Free Music Friday – Amazing Grace

As with most folks my age, church was an integral part of my childhood and formative years.  When the doors were open, we were there, whether by choice or force of our parents.  The church we attended allowed no musical instruments. All songs were sung accapella, with the song leader using an old shape-note songbook.

Although Amazing Grace is a long-time standard, it was Doc Watson who really brought the song to a wide variety of audiences throughout the world.

In this clip, Doc opens the melody with a harmonica, then goes to the old-time accapella version so often heard in the mountains.  I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve heard this song echoing off the hills as it’s sung at a graveside service, but it never ceases to affect me.  Whether I’m hearing it in a crowded auditorium or at Sunday service alter call, there’s something about this song that touches a spot deep in my heart.  I can’t help but wonder how many of us have been equally touched.

Hope y’all have a good weekend.

Amazing Grace

Over 200 years ago, a former slave trader turned minister named John Newton wrote the words to what would later become one of the recognized spiritual songs in existence: Amazing Grace.   Although some of the verses have changed over the years, the message still remains the same – God’s forgiveness is available regardless of the sins committed.

It’s similar to being handed a clean slate, where one shucks off the old and puts on the new.

Here in the mountains, it’s one of the first songs we learn.  It’s entrenched in us. No one ever really teaches us the words. It’s ingrained into us.  If we are at a revival, we know, without looking, that when that song is sung, there will be many with tears in their eyes, or hands outstretched to the Heavens. Scarcely anyone who sings it or hears it can be unaffected.

As Kent Gustavson writes in Blind But Now I See, “In New York City, 1961, Doc Watson sang Amazing Grace “with a voice that was straight and true. He added no frills, displaying nothing but true piety and emotion as he shut his eyes tightly and sang the hymn’s stanzas. John Cohen of the New Lost City Ramblers recalled Doc’s performance of Amazing Grace, ‘I was in the audience and I remember how moved I was by that moment when a blind man was leading us on those verses.’ ”

Cohen continued, “I think we all knew Amazing Grace before this.  But it never had an impact. It never sank in the same way.”

The song was heard again in New York City, in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, and  became the song which was salve and solace for an entire nation.

For those who feel the lyrics, Amazing Grace is truly a remarkable song which speaks to the heart.  And for Doc Watson, who values religion above all else, the song has even more meaning. “When I leave this world, and these are my honest feelings, I’ll be able to see like you can, only maybe a bit more perfect.”

Free Music Friday – Live from MerleFest

The first tune features Ralph Stanley on clawhammer banjo with Doc Watson on guitar. This was recorded live at the 2008 MerleFest.

The second tune shows the true diversity found at MerleFest. This song, Midnight Rider, was made famous by The Allman Brothers, and was one of Merle’s favorite tunes. On stage at MerleFest, this song hosts a myriad of musicians including Sam Bush, John Cowan, Doc Watson, Richard Watson and Friends.

In Gustavson’s book he says of Merle’s funeral, “… people said their last goodbyes and walked away. Merle’s friends then sang ‘Midnight Rider’ over the grave, and it was finished. Merle was gone.”

I can only imagine the stillness that surrounded the mountains after their last chord faded away. A fine tribute in itself.

Hope y’all have a great weekend.

MerleFest

As the merlefest.org website says, “It all began with a gardener who wanted to raise funds for gardens on the campus of a rural North Carolina Community College and a community of musicians who wanted to honor the memory of a fallen friend and his musician father. It grew to an internationally renowned music festival and fundraiser that contributes more than $17 million to the region. It’s MerleFest.”

In Gustavson’s book, he writes that “while Doc Watson spent most of his life trying to avoid being put on a pedestal, he worked hard after Merle’s death to put his son on one.”  With this in mind, MerleFest became a pilgrimage of sorts, not only to the Watson family, but to the thousands who attend each yearly event.

The first event came about “on a wing and prayer,” but today’s event is highly organized and involves over 70 non-profit organizations, over 800 volunteers, crowds in excess of 50,000 and some of the greatest musicians in acoustical music.

The music at MerleFest spotlights traditional plus style, which is what Doc Watson called the music he played.  A genre unto itself, traditional plus is like Doc Watson himself. Said Greg Brown, “Doc Watson bridges many styles of American music. That stew is very rich, made up of all the music that came in here from the British Isles, from Africa, from all over. Doc’s bowl of that stew is full and runneth over.”

You might want to go ahead and mark your calendars for the next MerleFest, April 28 thru May 1, 2011, Wilkes Community College, located in the quadrangle between Boone, Statesville, Hickory and Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

For more details about MerleFest, including how to volunteer, see their website at http://www.merlefest.org/

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