For the longest time, Willie Watson‘s musical identity had been wrapped up in the band he co-founded when he was fresh out of high school, Old Crow Medicine Show
When he and the band parted ways in 2011, Watson was left to consider what his voice had to say on his own. A pair of cover albums, Folksinger Vol. 1 and 2, recorded with Dave Rawlings, served as a reset for Watson. Then, late last year, his first solo album with original songs arrived. The self-titled album is brimming with beauty and confidence, something that Watson admitted was missing in the aftermath of his split with Old Crow.
In this session, Watson talks about finding the confidence in his songwriting and his voice, plus he performs live in the studio.
This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Miguel Perez. Our senior producer is Kimberly Junod and our engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.