Autographed Dollar Bill
This dollar bill held the title position in one of the photo albums I inherited from my sister Ruthie. Unable to read what was written on it, I scanned it and played around with it in Photoshop. To my surprise I discovered that I'd inherited a dollar bill signed for Ruthie by the great Doc Watson and his son Merle.
I was a sophomore at Davidson College in the spring of 1970 when Ruthie came to visit me for a week. My friends Rick and Karl let her stay at the place they rented from Hattie, whose truck stop "Hattie's" was right next door. It was her first visit to Davidson; and everyone - including my boss Ralph, who owned a diner called The Hub and paid her to work behind the counter with me during my Saturday morning shift - saw that she had a great time during her visit.
That Saturday night my sister and I drove with Rick and his beautiful and very funny girlfriend Dana to Charlotte for a small but intimate outdoor concert; there were no seats, everyone sat on the ground, and we had a great spot in front of the stage.
Doc Watson and his son Merle opened the show with their brilliant acoustic guitar picking. Ruthie and I had never heard of them before that night, but we became instant fans - Doc had the presence and build of our dad, who had passed away the previous spring, and they looked like they could have been brothers; so the sight of him onstage was really eerie for us. Doc is blind and doesn't wear sunglasses; and during his performance his eyes roamed the audience and occasionally settled on Ruthie and me before he'd blink and his eyes would resume their sightless scan of the audience. In those moments that his eyes fell on us, we had the sensation that our dad was looking at us again.
Hearing Doc's version of Tom Paxton's "The Last Thing On My Mind" that night was one of the most moving experiences of my life. I bought the album a week later - it's on Doc's "Southbound" album - and sent a copy to Ruthie. Later that spring when I was finally allowed by the Davidson College administration to produce my play "Rated X" onstage in the Davidson drama building, I taped Doc's version of "The Last Thing On My Mind" and played it for the audience over the auditorium speakers moments before the play started. I heard later that night from friends that audience members were trying to determine the significance of the song vis a vis the play they'd just seen. There was none - I'd just wanted a room full of people to hear Doc's outstanding voice singing this fucking killer song.
Tom Rush followed Doc and Merle, and he wasn't exactly thrilled about it - he acknowledged straightaway that Doc was the better singer and guitar picker. Tom Rush - I still don't know who the fuck he is. I was told at the time by Calhoun, my roommate, that he mostly covered other people's songs.
All through his set Rush irritatingly interrupted whatever flow he'd established by stopping to tune his guitar. "It was tuned when I bought it!" he said after the third time. "It was tuned this morning!" he explained again later. He ended his set with "Carolina In My Mind", a James Taylor song from the previous year that, because of Taylor's Carolina roots, was a local favorite. As I recall, he redeemed himself with his version of the song.
Gordon Lightfoot ended the evening with an acoustic set. I'd seen him twice before at Davidson, where he was hugely popular; and as usual he put on a great show.
Apparently Ruthie saw Doc and Merle one more time, probably in Washington, DC, in the 80s; and she must have gone backstage to see him after the show and asked him and Merle to sign this dollar bill for her. The fact that it had a page to itself in her photo album - and was the first item in it - suggests that Doc Watson's presence continued to resonate with her long after her visit to Davidson.
Autographed Dollar Bill
This dollar bill held the title position in one of the photo albums I inherited from my sister Ruthie. Unable to read what was written on it, I scanned it and played around with it in Photoshop. To my surprise I discovered that I'd inherited a dollar bill signed for Ruthie by the great Doc Watson and his son Merle.
I was a sophomore at Davidson College in the spring of 1970 when Ruthie came to visit me for a week. My friends Rick and Karl let her stay at the place they rented from Hattie, whose truck stop "Hattie's" was right next door. It was her first visit to Davidson; and everyone - including my boss Ralph, who owned a diner called The Hub and paid her to work behind the counter with me during my Saturday morning shift - saw that she had a great time during her visit.
That Saturday night my sister and I drove with Rick and his beautiful and very funny girlfriend Dana to Charlotte for a small but intimate outdoor concert; there were no seats, everyone sat on the ground, and we had a great spot in front of the stage.
Doc Watson and his son Merle opened the show with their brilliant acoustic guitar picking. Ruthie and I had never heard of them before that night, but we became instant fans - Doc had the presence and build of our dad, who had passed away the previous spring, and they looked like they could have been brothers; so the sight of him onstage was really eerie for us. Doc is blind and doesn't wear sunglasses; and during his performance his eyes roamed the audience and occasionally settled on Ruthie and me before he'd blink and his eyes would resume their sightless scan of the audience. In those moments that his eyes fell on us, we had the sensation that our dad was looking at us again.
Hearing Doc's version of Tom Paxton's "The Last Thing On My Mind" that night was one of the most moving experiences of my life. I bought the album a week later - it's on Doc's "Southbound" album - and sent a copy to Ruthie. Later that spring when I was finally allowed by the Davidson College administration to produce my play "Rated X" onstage in the Davidson drama building, I taped Doc's version of "The Last Thing On My Mind" and played it for the audience over the auditorium speakers moments before the play started. I heard later that night from friends that audience members were trying to determine the significance of the song vis a vis the play they'd just seen. There was none - I'd just wanted a room full of people to hear Doc's outstanding voice singing this fucking killer song.
Tom Rush followed Doc and Merle, and he wasn't exactly thrilled about it - he acknowledged straightaway that Doc was the better singer and guitar picker. Tom Rush - I still don't know who the fuck he is. I was told at the time by Calhoun, my roommate, that he mostly covered other people's songs.
All through his set Rush irritatingly interrupted whatever flow he'd established by stopping to tune his guitar. "It was tuned when I bought it!" he said after the third time. "It was tuned this morning!" he explained again later. He ended his set with "Carolina In My Mind", a James Taylor song from the previous year that, because of Taylor's Carolina roots, was a local favorite. As I recall, he redeemed himself with his version of the song.
Gordon Lightfoot ended the evening with an acoustic set. I'd seen him twice before at Davidson, where he was hugely popular; and as usual he put on a great show.
Apparently Ruthie saw Doc and Merle one more time, probably in Washington, DC, in the 80s; and she must have gone backstage to see him after the show and asked him and Merle to sign this dollar bill for her. The fact that it had a page to itself in her photo album - and was the first item in it - suggests that Doc Watson's presence continued to resonate with her long after her visit to Davidson.