Watson's no rookie

There is a healthy skepticism about whether Willie Watson's very strong recent self-titled CD release is his debut solo album. After all, Watson, who once upon a time was a founding member of Old Crow Medicine Show, has already released "Folk Singer, Vol. 1" and "Folk Singer, Vol. 2." The difference is that the new release marked the first time that Watson wrote all of the songs.

Watson may have touched upon the subject, understanding his fans' doubts. No matter, though, because one thing there was no questioning was Watson's outing.

It was by turns warm, engaging and offering substantial variety within a folk, Americana, roots format.

Out of the shoot, the affable Watson scored with the uptempo "Slim and the Devil," the lead-off track from the new disc, which is based on the Sterling A. Brown poem "Slim Greer in Hell."

He went a bit more folkie (there aren't a whole lot of dyed-in-the-wool folkies out there these days, it seems, but at times, Watson came close) with "Sad Songs," which had more teeth than the recorded version.

The night was a mix of his own material and covers. Perhaps the most entertaining was what Watson referred to as an old Swedish folk song that everyone still sings, "Dancing On My Own." That was not exactly accurate. The reality is that it was a hit for Swedish pop music singer Robyn in 2010. With a high-pitched voice that recalls Cat Stevens, Watson more than made the dance hit his own.

Watson was smart to cover material that was more akin to his style, including Black Lemon Jefferson's blues"The Black Snake Man," the traditional "Gallows Pole" and Gillian Welch and David Rawlngs' "When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings" and later encoring with "Helpless," penned by Neil Young and sung by Crosby Stills Nash & Young, and closing down the night with the traditional "John Henry."

Watson magnanimously brought up openers Viv & Riley for his two-song encore, a good move since they added depth to the songs.

Watson was not a standalone artist, a good thing because having Sami Brannan on fiddle and occasional backing vocals and bassist Ben Gould (they've been friends dating back to high school, and Gould was the original bassist in Old Crow) certainly breathed more life into the songs.

About the only song that didn't work was the overly long "Reap 'em in the Valley." Most of it was a spoken word performance by Watson about rival high school wrestler Nate Sweet (the way Watson tells it, the only win he ever had in wrestling was against Sweet in a match specially arranged by his father, the high school wrestling coach). With spare, understated musical backing by his band mates, the story was not especially entertaining. Only at the very end did Watson sing.

But that was only misstep by Watson. He's no rookie.

Viv & Riley once again impressed with their opening set. Both Viv Leva and Riley Calcagno took on lead vocals with Viv's singing particularly pleasant. Somewhat sounding like Welch and Rawlings, their duets stood out.

Like Watson, Riley played both acoustic guitar and banjo. The duo also benefitted from Riley being the talker; he's got a very good sense of humor, but that only goes so far because if you don't have the songs and musical prowess, who cares? Fortunately, Viv & Riley have both.