Doc Watson and David Grisman

They first played together in the early 1960s, when Watson was appearing at Gerde’s Folk City in New York and invited the teenage Grisman on stage to play mandolin on “In the Pines.” Their studio work began in July 1987, at Bayview Studios, and continued at Grisman’s own Dawg Studios in October 1990 and in 1991. Some of those sessions supplied the tracks Watson sang on Grisman’s Rounder double album Home Is Where the Heart Is (1988), such as “My Long Journey Home” and “Feast Here Tonight.” In his notes for Doc & Dawg Grisman described the tapes as after-dinner sessions at his home during Watson’s visits, with the songs chosen on the spot and usually played only once.

Doc & Dawg, produced by Grisman, was released on 19 August 1997. Its repertoire runs from Bill Monroe’s “Bluegrass Stomp” and “Kentucky Waltz” to Gershwin’s “Summertime” and the jazz standard “Sweet Georgia Brown,” with “What Is Home Without Love?,” “Frankie and Johnny,” “Soldier’s Joy,” a medley of fiddle tunes, “Watson Blues” and Grisman’s title instrumental. A later Acoustic Disc collection, Complete Studio Recordings, gathers the complete takes from the sessions for both albums: twenty-one titles and fourteen unissued alternate takes, among them different renditions of “Watson Blues,” “Blue Grass Stomp” and “Doc & Dawg.”

The duo toured behind the album in 1997 and 1998 with Lawrence, who traveled with Watson for many years. On 10 October 1997 they played a full concert at Acoustic Stage, recorded by Grisman’s sound engineer Larry Cumings; it included two Grisman originals and a short duet set by Watson and his grandson, Richard, Merle Watson’s son, and Acoustic Disc issued it in November 2018. At the Mello Performing Arts Center in Watsonville, California, the three played twenty-four songs, among them “Deep River Blues,” “In the Jailhouse Now,” Grisman’s “EMD” and a new version of “In the Pines,” and the town’s mayor renamed it “Doc Watsonville” for the evening. On 22 October 1998 they played two sets to a sold-out house at Town Hall in New York, also recorded by Cumings. In all, the three live releases hold more than eighty performances.

Grisman’s Dawg Plays Big Mon (Acoustic Disc, 2012), a collection of his Bill Monroe recordings, drew on the partnership for “Kentucky Waltz,” “In the Pines” and “Bluegrass Stomp,” with Watson on guitar and singing lead on “In the Pines.” Watson died in May 2012.