with Clint Howard and Fred Price - in short, I’m a solid fan. I like a lot of his other work, liked seeing him live, loved interviewing him the one time I got to do it, and Peter Keane and I used his version of “Blue Railroad Train” as the theme song to our live radio show. For me, Doc Watson will always be his first album.
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