Willie Watson in Northampton

Willie Watson is an American folk singer and multi-instrumentalist born in Watkins Glen, New York, in 1979. He was a founding member of Old Crow Medicine Show before recording the solo albums Folk Singer Vol. 1 and Folk Singer Vol. 2. He also played the Kid in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs and sang “When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings” with Tim Blake Nelson. During his years with Old Crow Medicine Show, he toured with the group and took part in its Grand Ole Opry debut in 2001. After leaving the band, he performed at the 2013 Another Day, Another Time concert at Town Hall in New York, then undertook solo tours supporting his Folk Singer records in clubs, theatres and festivals. His solo concerts center on voice, acoustic guitar and banjo, with sets drawn from traditional folk, blues and old-time songs as well as his own writing. He has performed at Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island and at San Francisco’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass.