August Rains

Doc and Rosa Lee Watson

One of my favorite musical treats from the past year was the discovery of the Robert Plant and Allison Krause album "Raising Sand", especially a gem of a song called "Your Long Journey" by Doc and Rosa Lee Watson. Although obviously written from the viewpoint of someone losing a life partner, and written when Merle was just a child, I couldn't help but think that the song was coming across the years as a tribute to him and his early departure from the stage for which we all still have tickets. It seems a perfect song for a cool, rainy day in August. I don't know of a more fitting convergence than a song from a guy who helped create the soul of Winfield and a young lady who walked away with the Walnut Valley fiddle crown at the age of fourteen. Equally beautiful is the version sung by Doc and Rosa Lee on their 1963 album "The Watson Family". That version, sadly, is not on YouTube but is available digitally along with twenty five other finely crafted tunes from the hills around Deep Gap, North Carolina. A well-spent ten bucks if there ever was one.


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