Merle Watson Memorial Bluegrass Festival
April 24-26, 1992
Wilkes Community College, Wilkesboro NC
Download FLAC: Google Drive
Partial compilation – 2021 transcription from “Pickin’ For Merle”
- The source was mid-90s cable TV broadcasts of “Pickin’ for Merle” recorded to 5 cassette masters by 3 people – XLII and IIS made on generic consumer decks.
- One source tape has an additional cassette generation. This material is tracks 52-66 below.
- Transferred in the early/mid 2010s via Onkyo cassette deck and Audacity, then parked for awhile in hopes the VHS would surface.
- Mastering and setlist in early 2021 by TRH aka Mr. Completely.
See below for notes and lineup details.
Setlist:
- Tony Rice All-Stars – Freeborn Man
- Peter Rowan & the Nashville Bluegrass Band w/Jerry Douglas – Midnight Moonlight
- various – chit chat 1
- Tony Rice Allstars – Nine Pound Hammer
- Tony Rice Allstars – Cold on the Shoulder
- Tony Rice Allstars – Whitewater
- Tony Rice Allstars – Molly and Tenbrooks
- Doc Watson & Ricky Skaggs – Foggy Mountain Top
- Skaggs & Rice – Where the Soul of Man Never Dies
- Skaggs & Rice – More Pretty Girls Than One
- Del McCoury Band w/ David Grisman – Fanny Hill
- Del McCoury Band w/ David Grisman – Randy Lynn Rag
- Del McCoury Band w/ David Grisman – I’m Thinking Tonight of My Blue-Eyes
- Tony Rice Unit – The Dusty Miller
- Tony Rice Unit w/Peter Rowan – White Dove
- Tony Rice Unit – Sally Goodin
- David Grisman Quintet – Dawg’s Rag
- David Grisman Quintet – Assanhado
- David Grisman Quintet – Grateful Dawg
- David Grisman Quintet – Dawgmatism
- David Grisman Quintet – Telluride
- Tim & Mollie O’Brien & The O’Boys – Liar
- Tim & Mollie O’Brien & The O’Boys – Dream of a Miner’s Child
- Tim & Mollie O’Brien & The O’Boys – Oh Darling
- Tim & Mollie O’Brien & The O’Boys – Shut the Door
- Tim & Mollie O’Brien & THe O’Boys w/Jerry Douglas – Hold to a Dream
- Doc Watson & Ricky Skaggs – What is a Home Without Love?
- Doc Watson & Ricky Skaggs – Nine Pound Hammer
- various – Chit chat 2
- Del McCoury Band w/David Grisman – Home is Where the Heart Is
- Del McCoury Band w/David Grisman – Long Journey Home
- Del McCoury Band w/David Grisman – Rain & Snow
- Del McCoury Band w/David Grisman – Rawhide
- Doc Watson & Friends – Blue Ridge Mountain Home
- Doc Watson, David Grisman and Alan O’Bryant – What Does the Deep Sea Say?
- Doc Watson, David Grisman and Friends – Blue Moon of Kentucky
- Roy Bookbinder – Rev. Gary Davis story, Hesitation Blues/Old Time Religion
- Peter Rowan – Dust Bowl Children
- Peter Rowan w/Jerry Douglas – On the Wings of Horses
- Bela Fleck and the Flecktones – Bonnie & Slyde
- Bela Fleck and the Flecktones – Celtic Medley
- Bela Fleck and the Flecktones – Flight of the Cosmic Hippo
- Peter Rowan & the Nashville Bluegrass Band – High Lonesome Sound
- Seldom Scene – Pickaway
- Seldom Scene – Carolina Star
- Seldom Scene – House of the Rising Sun/Walk Don’t Run
- Laurie Lewis & Grant Street – Singing Bird
- Laurie Lewis & Grant Street – I’m Gonna Be the Wind
- Various – Chit chat 4 – about Doc
- Doc Watson – Milk Cow Blues
- Doc Watson w/Gove Scrivenor – Sugar Babe
- Doc Watson – Peach Pickin’ Time in Georgia
- Doc Watson – Black Mountain Rag
- Nitty Gritty Dirt Band – I’ve Been Looking
- Nitty Gritty Dirt Band – Baby’s Got A Hold On Me
- Ricky Skaggs Allstars w/Doc Watson – Riding That Midnight Train
- Ricky Skaggs Allstars w/Del McCoury – I Feel The Blues Moving In
- Roy Bookbinder – Mississippi Blues
- Carl Jackson and John Starling w/the Nash Ramblers – New Delhi Freight
- Carl Jackson and John Starling w/the Nash Ramblers – Lonesome Dove
- Carl Jackson and John Starling w/the Nash Ramblers – Silence Says it All
- Carl Jackson and John Starling w/the Nash Ramblers – Hold Your Horses
- Carl Jackson and John Starling w/the Nash Ramblers – For Cryin’ Out Loud
- Carl Jackson and John Starling w/the Nash Ramblers – I Could Cry
- Carl Jackson and John Starling w/the Nash Ramblers – Long Time Gone
- Emmylou Harris, Carl Jackson and John Starling w/the Nash Ramblers – Satan’s Jewel Crown
- Doc Watson All-Stars – Docabilly Medley
- Riders in the Sky – Here Comes the Santa Fe
- Maura O’Connell – Trouble in the Fields
- Doc Watson All-Stars – Fireball Mail
- Sam Bush & the Nash Ramblers – Crossroads > Sailin’ Shoes
- Laurie Lewis & Grant Street – Texas Bluebonnets
- Tony Rice Unit – Shadows
- David Grisman Quintet – Rattlesnake
- Emmylou Harris & the Nash Ramblers w/Doc Watson – I’ll Fly Away
- Nitty Gritty Dirt Band – Mr Bojangles (start cut)
- Peter Rowan & the Nashville Bluegrass Band – Walls of Time
- Doc Watson All-Stars – Shake, Rattle & Roll
Notes:
- “Pickin’ For Merle” was a documentary shot at the 1992 Merle Watson Memorial Bluegrass Festival, then informally and now officially known as MerleFest.
- The documentary aired in (I believe) 8-ish 1-hour segments through the 1990s on PBS stations.
- VHS tapes of the entire series were offered as donor rewards. A few artists, including Tony Rice, sold their sets separately.
- Apparently dubs of some of the video episodes have been traded but none have yet surfaced in public digital circulation aside from fragments on YouTube.
- Several years ago I contacted MerleFest representatives to see about getting the series released again as a fundraiser. They were interested, but there are technical hurdles with the tapes. It’s still possible.
- This set of audio cassettes represents about half of the material.
- I don’t know which days most of the sets are from so I didn’t try to guess.
- You will encounter various hisses, buzzes, brief discontinuities and other assorted analog artifacts. It’s fine though. It could be cleaned up more but hopefully the VHS will surface.
- I decided not to change the running order to gather out-of-sequence sets since they aren’t complete anyway. This is the order in which they aired within each PFM episode.
- Across the tapes approximately 15 or so performances were repeated. Obviously, I included the better sounding ones.
- Raw transfer WAV files available upon request.
- I was lucky enough to attend this MerleFest and a couple of others around it. A classic scene.
- There is also a well circulated SBD recording of the Midnight Jam from this year which I highly recommend.
- Thanks to Mitchell Wittenberg for setlist and lineup help.
- Yes, that’s a lot of notes, but no one made you read them all.
- Dedicated to the memories of Doc Watson and Tony Rice.
Backing Band/Allstar Group Lineups (in order of first appearance – guests and headliners are noted in the Artist tag and above, with some overlap)
- Tony Rice Allstars: Tony Rice-guitar, vocals, Bela Fleck-banjo, Jerry Douglas-Dobro, Sam Bush-mandolin, vocals, Stuart Duncan-fiddle, Mark Schatz-bass
- Nashville Bluegrass Band: Pat Enright-guitar, vocals, Alan O’Bryant-vocals (and ?), Roland White-mandolin, Stuart Duncan-fiddle, Gene Libbea-bass
- Del McCoury Band: Del McCoury-guitar, vocals, Ronnie McCoury-mandolin, vocals, Rob McCoury-banjo, Jason Carter-fiddle, Mike Bub-bass
- Tony Rice Unit: Tony Rice-guitar, vocals, Wyatt Rice-guitar, Jimmy Gaudreau-mandolin, vocals, Rickie Simpkins-fiddle, Mark Schatz-bass
- David Grisman Quintet: David Grisman-mandolin, Enrique Coria-guitar, Joe Craven-percussion, fiddle, mandolin, Matt Eakle-flute, Jim Kerwin-bass
- Tim & Mollie O’Brien and The O’Boys: Tim O’Brien – mandolin, guitar, vocals, Mollie O’Brien-vocals, Scott Nygaard-guitar, Mark Schatz-bass
- Doc Watson & Friends: uncertain, the “Friends” may be the Nashville Bluegrass Band (above)
- Bela Fleck & the Flecktones: Bela Fleck-banjo, Victor Wooten-bass, Future Man-midi controller, Howard Levy-piano, harmonica
- Seldom Scene: John Duffey-mandolin, vocals, John Starling-guitar, vocals, Ben Eldridge-banjo, vocals, Mike Auldridge-Dobro, vocals, Tom Gray-bass, vocals
- Laurie Lewis & Grant Street: Laurie Lewis-fiddle, vocals, Tom Rozum-mandolin, fiddle, vocals, Peter McLaughlin-guitar, Craig Smith-banjo, Cary Black-bass
- Doc Watson: Doc Watson-guitar, harmonica, vocals, Jack Lawrence-guitar, T. Michael Coleman-bass, Bob Hill-piano (on some tracks)
- Nitty Gritty Dirt Band: uncertain lineup here. Maybe Jeff Hanna-guitar, vocals, Jimmie Fadden-drums, harmonica, vocals, Jimmy Ibbotson-bass, vocals, Bob Carpenter-keyboards, vocals, Josh Leo-guitar
- Ricky Skaggs Allstars: Ricky Skaggs-mandolin, vocals, Tony Rice-guitar, vocals, Mark O’Connor-fiddle, Jerry Douglas-Dobro, David Grisman-mandolin, Unknown-banjo, Unknown-bass
- The Nash Ramblers: Sam Bush-mandolin, fiddle, Larry Atamanuik-drums, Jon Randall-guitar, Roy Huskey, Jr. -bass, Al Perkins-Dobro
- Doc Watson Allstars: Doc Watson-guitar, vocals, Jack Lawrence-guitar, T. Michael Coleman-bass; Jack Williams-piano (t67, t78); Mark O’Connor-fiddle, Jerry Douglas-dobro (t70, t78); Tim O’Brien-mandolin, Roland White-mandolin, Bela Fleck-banjo (t70)
- Riders in the Sky: Douglas B. Green (“Ranger Doug”)-guitar, vocals, Woody Paul Chrisman (“Woody Paul”)-fiddle, vocals, Fred LaBour (“Too Slim”)-bass, vocals
- Kathy Mattea – Kathy Mattea-vocals, guitar, unknown band lineup
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