Search - Doc Watson & Merle :: Ballads From Deep Cap

A near-masterpiece from two American masters

Jerome Clark | Canby, Minnesota | 11/21/1998

(4 out of 5 stars)

"By now Doc Watson has been recorded so often that he's begun to seem like the Lightnin' Hopkins of Appalachian music. Like that great, much-documented Texas bluesman, though, he's so good that you suspect that he could do it in his sleep (actually, in the occasional less than fully inspired concert, that's exactly how he sounds). Even by Watson's elevated standards, however, Ballads from Deep Gap (recorded in 1967, released four years later) stands out. It's long been one of my favorite of his recordings, and it's stood up to a quarter century's listening. Longtime enthusiasts of old-time, bluegrass, early country, and folk balladry will recognize the chestnuts here -- "Roll in My Sweet Baby's Arms," "The Cuckoo," "Stack O'Lee," "Willie Moore," "Alabama Bound" -- and not complain in the least at Doc and his late son Merle's warm, assured approach; not a stale note sounds here. Doc takes a turn at yodeling in a couple of tunes, Jimmie Rodgers's classic "My Rough and Rowdy Ways" and Alton Delmore's obscure delight "Gambler's Yodel," and pulls off a fine comic performance of the venerable medicine-show song "Travellin' Man." With two great American musicians at the top of their game, everything works. Doc and Merle take joy in what they are doing and they take the listener along. Ballads from Deep Gap is not just lovely; it's just plain lovable."

JBERTSIESFAVS

R. M. Jansch | MINNEAPOLIS MN | 02/10/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I don't think there ever will be as great a duo of quitar/banjo players

as Doc and the late great Merle Watson. Two of the greatest additions to

anyones music library would be Two days in November and Ballads from Deep Gap. I listen to them as much today as when I accidently stumbled across

these gems in my brothers record collection some 30 yrs ago."