Wilmer Watts was a Bluegrass / Country / Roots musician from Tabor City, North Carolina, US, active in the first half of the 20th Century.
Tabor City, NC, was still called Mount Tabor back when the wonderful, historic old-time music artist Wilmer Wats was born. He got into music as a child and had a real knack for learning instruments, starting with the string family but branching out to the point where he eventually was able to perform as a one-man band, playing five instruments at once. His many recordings include the fantastic "Banjo Sam," a popular choice for a banjo national anthem with its lyrics: "Banjo walk/banjo talk/banjo eating with a knife and fork." Watts made his first recording in 1927, the result of meeting two other musicians in the town of Belmont, where Watts had begun working in a cotton mill since the end of the first World War. The mill was apparently full of good players, and Watts hooked up with guitarists Palmer Rhyne and Charles Freshour. The three formed a trio, called the Gastonia Serenaders and then the Lonely Eagles. Under the latter name, with Watts as leader, the group cut sides for Paramount in 1929. Watts continued toiling in the mills through the depression, but unveiled his one-man band from time to time, covering guitar, drum, fiddle, banjo, and harmonica. When his daughters were old enough, they began performing with him as the Watts Singers, performing at churches, local gatherings, and sometimes street corners. The family was based near Gastonia and performed frequently on the radio in the region of Charlotte and Spartenburg through the late '30s. Following their father's death in the early '40s, the daughters continued performing as the Watts Gospel Singers.
Considering the antiquity of the Watts' discography, it is surprising there isn't even more mystery about what was going on, but old-time music scholars do seem to have issues about which musicians accompanied him on which records. Of great interest to fans of grisly old-time murder ballads would be the confirmed link between Freshour and the vocals on "The Fate of Rhoda Sweeten." "Since the song, about the murder of Charles Freshour's sister, was written by him, it almost surely was sung by him," reports experts at the John Edwards Memorial Foundation, an old-time music publisher and research tank. The multi-instrumentalist nature of Watts and his associates makes pinpointing who plays what instrument on the records much more difficult, even when the names of the musicians are known. Sadly enough, it is even unknown which one of the boys actually plays the fine clawhammer banjo part on "Banjo Sam."
Among Watts' best known recordings are:
"Been On The Job Too Long"; a murder ballad later covered by such artists as Lead Belly and Bob Dylan under the title of "Duncan and Brady".
"Walk Right In Belmont"; the first known recorded version of "The Midnight Special", a later standard later covered by Lead Belly, Creedence Clearwater Revival and Mac Wiseman. This single was originally released under the name "Watts & Wilson" and later through Paramount's subsidiary label Broadway Records under the name "Watts & Wiggins".
"Banjo Sam"; an especially repetitive modal song with surrealistic lyrics later covered by Grandpa Jones.
"Cotton Mill Blues"; a bluesy protest song about the plight of factory workers, based on a 1900 poem "A Factory Rhyme", later covered by Pete Seeger.
"Knocking Down Casey Jones"; a version of one of the many tribute songs then common to famous train engineer Casey Jones. This song is notably more heroic than Joe Hill's I.W.W. version.
"Fighting in The War With Spain"; an anti-war song mocking the Spanish–American War in which Watts makes light of the war and portrays himself as a deserter.
"The Fate Of Rhoda Sweetin"; A murder ballad sung and reportedly written by Charles Freshour about his own sister. This single was credited to Charles Freshour and The Lonely Eagles.
"She's A Hard Boiled Rose"; A version of a Tin Pan Alley song later used in another version by stripper Gypsy Rose Lee.
"Charles Guitaw"; A ballad (with a misspelled title) about Charles Guiteau, the assassin of President James Garfield, this song was later covered by Kelly Harrell, Bascom Lamar Lunsford, Norman Blake and Ramblin Jack Elliot.
Shortly after his recorded career ended in 1929, Watts and his family moved to Horry County, South Carolina, where he earned a living as a tenant farmer for a time. Throughout much of the rest of the 1930s, Watts continued working as a loom fixer in the mills in Belmont and [[Bessemer City]], and, fifty miles to the northwest, in Hickory through the Great Depression.
The only photo of Watts commonly known (showing him holding a fiddle rather than his usual banjo) was reproduced by the artist R. Crumb for a collection of trading cards of old time country musicians.
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