Vestapol 13023 and 13024 reviewed in Dirty Linen

Those wishing to see, as well as hear, Doc Watson's guitar wizardry have a number of video choices, ranging from instructional tapes to performances with his late son Merle, to recent solo shows. These two Rare Performances Vestapol videos take a historical approach to Watson's career. The first video covers his early years until the rather arbitrary cutoff point of 1981. The earliest footage is very entertaining, particularly the rough, black-and-white clip of Watson's tuxedo-clad appearance on the "Hootenanny" TV Show. A 1967 trio performance from the Seattle Folklore Society finds Watson as part of a folk trio also including fiddler Fred Price and guitarist Clint Howard. One of their two tunes, "Daniel rayed," is an a capella vocal trio.Watson appears solo on a clip from Pete Seeger's "Rainbow Quest" show.

The remainder of the video documents most of Watson's long performing history with his son Merle, including pieces from a 1970 Los Angeles show, "Austin City Limits" in 1978, and the Cambridge folk festival in 1981.

The second video, covering the period from 1982 to the present, includes the final Doc and Merle performance from 1982, but emphasizes his "solo" career following his son's death in 1985. The last several years are featured, through performances at the Merle Watson festival with Ricky Skaggs, regular performing partner Jack Lawrence, and in some all-star jam footage that finds Watson trading licks with the likes of David Grisman, Jerry Douglas, and Béla Fleck. The most recent clips, from a 1993 TV appearance, show Watson performing solo, chops and stage humor in fine form. These concert videos provide a nice overview of Watson's career to date, although the "rare" appellation probably only applies to the early material from the first tape.