★★★★★
Tweet Paddle Faster! Willie Watson is a folk singer out of Watkins Glen, New York, who, after stumbling upon a Leadbelly record at age 12, has come to produce his own old-time mountain music. His brand of folk country blends a heavy amount of bluegrass and string band styles, taking rhythms from the latter and banjo leads from the prior. This month he released his debut album, which comes off as classic and clean as the country that inspired it. Willie Watson's Folk Singer Vol...
- www.mxdwn.com
2014-05-20
★★★★★
The solo debut from from former Old Crow Medicine Show rhythm guitarist Willie Watson is a straightforward collection of folk traditionals and covers. Produced by Dave Rawlings, Folk Singer Vol. 1 presents a version of folk that ranges from 19th century standards ("Stewball") to 50's R&B hits ("Mother Earth"), to 60's murder ballads ("Rock Salt and Nails"), but Watson largely sticks to the blues canon of the pre-WWII American south...
- www.americansongwriter.com
2014-05-06
★★★★★
Since leaving Old Crow Medicine Show -- a band he co-founded -- Willie Watson hasn't lost a step. On this haunting, haunted collection of 1920s-era country blues and Appalachian standards, Watson sounds every bit the maven of the post-millennium folk revival that his acolytes know him to be. Produced by (who else?) Dave Rawlings and Gillian Welch, Watson's intimate solo performances come through clearly, caressed by the lightest touch of reverb, the suspicion of an echo...
- exclaim.ca
2014-05-13
★★★★★
Buy it from Buy the CDWillie WatsonFolk Singer Volume 1Acony2014 "The old weird America" is how critic Greil Marcus described the national canon of blues and folk song that is lovingly explored here by a founder of the Old Crow Medicine Show turned solo. Willie Watson's voice is remarkable...
- www.theguardian.com
2014-05-04