Dougie MacLean, the great Scottish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, tweeted this morning on news of Doc Watson’s death that he had once spent a month with the Watson family in the 1970s. Intrigued, I contacted him via his web site and was sent this this comment. Small world, music is.
“In my early 20’s (as a young out-of-work musician) I got the job of driving a minibus with Doc and his whole family on a European Tour — carrying Doc’s guitars and acting as road manager. Young as I was as well as being from rural Scotland, I was not familiar with old time American music and I spent a month being totally ‘blown away’ watching and listening to Doc and Merle onstage. They were very kind to me as a young musician and I felt that I formed a close bond with the whole family — along with Michael T. Coleman and his wife. I spent a lot of time with Merle and we had great adventures in many European cities. Mannie Greenhill was also on tour with us. Some of my fondest memories are of driving down German autobahns with Doc and the family singing gospel songs.”
Here are some videos – one from Dougie, the other from Doc:
