To commemorate Father's Day this year, we searched the Vault for pairs of father and son musicians and came up with an impressive list that includes Bob and Jakob Dylan, Paul and Harper Simon, Steve and Justin Townes Earle, James and Ben Taylor, Doc and Merle Watson, Hobart and Ricky Skaggs, and Bobby Bares Senior and Junior.
We have a lot of music to thank the dads on this playlist for, but, on Father's Day, we'd like to add one more reason to be grateful to that list - for providing the nature and nurture to keep the great music coming through another generation. Being a dad might be a harder job than being a musician, but when you can mix the two together, some beautiful things can happen. And while the younger generations on this mix have stepped out of their fathers' shadows and created great music in their own right, you can definitely hear some similarities in the singing, songwriting, and playing. In these cases, that's not a bad thing.
A few pertinent notes:
-Steve Earle mentions how he hates leaving his kids to go on the road at the beginning of 'Little Rock and Roller.'
-At the James Taylor concert represented here, then-wife Carly Simon performed as a guest vocalist on two songs. The two of them are parents to Ben and Sally (who's also a musician). Ben tells a story about Sally's pregnancy before launching into 'Turn on the Lights'...sounds like there might be another witty songster on the way.
-Merle Watson started to accompany his father long before this 1977 show...there are some examples in The Vault recorded when Merle was a mere 18 years old.
-Though Hobart Skaggs isn't exactly a household name, he obviously passed on some good bluegrass genes. Ricky invited him out to play two songs during this 1984 show.