ered McEuen. As McEuen tells it, it all went down in a different way. Here is the rest of the story, according to McEuen. “Merle was concerned and working hard at
being the road manager and the caretaker, and he was actually more interested in doing construction (work) than he was music,” says McEuen. “That was where his heart really was. But, he liked to play. One of the things that Doc was always mentioning or telling (concerning Merle’s involvement on the ‘Cir- cle’ album), well, Merle didn’t want to be on the album. In fact, he was in the studio and we’d say, ‘Hey, do you want to come out here and sing?’ He’d say, ‘Oh, this is for Daddy. I want to make sure he gets on here right.’ I originally asked Doc, I was at a club in Col- orado called Tulagi’s, and it was a week after I first asked him if he would record with the Dirt Band, to which he said, ‘I’d be proud to,’ and I went to see Doc the next week to ask him the same question. Nobody knew I was doing that, except I had told Merle I was com- ing. And, I told him all about it, and (Merle) was all excited. He said, ‘With Daddy’s career, Folk music is kind of going downhill. We’re drawing fewer and fewer people. This would be great.’ “But, Doc was kind of miffed about that
(Merle not playing on the record). I tried to straighten it out, because Doc was bothered that Earl Scruggs’ sons were on it, but Merle wasn’t. Earl’s sons, not that they were more aggressive, but they had roles to play. Let’s put it this way; it happened really quick. ‘Merle, do you want to play on this?’ ‘No. I’d rather watch.’ He would just say, ‘This is about my Dad.’ I would say that Merle is a great example of a humble man that didn’t want to get in the way of his father’s potential situation there. And, after the ‘Circle’ album came out, it was the highest-selling album Doc had ever been on, and people were re- questing ‘Tennessee Stud’ for the next 30
years.” Once the Circle sessions were under way,
some magic happened. Watson had grown up being a fan of the guitar playing of Merle Travis, whom Watson heard perform on WLW-AM out of Cincinnati while tuning in the radio on clear nights in the North Car- olina Mountains. Watson is not only known for his flatpicking style of playing guitar, but he was always a fantastic fingerpick guitarist as well. His main fingerpick influence was Travis. During the Circle sessions, Watson was introduced to Travis for the first time, and that unique and historic meeting was captured on tape. ‘We found out that they were such fans of
each other,” says McEuen. “‘Doc, I’ve always wanted to meet you.’ ‘Well Merle, I’ve always wanted to meet you. I named my son after you.’ My brother (band manager and album producer Bill McEuen) had the concept of adding the talking onto the album and run- ning tape the whole time, and that was an equally important part of the album. That was fun because Bill and I planned on it, knowing that they wanted to meet. I had to go, ‘Excuse me, Merle,’ and shove a microphone in front of his face because he was ten feet away from the mic. He didn’t know why. And, my brother is in the control room waving at me, ‘Get that mic over there!’ I’m so glad we cap- tured that.” The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band will play at Mer-
lefest 2013 on Saturday night at 10:20pm. I would not be surprised if some members of this legendary band also made an appearance elsewhere during this post-Doc celebration, as Watson will be honored by many musi- cians throughout the festival’s four days. More information on Merlefest 2013 can be found at
www.merlefest.org. •
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