Customer Reviews

Tradition

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This stuff is raw, real raw. This album doesn't pretend to show off in any way, the sound quality is a bit muffled, the picking a bit choppy and at one point, Doc's wife starts giggling, "Thats all I know" right in the middle of a song. But its all real beautiful stuff. The whole album is a hodgepodge of various acapella ballads, banjo tunes, fiddle tunes, etc., all passed down orally, by generations within the Watson family. Doc's wife highlights the album with some great old English-Appalachian ballads ("One Morning in May", "Early, Early in the Spring", "Children's Songs") sung with a alot of heart, soul and twang. Gaither's fiddle is haunting and Doc's more refined sound holds it all together. If you looking for some purely authentic mountain music with traditional tunes sung and played by real people who learned them in the traditional way, then definitely check this out.

Music is all around us. Pouring out from the radio and the concert halls. Dripping from the internet stream and the pod cast. Booming from the crowded discothèque and blues bars. Music is everywhere.

Some of the best music comes from places few have ever seen. In the empty pool halls, the back yards, the living rooms and thousands of garages there is beautiful, passionate, amazing music being played. Right now, from every corner of the globe, someone is playing a tune, singing a song.

Before there was DVD audio, CDs, 8 tracks and even vinyl records, there was a caveman sitting around a fire howling out a song about his battles to his cavewoman. Through time we moved out of the cave into cozier dwellings, but we're still sitting around a fire, singing about our lives, loves, and losses.


Years ago I had the experience of sitting around in a living room with a bunch of people and singing and playing. And it was like a spiritual experience. It was wonderful. I decided then that was what I wanted to do with my life was to play music, do music. In the making of records I think over the years we've all gotten a little too technical, a little too hung up on getting things perfect. And we've lost the living room. The living room has gone out of the music. -Emmylou Harris

In 1977 Doc Watson released Tradition, a record designed to put the living room back into the studio. It is not so much of a studio record, as a family sing a-long - quite literally since Watson uses his real family as a band. Doc is playing grandpa here, picking the guitar and singing songs older than the entire family put together. Dolly Greer is the grandmother singing silly children's songs on the porch and lonesome fiddle tunes in the kitchen. The rest of the family pitches in on guitar and banjo singing old timey tunes while we gather round to listen.

The record is like an old photograph found buried in the back of the closet in your great grandmother's closet. It's not the prettiest picture ever taken, nor something to take out and hang on your living room wall. It's a little tattered and worn, faded by the sun. Yet there is something familiar, comforting and beautiful about it.

Simple tunes like "Reuben's Train", and "Biscuits" will surely put a smile on your face, and if they don't make you get up and dance, you'll at least be tapping your foot along to the tune.

There are lots of little half-songs and snippets of tunes. Dolly Greer sings a medley of four children's songs that lasts less than three minutes in total. Her country accent is so heavy that you can hardly understand what it is exactly, that she's singing, but she does it with such a happy zeal you can hardly fault her for any of it. There are other half-played fiddle tunes and songs that seem so spur of the moment and forgotten halfway through that the album really does feel like a family sitting on the back porch watching a lazy summer day float away.

It is definitely not an album for everyone. Fans of tightly wound, well crafted pop songs will surely find disappointment in the casual feel of the songs. I suspect even bluegrass and country music fans may find themselves looking back at the record bin through part of the 45 minutes of music here. But for anyone interested in traditional music, for a patient listener willing to wait for something special, there is a wealth of beautiful music in this disk.

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With very unpretentious authenticity, "Tradition" was recorded by Ralph Rinzler and Daniel Seeger in 1964 and 1965. Besides featuring Doc himself, this album has an interesting mix of solo, duo and trio offerings with Doc's wife Rosa Lee Watson, father-in-law Gaither Carlton, cousin Dolly Greer, cousin Tina Greer, brother Arnold Watson, son Merle Watson, and others. As song carriers, the extended family kept their mountain music vibrant. In finest folkloric tradition, songs commonly shared among family and friends would be passed down through many generations.

I listened to a remastered edition of this album (wtih 24 tracks) that was released by Rounder on 10/25/05. Nine of the offerings on "Tradition" are simply presented as unaccompanied vocals. Many of the other songs are only accompanied by guitar, banjo or fiddle. With the exception of "The Faithful Soldier," don't expect any vocal harmony. And don't expect all the fiddling or singing to be perfectly in tune either. That's how they keep it gleefully rustic and down-home mountainous. However, there are plenty of joyful surprises to cherish. "Reuben's Train," for example, has the twin banjos of Arnold and Doc frailing along to Gaither's sawing on the fiddle. Gaither doesn't sing much, but when he does on Pretty Saro, Little Maggie, and Jimmy Sutton, he demonstrates the heartfelt charm of a true hillbilly musician.

The Rounder label is to be commended for the reissuance of this significant and important traditional mountain music. The songs represent a special chapter in this family's musical heritage. View the album as a timeless gift of songs, ballads, and instrumentals. Copious liner notes from A.L. Lloyd and Ralph Rinzler speak to the objectives of the record as a sampling of local tradition and as an illustration of a family's music. Doc's repertoire represents the three strands of traditional folk, rural professional, and even a commercial sense that grew from the former and other genres. Thus, we are given a sense of lineage and able to explore the roots of Doc Watson's legendary music. Sung and re-sung again, the songs have a lasting and immortal kind of effervescent quality.

Rinzler's notes say that some of the tunes at these mid-60s sessions had rarely been heard outside of the extended family circle. Youngsters and old timers alike came to listen and show appreciation during the recording in the sitting room at Doc's house. Now, with this album, folks of all ages can again relax and delight in the Watson Family's traditional music treasure chest. (Joe Ross, staff writer, Bluegrass Now)

it's a relief to hear the voices and instruments of the country musicians without the clutter of modern techno stuff that only masks the talent of these peoples artistry! thank you!