Biography
Born in the locale then known as Mount Tabor—later Tabor City, North Carolina—Wilmer Watts grew up surrounded by the traditions of historic old-time music. From childhood onward he displayed a pronounced talent for instruments, beginning with the string family and extending his abilities until he could operate as a one-man band on five instruments simultaneously. Among his many recordings appears the widely favored “Banjo Sam,” whose lines “Banjo walk/banjo talk/banjo eating with a knife and fork” have often been proposed as an unofficial banjo anthem.
Watts cut his first sides in 1927 after encountering two fellow musicians in Belmont, where he had taken employment in a cotton mill following the end of the First World War. That mill evidently housed numerous capable players, and Watts joined guitarists Palmer Rhyne and Charles Freshour to form a trio that performed first as the Gastonia Serenaders and later as the Lonely Eagles. With Watts at the helm, the group recorded for Paramount in 1929 under the latter name. He remained employed in the mills throughout the Depression yet continued to present his one-man band—guitar, drum, fiddle, banjo, and harmonica—at intervals. Once his daughters reached performing age they joined him as the Watts Singers, appearing at churches, local events, and occasionally on street corners. The family, situated near Gastonia, broadcast regularly on radio stations serving the Charlotte and Spartanburg region through the late 1930s. After Watts’s death in the early 1940s the daughters carried on under the name Watts Gospel Singers.
Given the age of Watts’s discography, the relative scarcity of further uncertainties is noteworthy, although scholars of old-time music still debate which musicians supported him on particular releases. Collectors of stark murder ballads may note the established connection between Freshour and the vocal on “The Fate of Rhoda Sweeten”; because Freshour composed the song recounting the slaying of his own sister, experts at the John Edwards Memorial Foundation have concluded that “it almost surely was sung by him.” The multi-instrumental proficiency shared by Watts and his associates complicates efforts to assign specific parts even when performer names are documented, leaving unresolved, for example, which musician delivered the clawhammer banjo heard on “Banjo Sam.”
Watts cut his first sides in 1927 after encountering two fellow musicians in Belmont, where he had taken employment in a cotton mill following the end of the First World War. That mill evidently housed numerous capable players, and Watts joined guitarists Palmer Rhyne and Charles Freshour to form a trio that performed first as the Gastonia Serenaders and later as the Lonely Eagles. With Watts at the helm, the group recorded for Paramount in 1929 under the latter name. He remained employed in the mills throughout the Depression yet continued to present his one-man band—guitar, drum, fiddle, banjo, and harmonica—at intervals. Once his daughters reached performing age they joined him as the Watts Singers, appearing at churches, local events, and occasionally on street corners. The family, situated near Gastonia, broadcast regularly on radio stations serving the Charlotte and Spartanburg region through the late 1930s. After Watts’s death in the early 1940s the daughters carried on under the name Watts Gospel Singers.
Given the age of Watts’s discography, the relative scarcity of further uncertainties is noteworthy, although scholars of old-time music still debate which musicians supported him on particular releases. Collectors of stark murder ballads may note the established connection between Freshour and the vocal on “The Fate of Rhoda Sweeten”; because Freshour composed the song recounting the slaying of his own sister, experts at the John Edwards Memorial Foundation have concluded that “it almost surely was sung by him.” The multi-instrumental proficiency shared by Watts and his associates complicates efforts to assign specific parts even when performer names are documented, leaving unresolved, for example, which musician delivered the clawhammer banjo heard on “Banjo Sam.”