As a member of Old Crow Medicine Show, singer/guitarist Willie Watson filtered folk, country, and other influences into a (relatively) more contemporary Americana sound. But for his first solo effort, in a boom time for neo-folk, Watson elected to go all the way back to his roots with a record full of old folk and blues tunes. It's the sort of thing that fell out of common practice after the '60s singer/songwriter revolution, which makes Folk Singer Vol. 1 feel even more engagingly anachronistic. While there are real-deal folk songs of the sort one would have found on an early album by the likes of Dave Van Ronk or Joan Baez ("Stewball," "Long John Dean"), Watson also dips into folk-flavored blues by tackling Memphis Slim's ominous "Mother Earth," Charley Jordan's saucy "Keep It Clean," and Leadbelly's gospel-tinged "Midnight Special." He keeps the settings appropriately old-school as well, limiting his accompaniment to his own acoustic guitar and banjo. Aligning with a sympathetic producer in Gillian Welch's guitarist, David Rawlings, Watson proves a worthy warrior on the trad-folk front.