BE SURE YOU'VE GIVEN US YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS

In

August 1970 Doc Watson spoke with Ron Stanford

in

Deep-Gap, North

Carolina.

Some of

the material to

appear

in

"The Music of Doc Watson" appears

here.

'To me, A-Rovin' On A

Winter's

Night

isjust

about one of

the prettiest

old-time

love

songs

that

you could hope

tofind

anywhere.

I'll

never

forget

thenight

when Ralph Rinzler and

I

went down

to

Dolly and Len

Greer's

house. Outside you could hear

the

sound of those

littlefrogsthat

you hear

in the spring

around

the

edge of

a

stream or

a

swampy

area,

and

in

the

distance

you could hear an occasional whippoorwill.

It

was

in thissetting that

Dolly sang A-Rovin' On A

Winter's

Night.

^"

Moderately

1.

A

^-

rov

- in'

On A Win-ter's

Night,

E7 D A

m

Let

me

think about music for a minute.

My

first introduction to music

came from my memory

of being heldin

my

mother's arms very comfortably.I

remember

the feeling

was

very

warm

and thesound

was

likethatof

The Lone

Pilgrimbeing harmonized

by

the congregation.

From my

veryearlychildhood on,I

can

remember my mother

singing.

She'd singaroundthehouse while churningbutter, or whilepatching

some

ofdad's overalls thathe'd

worn

thelifeoutof.

My

daddidn'tplay aroundthehouse too

much. He was

a prettyserious fellowand devoted

most

ofhiseveningsto trying to see that

we

got

enough

^ofthe

word

of

God

so that

we knew

the

Golden

Rule and the

way

to live morally decentlives,andthat

we knew some

ofthe songssothat

we

couldsing along

when

hetookus tochurch.

Both

of

my

parents

worked

very hardtokeepus

from

starving; there were eleven ofus in the family,and

it

was

rightduringthe depression.

I used to play with everything thathadamusical sound aroundthe house.I

must

have beena real pest to

my

mother. Every Christmas,just as farback asI canremember, Santa Clausslipped aharmonicainthe big oldstockingthatI'd gettohang

up on

themantlepiece.Thatwas

my

firstintroductionto amusicalinstru- ment. I could play tunes

on

the harmonicapretty well,even beforeI

could note a single tune

on

the banjo.

My

brother Arnold played the banjoat

home,

and every oncein a while

my

father

would

pick afew tunes.

One

day

Dad

toldme,

"You know,

^{I believe}

you

couldlearnto playabanjo, son.I'vea

good mind

to

make you

one."That

was

alongin thewinter

when

hesaid that,andthe next

summer

he

came

inwith

some

piecesfora five-string.

He made

a round maple hoop,

managed

to find

some

tensionhooks,and

made

itso thattheheadpartlookedalittlelike a no'the'n banjo, orone that was builtinafactory.

Istartedplayingthe guitar alittle

when my

firstcousinlefthisguitarat our housefora while;also, Ihad learned afew chords from anold

boy

atschool

who

played theguitar.1

was messing with

my

cousin's guitar

one

morning

before

Dad went

to work,and he turned aroundto

me

after he had finishedhisbreakfast andsaid,

"Now,

son,^if

you

learn to play justonelittletune

on

^that

by

thetimeIgetback,we'llgoto

town

Saturday and

buy you

aguitar."

Well,I

knew

Ihad

him

rightthere, because I

knew

almost

enough

^al- readytoplaya song,andI

knew

that I could be singing alongwith

my

playing

by

thetimehe got back.

The

firstsongIlearned

on

the guitarwas

When The

Roses

Bloom

In Dixieland by theCarterFamily.

My

dad was just as

good

as hisword;

we went

to

town

and found

me

alittleguitar.It

was

one of thoseten dollarguitars—

a

pretty

good

littlething to learnon, butashardtofret asabarbed wire fence.

A

few yearslater,

when

I

was

sixteen orseventeen,Iearned

enough money from

cutting

down some

dead chestnut extract timber (used for tanning leather) to ordera guitar

from

Sears and

Roebuck.

While I learned a lot ofmusic

from my

family andthepeople

who

livednearus,Ialsolearneda great deal ofmusic from records.

Dad worked

a

week

at the sawmilland boughtalittlewind-up

graphophone

and fiftyor sixty records

from my

uncle,

who

had decided to

buy

a bigger one. There

was

everything

from Jimmie

RodgerstotheCarter Family, GidTanner andtheSkillet Lickers, and

John

Hurt.

When

I started toplaythe guitar Ilistened especiallytorecordsofthesepeople and othersincluding,ofcourse,the

Delmore

Brothers, and later on.

Merle Travis. I

knew

hardlyany of therecordingstarspersonally.Idid

know

Clarence Ashley and Garley Fosterthough.Ineverhadthe plea- sureofmeeting

Jimmie

Rodgers, and I'm sorry to say that I never

met

Uncle

Dave Macon.

I lovedhisre- cordswithallthefunandfoolishness hedidinhissinging.I've

met May-

belle and Sarah Carter since I've

grown

up,but back thenI didn't

know

them.

When you

hear the music of a lot of those people, though, notjust oneor

two

songs but avariety ofthings,

you

realize

when you meet them

that

you

al- ready

know them

through their music.

About

the time I waseighteen.

the

name "Doc"

happened.I

was

doingaremote control radio

show

from a furniture store in Lenoire, North Carolina.

The young man

I

worked

with playedthe guitarand sang some,andhis

name was

Paul Greer; theycalled

him

Paul,

which was

niceand short overtheradio.

The

announcer

came

to

me

before

we

were

on

theairandsaid,

"Your

name's Arthel."

He pronounced

it

kindofslow andsaid,"That'stoo long.What'sa

good

short

name

for the radio? Let's think

up

a

good name

right here."There wasa

young

lady there-she

must

havebeenfour- teen orfifteen-andshe yelled out,

"Call

him

'Doc'^".Inever found out

who

shewas;shewasjustbackinthe audienceinthe furniturestore.

The name "Doc"

has

come

invery

handy

to

me

asaprofessionalbecauseit's easy toremember.

Iplay the guitarbecauseIloveit better than any other instrument thatIcouldever

hope

to learn

how

toplay.

When

Iplay a song,beit

on

theguitarorbanjo,Ilivethatsong, whetheritisa

happy

songor asad song. Music, as awhole, expresses

many

things tome-everything

from

beautifulsceneryto the tragediesand joys oflife. IfI feelgood, I play musicto

expend

energy. Sometimes, too,^ifI'm under tension,andI've got a guitaranda

good

song

on my

mind,firstthingI

know,

I'm relaxed again.

Whether

I'm playingjustfor myself orfor anenthusiasticaudi- ence,Icangetthesame emotionsI

had

when

Ifoundthat

Dad

had seen toitthatSanta Claus broughtexact- ly

what

I

wanted

forChristmas.

A

true entertainer,Ithink,doesn'tever

losethat feeling.

3^

17 reasons

why you ^{should read}

psychology today

1 Why words

arethe least

important

ofthe

ways we communicate with each

other.

2 The

sexual

reason behind

the popularity of natural childbirth.

3 ^Why

^politicalleaders are constantlyin

danger

ofinsanity.

4 Why Asians make

better politicians

than Westerners.

5 ^{Do men need more}

^recreation

^{than women?}

6 What

kind of

parents do

hippies

make?

7 ^Why

^it

^{may be time}

^to

^end

^the

^taboo

against incest.

8 ^The

inferiority feelings of

men who seek corporate power.

9 ^What

^the

schizophrenic

istrying totellus.

10 Are campus

activists rebelling against the

system-or

their

parents?

1 1

What your daydreams

reveal

about your

ethnic

background.

12 ^Why do swingers tend

to

become impotent?

13

^Isit

^time

^to

^grant

the right to

commit

suicide?

14 ^Does

a child think

before he can

talk?

15 ^Why

^aretoday's

students

attracted toviolence?

16 Are "hawks"

sexually

repressed?

17 Are some men born

criminals?

Wanttolearnwhat modernpsychology has learned about people? Including you?

Untilrecently,thatwasquitean order. Your choicewouldhavebeentoplow throughprofessionallournals.Readweightynewbooksasquicklyasthey cameout.Or trust themassmedia—wherepsychologyisoften sensational- ized,distorted,oversimplified.

PSYCHOLOGY TODAYhaschangedallthat.Itallowstheeducatedlayman tocatchup with the social sciences.Andkeep up. Withfullcoverage ofall thedifferentapproachestounderstandingthehumancondition.Theview- pointsrangefromhard-coreFreudianismtothenewerbehavioristswho, frankly, think Freudwasallwet.

It'spsychology thewayyou'dwantittobe presented. Excitingly. Without tiredlargon.Nocliche-ridden definitions.Andwith contributions bymanyof themost famous namesinthebehavioralsciences—likeBrunoBettelheim, KennethB.Clark,RolloMay, Ashley Montagu, Carl Rogers andB.F.Skinner.

Sendfor acomplimentaryissue YoucanfindoutwhatPSYCHOLOGY TODAY^islike—and learnafew things youmayneverhaveknownbefore

—

without payingapenny.Ifyou mail the coupon,we'llsend youacomplimentaryissueofPSYCHOLOGY TODAY.

There'sno obligation.

psychologytoday

P.O.Box2990, Boulder, Colorado80302 Pleasesendme mycomplimentarycurrentissueofPSYCHOLOGY TODAY.Imaykeepmysamplecopyandowenothing However, unlessIcancel,youmayenrollmeasatrialsubscriberand send methenext11issues.Billmeaftermysubscriptionhasstarted ataspecialIntroductoryrate-|ust$6.00(Halftheregular$12 annualprice).