Search - Doc Watson :: Southbound

Six Star, an historic and controversial album you need it

Tony Thomas | SUNNY ISLES BEACH, FL USA | 04/21/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I can remember the controversy this album caused when I bought it in the summer of 1967 was it? I remember taking up to play it at the home of a great fiddler with the banjo player in our band (I was what passed for a guitarist then). I remember the shock it engendered as well as the smiles. Then I remember 15 minutes ago, still disputing its importance and reference to the history of folk music collection and production on an e-mail list composed of world-class scholars and pickers of this kind of music. If you don't have it, buy it.

This is Doc Watson unleashed. He is no longer just providing traditional folk music renditions for the true folklore crowd. He and his now late son Merle are there to present the kind of music of broad mixtures that they wanted to play and share. We have everything from real blues and banjo music, to a hot swing jazz rendition of Sweet Georgia Brown, and soft pop jazzy Chet Atkins stuff. We have singer song writer music like Last Thing on Your mind, and ersatz folk music arranged to sound like pop folk in Alberta. We have new songs written by Doc and Merle like Southbound. We have an explosion of talent, creativity, a new direction in music that foretells the great acoustic mixture of country, bluegrass, folk, jazz, and swing played at virtuosi a level that was to become a great blend of music not only for the Doctor, but for thousands of musicians and millions of listeners in the 35 years since. Most of all this is a warm sweet fun album. It is an album that takes the weariness off your back, puts a smile back on your face, and may make it easier for you to get warm and friendly with someone you love! For the musician Doc and Merle goes beyond what we had thought was mind blowing abilities in "The Song of the Road" where Doc flat picks flamingo and in "Sweet Georgia Brown" where Doc takes on an all time show off take off tune and demolishes all previous pretenders to the guitar except maybe Django Rheinhart's version which may only be equaled here, and in "Nashville Pickin'" where tells the old boys on Music Row that the Doc is a comin'. All this makes me think of is really great single malt whiskey, fine food, served out on a beautiful balcony with a good friend. Get this if you don't have it. If you have it, you might not be secure with just one copy!"

Bluegrass Essential

cvairag | Allan Hancock College | 02/07/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"While we are in the midst of a belated folk revival, a number of compilations of this bluegrass master's work have been produced. In many senses, these are great. But if your funds are limited and you want the best Doc Watson studio session, or one representative CD - you've found it.



Made by Vanguard, back in the days when the coherence of moods on a record had something to do with its acceptance, Southbound is not only a dazzling glissade of pickin' (esp. the title cut) - but is a recording with atmosphere, and well, wisdom.



Most everyone loves the oft covered "Tennessee Stud" - most haunting, however, is "Call of the Road" which, like Dylan's "Lonesome Hobo", cuts to the core. My only critique here is that Watson is almost too polished a musician too ever convey the raw side of emotion (although he can evoke the depths) - the rawness which everyone of those classic delta blues people effortlessly project. Yet, in its own right, Southbound endures as one of the true monuments of folk. Profound, moving, plain song, in the best sense of the word, with as many shifts in mood and feeling as there are in the day.

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