Wilmer Watts (1896 ~ 1943) Is a largely forgotten master of old-time country music, like his contemporary Charlie Poole he showed the way that country music could go after WW2, and like Poole he wouldn't live to see it. Unlike Poole however Watts has not yet recieved the posthumous notice his fellow North Carolina counterpart has.
Watts was born at Mount Tabor (now Tabor City) North Carolina in either 1896 or 98. He learned to play a number of insturments including banjo, fiddle, guitar, mandolin, steel guitar, autoharp and harmonica and worked in a textile mill when not playing music.
Watts began recording with sides for Paramount Records in 1927 with singer and steel guitarist Frank Wilson as "Watts & Wilson". These records were a dramatic change from the other country music of the era which tended to either fiddle tunes (ie. Gid Tanner or Fiddlin John Carson) gospel tunes or yodeling cowboys, Watts' music was spare, moody, bluesy and banjo driven. These records were not big sellers and Watts returned to the textile mill where he formed a new group with fellow mill workers Charles Freshour and Palmer Rhyne called The Lonely Eagles who recorded at least 14 more sides for Paramount in 1929, these were more driven and rythmic, similar to the records being made at the time by Charlie Poole. Among his notable recordings from this era include the classic "Banjo Sam" a driving modal ragtime with surreal lyrics like "Banjo sing, banjo talk, banjo eat with a knife and fork, I am Banjo Sam" The upbeat bluesy "Cotton Mill Blues" Old labour song "Been on this job too long" the even older "Fighting in the war with Spain" and a murder ballad "The fate of Rhoda Sweeten" actually written and probably sung by Freshour.
Although respected, his records were not big sellers and when the depresion hit and Paramount went out of business in 1933 the Lonely Eagles broke up and Watts returned to the millwork although he would continue his music either as a country gospel group with his daughters billed as the Watts Singers or as a one man band playing upto five insturments at once. He is not known to have recorded again however before he died in 1943.
The only known photograph of Watts (which shows him holding a fiddle rather than the banjo he prefered) was later reproduced by R.Crumb for his series of "Pioneers of country music" cards.
No cd is currently available of Watts recordings even though there is enough material to fill a cd. He can only be heard on various compilations on County Records and Venerable Music, in 2006 there were two new comps; the "Paramount Old Time Recordings" box set on JSP Records which has 5 tracks and a track on the "The suff that dreams are made of" double cd comp. put out by Yazoo Records. Covers of his songs include a version of "Banjo Sam" by fellow North Carolina native Lightnin' Slim (currently on his myspace page) and a cover of "Been on the job too long" by Rhonda Vincent, the song has also been played live by Bob Dylan.
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