Doc Watson and Don Reno
Recorded by Ken Landreth on June 21, 1969
Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Festival in Bean Blossom, IN

In June 1969, I rode with Jim and Artie Marshall to the Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival and
taped a lot of the festival with my reel-to-reel recorder. While I was setting up to record the
workshop in the 'barn', I heard Doc Watson playing backstage and ran my microphone cord
through a break in the wall beside the stage and ran around to connect my microphone to it.
What I found was Doc Watson and Don Reno sitting on a bench in a back room, both playing
guitar. There were a few people standing around that can be heard asking for tunes, but I think I
was the only one with a tape recorder. The volume levels were set too high, so there is some
audio distortion, but the recorder was on the other side of the wall, so I could not see the levels.
Much of the tape is of either Doc or Don playing a tune with the other playing backup but there
are a few where both played lead (see below) and there is a lot of discussion between tunes
which is left unedited. The subsequent workshop was the origin of the tape of Doc Watson and
Bill Monroe that was circulated on Bluegrass Box by Jim Norstad who copied my original tape.
This tape of Reno and Watson has not been previously circulated (annotated by Ken Landreth
6/12/07)

Redwing (opens in the middle of Doc's break)
Pickaway (Watson lead)
Speedin' West/Nashville Pickin' (Watson lead)
Soldiers Joy (Reno Lead)
Devil's Dream (Watson lead)
T for Texas (Watson and Reno)
Brown's Ferry Blues (Watson and Reno)
Country Boy Rock and Roll (Reno lead)
Black Mtn Blues (Watson lead)
Sugar Foot Rag (Reno lead)
Fire on the Mountain (Reno lead-tape noise)
Women Make a Fool Out of Me (Doc and Don)
Unknown Tune (Reno and Watson)