Breathing new life into old songs of America
ALAN NICHOL TALKS TO FOLK-BLUES BALADEER WILLIE WATSON
THE almost limitless archive of UK/ American traditional folk and blues songs really is the gift that keeps on giving. Songs written decades and even centuries ago get dusted down and re-energised by modern day interpreters on a regular basis.
The wealth of material has been a frequently-tapped source for countless artists from Bob Dylan, Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, to the White Stripes or Black Keys. The Animals’ rendition of the House Of The Rising Sun is just one more example.
One such expert re-interpreter, Willie Watson (formerly of the band Old Crow Medicine Show), has a show at Live Theatre just over a week from now (Sunday, January 20). Watson, however, manages to sound like he dates back to that sepia-tinged era when the songs were first written.
His voice has an immediate careworn authenticity. A folkblues balladeer who, at turns, sounds bereft, beleaguered yet boldly confident.
This UK tour is the first since the release of his second solo album, Folksinger Volume 2, in the autumn of 2017. Like the first volume, issued in 2014, the content taps into the rich seam of songs that were popularised by a cast of characters such as Reverend Gary Davis, Leadbelly, Bascom Lamar Lunsford and Furry Lewis.
They may appear a tad obscure to the layman, but many of the songs will strike a familiar chord. Midnight Special, Rock Salt And Nails, Stewball (all from the first album) and Gallows Pole, The Cuckoo Bird, On The Road Again and John Henry (from the second) have been re-worked time and again.
However, the songs – in the hands of Watson – really do assume different clothes.
Timeless gospel, Delta blues, folk tales and fiddle tunes, Appalachian mountain music and other curiosities such as Kitty Puss and Dry Bones, shine like freshly-unearthed nuggets.
Watson plays guitar, banjo and harmonica and has vocal support from the veteran gospel group, the Fairfield Four, on three tracks and even a cameo spot from Gillian Welch – on drums! Welch’s partner, David Rawlings, produced the record (as he did the first volume).
I spoke to Watson recently and asked him firstly about his appearance in the newly-released Coen Brothers western anthology film, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. He plays “The Kid” in a cast which includes Liam Neeson, Tom Waits, Brendan Gleeson, James Franco and Tim Blake Nelson.
“I’ve known these guys (Joel and Ethan Coen) for a number of years,” he told me. “They just said ‘we think you’ll be good in this movie’ and I responded with ‘I don’t know if that’s true.’
“They insisted and so, I came in and read (the script), you know I’ve never done any acting before. They came up with the idea (of a western theme) about 10 years ago. Gillian Welch and David Rawlings wrote the song When A Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings but they didn’t use it at the time.
“I just think the timing was right, they had the right people to hand – including me,” he laughed.
He didn’t encounter Tom Waits on the set – “we were in Santa Fe, New Mexico and I believe Tom was in Montana or Colorado” – but he enjoyed the experience, before adding: “Yes, I’d do it again. If the opportunity comes up again, I’ll do more of that. Not some weird commercial or sitcom, though!”
As for the tour, he is certainly looking forward to braving the UK winter. “I like playing to the audiences over there,” he said. “Generally, the audiences are respectful pretty much wherever you go.
“Over here (the USA), sometimes I get one or two shows where people see it as a social event. I do prefer a listening audience because it’s just me up there on stage and it can be a tricky thing.”
The songs he recorded for Folksinger Vol.2 should keep the audiences rapt as the songs are populated by a diverse crew of characters from a long-gone era but have modern parallels. His research into that priceless archive of traditional song must have been a labour of love for an avowed roots-music devotee.
“I’m not trying to prove any point here,” he insists, “and I’m not trying to be a purist. There’s so much beauty in this old music, and it affects me on a deep level. It moves me and inspires me. I heard Leadbelly singing with the Golden Gate Quartet and it sounded fantastic, and I thought, ‘I want to do
that.’ “I heard the Grateful Dead doing their version of ‘On the Road Again,’ and it sounded like a dance party in 1926, and I wanted to do that, too. That’s the whole reason I ever played music in the first place – because it looked and sounded like it was going to be a lot of fun.” There were challenges, of course. “I’ve been listening to (Texas gospel/ blues guitarist/singer) Blind Willie Johnson – I think he was a genius – and I had to work out how to play some of these things. I mean I’m not much of a slide-guitar player, so I had to find a different way that I could feel comfortable with.” There will, he adds, be another volume of similar songs in the future. Perhaps not his next record for which he may opt for something quite different but a future project certainly.
The versatile Watson also has his own vintage-inspired women’s clothing company, the ethos of which chimes perfectly with his approach to music-making. Willie Watsonn
There’s so much beauty in this old music, and it affects me on a deep level. It moves and inspires me