Doc & Merle Watson
The Palomino Club
North Hollywood, CA, USA
December 12, 1973

Goody Speed/Pitch-adjusted Edition

Original lineage:
FM Broadcast media (KLAC, Los Angeles) > R (?) > D > CDR > xACT > FLAC >

Goody's additional lineage:
dBpoweramp (WAV) > Audition (Pitch Bender +77 cents; noise repair; tracking updated; phase correction) > TLH (FLAC Level 8; Align sector boundaries; .ffp) > foobar2000 (update tags)

This recording came from two sources (Tracks 1-9, 12-17 and tracks 10-11, 18-20).
[The 2nd source received phase inversion on one channel in this edition to correct an out of phase issue - Goody]
Compiled May 2019 by an anonymous benefactor. Thank you.

1. (Doc & Merle Intro) 0:38
2. (Doc Talk) 0:22
3. Salty Dog Blues 2:58
4. Freight Train Boogie 3:31
5. Peach Pickin’ Time In Georgia 4:05
6. Deep River Blues 4:16
7. Salt Creek/Leather Britches 2:55
8. Doc’s Talking Blues 3:30
9. Tennessee Stud 3:48
10. I Was A Stranger (Blue Yodel #7) 3:13
11. Step It Up and Go 2:51
12. Lonesome Moan 3:55
13. (Doc Talk) 0:36
14. Sheik of Araby 3:37
15. Life Gets Teejus Don’t It 4:17
16. Matchbox Blues 4:20
17. Way Downtown (incomplete/fades out) (w/ John McEuen-banjo) 2:38
18. Soldier’s Joy (add Byron Berline-fiddle) 3:24
19. (Talk) 1:00
20. Roll In My Sweet Baby’s Arms (incomplete/fades out) 2:46
Runtime: 58:40

This is a compilation of two sources containing all that is known to circulate of this performance by Doc & Merle Watson and their guests. Obviously incomplete, how much and what is missing is not known.

The Palomino Club in North Hollywood, CA, was a post-War haunt of country musicians (the Everly Brothers, Patsy Cline, Tanya Tucker, Willie Nelson, and many others), and in the 1970s a popular stage set for movies and TV shows in the 1970s (TJ Hooker, CHiPs, and several Clint Eastwood films). It closed in 1995.

The bulk of this recording circulated on DAT back in the day. On those DATs, a station ID is announced at the end of Tennessee Stud: "KLAC, Los Angeles". (That station ID is omitted here.) KLAC is an AM station in Los Angeles which also simulcast in FM from 1961 through 1975.

The origin of this recording is unclear but presumably it was recorded for broadcast. The music is nearly mono but not 100%, while the audience presents a wider stereo field. I imagine that the Watsons were simply mic'd and mixed that way. Also, because it is stereo, this audio was either taken from a pre-broadcast source, or was recorded from KLAC-FM, not AM. There's not much signal above 15kHz other than a uniform noise floor, suggesting an over-the-air recording on analog tape. There's also not much hiss, so perhaps FM > reel-to-reel. The reel(?) was transferred to DAT at some point, and then to CDR. Although tracks 10, 11, 18-20 are from an alternate source, presumably this all came from the same broadcast recording.

At the end of the show, "Leon" is called to join Doc and Merle. Possibly Leon Russell, but it doesn't sound like it. Hopefully, the rest of the performance will surface some day.

Enjoy!

--mhg :: 2019-05-15

Goody's notes:
Pitch was approx. 77 cents flat.
Tape age is evident at times, displaying dropouts that shift from channel to channel as well as some flutter. The results of this can be heard more clearly in phones.
Text updated for this edition - 5/16/19