{"id":138606,"date":"2023-05-23T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-23T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/?p=138606"},"modified":"2023-05-31T20:24:12","modified_gmt":"2023-06-01T03:24:12","slug":"powerful-doc-watson-tribute-i-am-a-pilgrim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/powerful-doc-watson-tribute-i-am-a-pilgrim\/","title":{"rendered":"Powerful Doc Watson Tribute \u2018I Am a Pilgrim\u2019 Surprises with Star-Studded Cast of Players\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By the time he died, Arthel Lane \u201cDoc\u201d Watson (1923\u20132012) and his music had traveled all around the world, farther than anyone in the guitarist\u2019s hometown of Stony Fork, North Carolina, could have imagined. Along the way, Watson influenced more people than you and I can count, enough to fill a thousand tribute albums and still have room for more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Various Artists, <\/em>I Am a Pilgrim: Doc Watson at 100<\/a> (FLi Records\/Budde Music)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That left plenty of space for Mitch Greenhill, Watson\u2019s former manager, to hand select the lineup for I Am a Pilgrim<\/a><\/em>\u2014a star-studded new record celebrating the life and legacy of Watson, who would have turned 100 on March 3 of this year\u2014starting with his choice of producer: Matthew Stevens, a Berklee-educated, Manhattan-based jazz guitarist who\u2019s recorded with modern jazz bassists Esperanza Spalding and Ben Williams. Stevens is the first clue this is going to be an unconventional homage, and from there, all it takes is a short subway ride to fill the album\u2019s 15 tracks, with some choices un-likelier than others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the furthest edge, there\u2019s Ariel Posen, who launches into a solo electric take on \u201cWill the Circle Be Unbroken?\u201d with a blast of slide guitar that\u2019s heavy on tremolo and light on what people used to call folk purity. (For the record, Watson didn\u2019t even own an acoustic guitar when he was discovered by the Smithsonian\u2019s Ralph Rinzler.) Posen is followed by Marc Ribot (guitars) and Eszter Balint (fiddle) on \u201cThe Lost Soul,\u201d a rough, discordant take on the grimmest note in Watson\u2019s catalog, covered in a version that sounds like Kurt Weill crossed with Gaither Carlton. Equally unlikely, West African jazz guitarist Lionel Loueke double-tracks himself on electric guitar, playing a fuzz-toned rhythm at the bottom of the neck and a crisp, bright lead at the top, calling on the spirit of thumb piano to bridge Benin and Stony Fork.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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