Season 340: Doc and Merle

Re: the parent/child theme, here's a song I wrote about my dad who died of cancer when I was 10. He was the Best Dad Ever.

I found that everybody studiously avoided the subject because either it was too painful for them, or for me, or because they just didn't know what to say.

Sometimes I imagine trying to explain what I do for a living (I work in software) to my dad if he were around today, and I don't know where to begin when the world has changed so drastically in the last 20 years. "Right, so there's this thing called the Internet...yeah that dial-up thing but uh, much better..." Kind of mind-boggling. Anyway. Yesterday was the song played at his funeral.


Glad u shared this song again. I hadn’t heard it before and it is wonderful. I don’t always get the chance to participate each week and miss a lot of good new music 🎶 Sadly I cannot even begin to know how u must really feel. Sorry for your loss ☹️
 
I used to have one of those tutorial videos that some one gave me. It was Doc Watson, who I knew by name and in relation to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s Will The Circle Be Unbroken, But I’d never actually heard or seen him play. To say I was blown away by his flat picking and thumb pick work would be an understatement. One of the tunes he taught was Deep River Blues. I used to play it on guitar with that great alternating bass on the bottom two strings. On baritone Uke I don’t have that luxury but it still came out ok. I lost that video many years ago. I wouldn’t say I was a die hard Doc fan, but I do have a couple of his records and his playing still leaves me in awe.
 
Hello, Rick ... thanks so much for the week! I put this up about an hour ago and then realised that I was "out of sync", so took it down and started again. This song was covered by Doc and Merle Watson.

 
Here's a famous Merle Travis song. When I was 5 years old I listened to this song, and Rye Whiskey by Tex Ritter, over and over on a 40's and 50's country compilation album that was on hand. My Grandma came into the bedroom after I'd listened to them like 10 times each and said "You like this music"?? I said "Uhhhh, yeah"...I think they thought it was a phase at the time....

 
Here's one of my favorite Louvin Brothers songs that Merle Haggard did with Carl Jackson on a Louvin Brothers tribute CD. Played three instruments on this one, and our dog Rayna makes two appearances, since it was storming and a dog named Rayna is deathly afraid of rain.....

 
Joan Osbourne say that this song by Doc Pomus has almost always been considered
to be bubble gum music, but then she sung the second verse very slowly and it became poetry.
If you have never heard of Doc Pomus then you will come to realise he wrote many of the hits
from the 50's and 60's

He contracted polio as a young boy and one of his greatest hits was "Save the last dance for me"
and legend has it that he got the idea at his wedding, since he could not dance with his bride.

So this is Sweets for my Sweet done slowly.
 


One of my dreams is to write a song cycle about Julia Platt, Ed “Doc” Ricketts, John Steinbeck, and the death and rebirth of Monterey Bay. If I ever write this, I probably won’t include this song.
 
House of the Rising Sun

This is one of the first songs I ever learned on guitar many years ago and as it was the first one to come up on You Tube when I searched for Doc Watson I thought it was a perfect match. Hope you like my version of 'The House of the Rising Sun'. This is played on my new koAloha solid Koa long neck soprano uke. Still trying to find my own voice after so many years of not really singing.

 
Thanks for hosting Rick. I have a hectic week here, as I have two exchange students arriving back from their summer vacation in China, and school starts this Thursday. I wanted to get at least one song in here, and if i have time i'll try for more Rick. Certainly no lack of ideas. In addition to loving both Doc Watson and Merle Haggard's body of work, i'm happy (but embarrassed to admit) to have discovered Doc Pomus and his wonderful story. This tune is called the Cuckoo. It's a little ragged on timing, but I liked the feeling of the take. And time was short. Look forward to listening to other entries this evening as well . . .

 
Another DOC-AND-MERLE-TUNE, this time it has been played by Doc Watson as well as by Merle Travis. They both picked it in Travis-picking on their guitars, I strummed the chords on my concert uke and played the melody on my Kala tenor guitar. The name of that song?
I am a Pilgrim
 
I am going to promise to play only five SONGS...but I am not going to promise to not bend that rue a little bit. I couldn't figure out how I liked this one better, so lucky you (LOL)- I played it two ways

or

I will let you all decide
 
It looks like I'm going to have to buy another batch of rechargeable batteries; none of them will hold a charge anymore. Oh well, I know I worked them pretty hard! So I made a slideshow again. This really takes a long time. Using my baritone, capo'd on the third fret, I think it was. This is a hard song to sing because it has a very wide range. I guess I would have to say this is my favorite Merle Travis song, but when I do it, I'm much more heavily influenced by the Wall of Voodoo cover. I deleted the second stanza, otherwise it would have been about 6 minutes long.

 


My second song in a potential song cycle about Julia Platt, Ed “Doc” Ricketts, and the death and rebirth of Monterey Bay. This one fared a little better than yesterday’s.

Thank you to our Rickulele for subscribing! I am now at 80 subscribers and would love to end today with 81. If you haven’t already, please subscribe to my new YouTube channel! If you have, share it with someone you love.
 
I know this song fairly well from the O.C. Smith cover that got to number 2 in the UK charts in 1968. Have always loved this song, and the premise of it, a mother so devoted to her children she’ll sell herself so her children don’t starve. It was written by Dallas Frazier who also wrote a great song I discovered called “ The Birthmark Henry Thompson Talks About” , which sounds a bit too much like Hickory Holler’s Tramp to start with but finds its own way eventually. I was made up when I saw this song was on the last of songs Merle Haggard covered, and a really good cover it is too. Don’t care much for Kenny Rogers version though :D It’s a bit of a pig to sing I have to say.....
 
Hi Rick! I'm probably being exceedingly dense, but I can't upload the Playlist. Every time I click on it, it comes up with your Intro. for the Season. I am sure this is just me, but I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.
 
Hi Rick! I'm probably being exceedingly dense, but I can't upload the Playlist. Every time I click on it, it comes up with your Intro. for the Season. I am sure this is just me, but I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.

Val, thanks for the catch! I had my intro rather than the list linked. Fixed now, I hope!
 
Greetings,

Well the choice was easy, I only know one Merle or Doc song! So here it is, banjolele version of Mama Tried. Ciao

 
In 1997, the album Doc and Dawg apeeared. It features Doc Watson's collaboration with mandolin player David Grisman. Most of the tracks are well-known folk tunes but there is also a great version of Gershwin's Summertime. I already covered this song on my electric tenor guitar for the Willie-Nelson-season, so I re-recorded it with my bowlback mandolin. I do not attempt in any way to play as good as Grisman, he's in a class by himself, improvisising and playing licks around the songs melody.
I'm glad if I nail the melody without too many wrong notes.
 
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