Ballads From Deep Gap, recorded by Doc and Merle Watson in 1971, represents one of the purest expressions of the duo's approach to traditional Appalachian song. Doc Watson, the guitarist and singer from Watauga County, North Carolina, had spent the 1960s introducing the broader folk revival audience to the living ballad tradition of the southern mountains. His son Merle Watson appears as a sympathetic second guitarist whose understated accompaniment never competes with his father's voice. 'The Cuckoo,' a widely distributed British-derived ballad that took deep root in Appalachian tradition, anchors the album in the region's oldest musical layers. The record belongs in the small canon of recordings that document the mountain ballad tradition as living practice, performed by artists for whom these songs were family inheritance.
Tracklist
- 1 Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms alt version 2:52
- 2 My Rough & Rowdy Ways 2:32
- 3 The Wreck Of The Old #9 2:58
- 4 Gambler's Yodel 2:57
- 5 The Cuckoo Source Recording 2:49
- 6 Stack O'lee 3:55
- 7 Willie Moore 4:04
- 8 Travellin' Man 3:31
- 9 The Tragic Romance alt version 3:20
- 10 Texas Gales alt version 3:39
- 11 The Lawson Family Murder alt version 2:39
- 12 Ballads From Deep Gap alt version 2:49
- 13 The Wreck of the Old Number Nine alt version 2:53
