MerleFest—I'll Fix Your Flat-Picking Merle

MerleFest was founded as the Eddy Merle Watson Memorial Festival.

Merle Watson was the inordinately talented son of bluegrass pioneer Doc Watson. Merle died tragically in a farming accident in 1985.

"In the early dark hours of October 23, 1985, just days before 'Frets Magazine' named him the best finger-picking guitarist of the year in folk, blues, or country music, Eddy Merle Watson rolled his farm tractor on a steep hillside near his home, ending the life of one of the world's great musicians in a tragedy worthy of the blues ballads he loved. Some people knew Merle Watson well, some were acquainted with him as a consequence of brief interactions of one sort or another, some had only the privilege of seeing him perform his musical wizardry on stage or listening to one or more of his many recordings, but everyone loved and respected him. Merle touched lives world wide as is evidenced by over 700 cards, letters, and other written condolences received by his family, Doc, Rosa Lee, and Nancy, after Merle's fatally tragic accident. These expressions of sympathy were in addition to the hundreds of phone calls and personal visits to the Watson's Deep Gap, North Carolina home. This tremendous outpouring of support was not engendered by a love of Merle's music alone, but also by the way his charisma and kindness transcended his fundamental shyness and silence on stage to reveal themselves in his exquisite fingerwork and gentle smile...

"A year after Merle's death, Bill Young, Doc's close friend and picking buddy, Frederick W. 'B.' Townes, the Dean of Resource Development at Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro, NC, and Ala Sue Wyke approached him with the idea of doing a benefit concert at the college to raise money for a memorial garden in honor of his deceased son, Merle. Rosa Lee and Doc's daughter, Nancy, suggested they invite a number of Merle's friends to play as well, some of whom were among the country's best acoustic musicians. This dialog germinated the first Merle Watson Memorial Festival in the spring of 1988. Artists played on stage in Wilkes Community College's John A. Walker Center and on the back of two flatbed trucks to a crowd of 4,000 people. This initially modest event, now known as MerleFest, has subsequently become one of the most critically acclaimed acoustic music festivals in the world. MerleFest '95 included over 100 artists and bands, some already legendary and some well on their way, performing on nine stages for nearly 40,000 people, raising funds for the Eddy Merle Watson Garden for the Senses, and providing an economic boost to the Wilkes County economy approaching $1.5 million. —Merlefest.org

MerleFest is held each year on the campus ofWilkes Community College in Wilkesboro, North Carolina.

About Doc Watson
"Arthel 'Doc' Watson is without doubt a living legend in acoustic music. For more than three decades, Doc Watson has been America's most renowned and influential folk guitar stylist. He says he 's mostly retired but his selective performances show no signs of his enormous talents being dimmed by either age or fewer concert dates on the road. At any given Doc Watson performance, one will see and hear not only a guitar player of the finest caliber, but also an intelligent, witty, down-to-earth 'man of the mountains' who loves to share the music of his heart and home. Doc is an extraordinary entertainer who never fails to capture the admiration and affection of his audience. His concerts are filled with hot flatpicking tunes, slow romantic ballads, gutsy blues numbers, delicately fingerpicked melodies, and an old time gospel song or two. Each song is sung with unmatched clarity, each tune played with a dexterity that has placed Doc Watson's name in the music history books..."

What he loved about his son Merle's musical sound:
"How clean it was, his perfect timing, and another thing I should have mentioned -- Merle played blues in the flatpicking style as good as anybody I've ever sat with. I mean, it was his blues. He didn't copy B.B. King or Mr. So & So on the guitar. It was Merle."

Merle Watson was a great blues player!

Now, about our subtitle, "I'll Fix Your Flat-Picking Merle":
Merle Watson needed no help with his flat-picking, finger-picking, or with playing brilliantly (except maybe from his dad). The subtitle is just a cute (we hope) way to segue into an interesting connection between bluegrass, Merle Haggard and the kind of blues that obviously impacted Merle Watson's style.

You may remember the famous recording by Pure Prairie League of the song called, "I'll Fix Your Flat Tire Merle."

(Pure Prairie League's classic "Amie," is now a standard. You can hardly go to a live acoustic-music venue without hearing it played. It was written by PPL co-founder and original front-man Craig Fuller. In a later iteration of the band, future superstar Vince Gill was the front-man and lead singer and sang the hit "Let Me Love You Tonight.")

SIDEBAR: The name of the band, "Pure Prairie League," according to many sources, was taken from the name of the "Temperance Movement" (as in moderation in consumption of alcoholic beverages) depicted in the 1939 Erroll Flynn movie, Dodge City. Alan Hale (famous as "The Skipper" on Gilligan's Island), as Flynn's side-kick Rusty, joins the Pure Prairie League in the movie! (If you know of references for an actual 19th Century Pure Prairie League organization, which we belive there was, we would like to see them!)

Anyway, back to fixing Merle's tire.

Pure Prairie League, who may have performed at MerleFest but should still if they haven't already due to their huge connection to acoustic, bluegrass and Americana roots music (including the aforementioned Vince Gill who has collaborated with bluegrass stalwart Allison Krause -- who HAS performed at MerleFest), recorded "I'll Fix Your Flat Tire Merle" as a tribute to the country legend, not a "dis."

But the original song was called "I'll Change Your Flat Tire Merle" and was written by Chicago/San Francisco bluesman Nick Gravenites. Gravenites was a key figure in both the 1960s psychedelic rock scene in San Francisco and the Chicago blues seen, playing with Muddy Waters and other blues greats.

(Gravenites at one time played with Big Brother and the Holding Company who are remembered mostly for their important musical association with gravel-throated rock legend Janis Joplin.)

Now, the Pure Prairie League version of "Flat Tire" was a tribute to Haggard. The original version by Gravenites was written as a political response or rebuke of Haggard's famous #1 classic, "Oke from Muskogee."

We think you can see the logic of this by reading the lyrics to both songs.

Okie From Muskogee Lyrics
(Words and Music by Merle Haggard)

We don't smoke marijuana in Muskogee
We don't take our trips on LSD
We don't our burn draft cards down on Main Street
'Cause we like living right and being free

We don't make a party out of loving
But we like holding hands and pitching wood
We don't wear our hair all long and shaggy
Like the hippies out in San Francisco do

Chorus
I'm proud to be an Okie from Muskogee
A place where even squares can have a ball
We still wave Old Glory down by the court house
And white lightning's still the biggest thrill of all

Leather boots are still in style for manly footwear
Beads and roman sandals wont be seen
And football's still the roughest thing on campus
And the kids there still respect the college dean

(Interestingly, the song was perfomed by The Grateful Dead with Gravenites, according to the Grateful Dead Lyric And Song Finder. Do you think the Dead smoked marijuana? Nah.)

Here is the response written by Gravenites:

I'll Change Your Flat Tire Merle Lyrics
(Words and Music by Nick Gravenites)

As I drove down old 65 [which runs right through Nashville]
I was cruising down that old grapevine
Well I must have been doing at least about ninety five
Right there on the side of the road all broke down
Well who do you think was a-standing around
But the greatest country singer alive

Chorus
Well I'll change your flat tire, Merle
Don't you get your sweet country picking fingers
All covered with oil
'Cause you're a honky I know, but Merle you got soul
And I'll fix your flat tire Merle

Well I hear you had an adventurous youth
Making love in a telephone booth
And I even hear you did a little stretch in jail
But now you got a big ranch house with a bar
And eight, nine, ten of them fancy cars
And every other week a cheque coming in the mail

[chorus]

Well I heard all them records you did
Making fun of us long-haired kids
And now you know we don't care what you think
'Cause Merle, if you're gonna call the world your home
You know you're gonna have to go out and get stoned
And it's better with a joint than a drink
I think

[chorus]

(Ironically, or perhaps naturally, the Greatful Heads - oops - the Grateful Dead also performed "I'll Change Your Flat Tire Merle." Again, according to the Grateful Dead Lyric And Song Finder, "Flat Tire" was "Played by Jerry Garcia with Nick Gravenites and Pete Sears on 29 Apr 1990. A riposte to Merle Haggard's 'Okie From Muskogee...'

I think we all know what the mission was of San Francisco Bay area "heads" in the sixties.

Here's the mission of MerleFest: "MerleFest is committed to producing a high quality diversified American roots based musical experience that attracts a broad audience and reunites guests, supporters and performers in an annual celebration of Americana music..."

Hallelujah to both!

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