Doc Watson: 1923 - 2012
Folk legend and flat-picking guitar genius Doc Watson passed away on May 29, 2012. He was 89 years old. The blind singer and musician had had a fall at his home the week before, and though not seriously injured an underlying medical condition had led to colon surgery. Following the surgery he was in a critical condition, but responsive and then sadly passed away a few days later. Born Arthel Watson on March 2, 1923 in Deep Gap, North Carolina, Doc was the son of a farmer who was prominent in the local Baptist church choir. Early in his childhood, Watson was struck by an illness that resulted in his blindness. He was surrounded by music and learnt traditional folk songs. He began attending the School for the Blind in Raleigh, North Carolina, and at the age of 13, began playing guitar. By his late teens he had learned how to finger pick from a neighbour. In 1941, Watson joined a band that had a regular radio programme in Lenoir, North Carolina.
For the next six years he played around North Carolina, playing mainly country and also working as a piano tuner. In 1953 he started playing electric guitar in the supporting band for Jack Williams, performing a variety of music, from country to rock and pop. Seven years later he joined the Clarence Ashley String Band and travelled with the group to New York in order to appear at a Friends of Old-Time Music concert. His performance at the concert was a resounding success, and he was invited to perform in Greenwich Village. That led to a rave performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1963. He was soon signed to the Folkways label, followed in 1964 by a series of albums on Vanguard, nearly one a year throughout the 1960s. No sooner had interest in folk music waned than Watson was back in great demand because of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s historic WILL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN, 1972 triple-LP set. It featured Watson, Merle Travis, Roy Acuff, and a Who’s Who of country greats. Doc began giving concerts accompanied by his son Merle on second guitar. They were constant collaborators and one of the most popular acts on the folk and traditional music circuit. In 1974, his album THEN AND NOW won the Grammy for Best Ethnic or Traditional Recording and the following year, he and Merle took home the same award for their TWO DAYS IN NOVEMBER.
Doc and Merle continued to perform and record successfully during the early 1980s, giving numerous successful concerts each year and earning many awards, including another Grammy in 1979 (Best Country Instrumental Performance for BIG SANDY/LEATHER BRITCHES). In 1985, Merle tragically died in a tractor accident at home on his farm. Following his son’s death, Doc stopped performing for a short-time, yet he made a comeback supported by guitarist Jack Lawrence and bassist T. Michael Coleman, who had played with Watson since 1974. Doc continued to perform and record to enthusiastic audiences right up until shortly before his fall and won two more Grammys—Best Traditional Folk Recording for both 1986’s RIDING THE MIDNIGHT TRAIN and 1990’s ON PRAYING GROUND.
Doc hosted the annual MerleFest music festival held every April at Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro, North Carolina. The festival was set up in memory of his son Merle Watson and features a vast array of acoustic style music focusing on the folk, bluegrass, blues and old-time music genres. It is one of the most popular acoustic music festivals in the world, drawing over 70,000 music fans each year. In more recent years, Watson scaled back his touring schedule. He was generally joined onstage by his grandson (Merle’s son) Richard, as well as long time musical partners David Holt or Jack Lawrence.
One of the pre-eminent influential guitar players of the past 60 years, people were constantly in awe of this gentle blind man who sang and picked with a pure and emotional authenticity. The present generation, folkies and country pickers alike, including Ricky Skaggs, Vince Gill, the late Clarence White, Emmylou Harris, and literally hundreds of others, have acknowledged their great debt to Watson. Although welded to an acoustic style, which has been emulated widely by country-rock guitarists, Doc was not a purist. His material ran the gamut of styles from bluegrass through western swing to a more commercial country-pop showcasing his beautiful voice, his great instrumental talent, and his mastery of traditional material. He further provided an invaluable service to the country-folk tradition through his encyclopaedic knowledge of many American traditional songs. Doc’s concerts were virtually short courses in the history of American music utilising elements of black blues, sacred music, mountain songs, gospel, bluegrass, swing, popular music and even traces of jazz. In short, Doc Watson was an American treasure.