Willie Watson, formerly with Old Crow Medicine Show, has a new album, Folk Singer Vol. 1, and is touring on his own—one man, one guitar, and a passel of folk and blues standards, rare gems, and inspired originals. He plays songs by the likes of Leadbelly and Charley Jordan, interpreting them by his own lights. “There’s a lot of weight in the way Willie performs,” says David Rawlings, musical partner of Gillian Welch and producer of Willie’s new album. “He’s had some tragedy in his life, which has informed his art. There’s an emotional edge to what he does because of who he is as a human being. Willie is the only one of his generation who can make me forget these songs were ever sung before.”
 
Willie started to get serious about music back in Watkins Glen, New York, moved to Ithaca for awhile, went busking across Canada with Old Crow Medicine Show, and moved into a cabin on Beech Mountain, in North Carolina, where the band met Doc Watson and other local musicians who proved to be generous in sharing their repertoire of old time songs and arrangements. The band had a string of successful albums and released the huge hit “Wagon Wheel,” which sold in the millions—and Willie’s driving rhythm guitar and plaintive tenor vocals played a major role in the band’s success. Since going solo, Willie played last year’s Another Day, Another Time concert organized by T-Bone Burnett to celebrate the music of the movie Inside Llewyn Davis and raise money for the National Recording Preservation Foundation. Tonight’s show offers the chance to see one of the bright lights on the music scene today.

Visit Willie Watson's website