WILLIE WATSON (OLD CROW MEDICINE SHOW) @ THE RUBY LOUNGE

Looking like a man from leaner and meaner times, Willie Watson steps on stage with a quiet gravitas. But, when he opens his mouth & lets out that high lonesome vocal, you can hear him loud & clear.

His debut solo album is Folk Singer Vol. 1. The album spans 10 songs from the American folk songbook. Like the music, Willie can be murderous, bawdy or lustful, sometimes in the course of a single song, with a sly sense of humor that cuts to the quick. He counters a masterful bravado with the tragic fragility of one who has been wounded.

With a voice that could quaver in the operatic style of his favorite, Roy Orbison, Willie went on to discover North Carolina Appalachian fiddle & banjo players Tommy Jarrell & Fred Cockerham, & Folkways albums, including the groundbreaking 1952 Harry Smith comp, Anthology of American Folk Music, which helped kick-start the ‘60s folk revival captured in the Coen brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis. He discovered like-minded souls in Old Crow Medicine Show.

Watson’s work with Old Crow is already a large part of the reason that banjo & guitar driven music is heard everywhere in the air these days. On Folk Singer, we find Willie defending his musical turf. A true solo album in every sense, Watson is now center-stage, armed with an acoustic guitar, banjo & the occasional mouth harp. Hearing Watson’s skillful & subtle banjo & guitar accompaniments & soaring vocals unadorned for the first time is a revelation.

+ JIM McSHEE + THE KINDEST OF THIEVES

www.williewatson.com
www.facebook.com/williewatson
www.youtube.com/williewatsonofficial
www.twitter.com/williewatsongs
www.facebook.com/jimmcshee
www.facebook.com/kothieves
www.therubylounge.com
www.twitter.com/therubylounge
www.instagram.com/rubyloungemcr
www.twitter.com/classiclsum
www.classicslum.com

www.ticketline.co.uk / 0161 832 1111
www.ticketweb.co.uk / 08444 771 000

Price: £13 adv
More info