The book, titled Blind But Now I See: The Biography of Music Legend Doc Watson, features never before published content regarding Watson's life and career, gleaned from interviews with Watson's friends and collaborators, including Norman Blake, Sam Bush, members of the Seeger family, Michelle Shocked and many others. Blinded by a vascular disease while still an infant, he nonetheless absorbed the songs and musical styles he heard from his family. [23], In 2002, High Windy Audio released a multi-CD biographical album titled Legacy. In 1967, Watson teamed up with the then wildly-popular Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs for the Columbia Records album Strictly Instrumental. A cause of death has not been released. [34], Article on Doc Watson and other western NC guitar players Wayback Machine, American guitarist, songwriter and singer, This article is about the musician. Richard Watson was 48. Gene Watson’s induction into the Hall of Fame of Texas Country Music took place in 2002, and in 2013, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame of Houston Music. [25], In 2010, Blooming Twig Books published a comprehensive biography of Doc Watson, written by Kent Gustavson. He lived in Deep Gap. April 29, 2012 - Merlefest. The trio toured the globe during the late seventies and early eighties, recording nearly fifteen albums between 1973 and 1985, and bringing Doc and Merle's unique blend of acoustic music to millions of new fans. In 1968, Watson began a relationship with Gallagher Guitars when he started playing their G-50 model. Doc Watson was a walking advertisement for Gallagher guitars during his performances, and Gallagher has gotten e-mails from as far away as France and Sweden reacting to Watson's death. March 3, 1923 - May 29, 2012 Raleigh, North Carolina | Age 89 Folk musician dies in NC hospital at 89. Tim Clodfelter/Winston-Salem Journal Richard Eddy Watson, the grandson of music legend Doc Watson and the son of Merle Watson, has died. Watson hosted the annual MerleFest music festival held every April at Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro, North Carolina. It was named in honor of Merle Watson and is one of the most popular acoustic music festivals in the world, drawing over 70,000 music fans each year. More in Music. Watson also performed, accompanied by Holt and Richard, at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in San Francisco in 2009, as he had done in several previous years. Edward Morris is a veteran of country music journalism. His song interpretations and echoes of the Appalachian “mountain” music of his childhood captivated also audiences around the world and across generations. Watson was instrumental in developing the canon for 1960s folk musicians with his recordings of traditional tunes like Deep River Blues and Shady Grove; he didn't play just the music of the Appalachian Mountains. Obituary Read. In 1953, Watson joined the Johnson City, Tennessee-based Jack Williams' country and western swing band on electric guitar. 3. presumably in reference to the literary character Sherlock Holmes's sidekick Doctor Watson. Watson was born in Deep Gap, North Carolina, United States. Two of Doc and Merle Watson’s recordings made the Billboard country charts during the 1970s: “Bottle of Wine” (which went to No. The economic boom and the Jazz Age were over, and America began the period called the Great Depression. In 2004, the Recording Academy honored Watson with a Lifetime Achievement Grammy. [6] He attended North Carolina's school for the visually impaired, the Governor Morehead School, in Raleigh, North Carolina. “Corrina” – Doc Watson and Gaither Carlton, 2020. Richard Eddy Watson — grandson of the late Doc Watson and son of the late Merle Watson, for whom MerleFest is named — died Monday at the age of 48. His big break came in 1960, at the outset of the folk-music revival, when he was playing rhythm guitar in a group led by string-band pioneer Clarence Ashley. The two would perform and record regularly together until Merle’s death in a tractor accident in 1985. Doc Watson was born March 3, 1923 in what is now Deep Gap, N.C., in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Watson was also an accomplished banjo player and sometimes accompanied himself on harmonica as well. Merle was widely recognized as one of the best flat-picking and slide guitarists of his generation. [8] That move ignited Watson's career when he played on his first recording, Old Time Music at Clarence Ashley's. [31] In 2000, Watson was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor in Owensboro, Kentucky. Besides an increasingly heavy schedule of personal appearances, Watson also released a series of albums during the 1960s that displayed his fluid and precise flatpicking style and crisp, unadorned vocals. Portrait. In his later life, Watson scaled back his touring schedule. The first song he learned to play on the guitar was "When Roses Bloom in Dixieland", first recorded by the Carter Family in 1930. To wrap up, he became a well-known country singer and songwriter. As popular as ever, Doc and Merle began playing as a trio with T. Michael Coleman on bass guitar in 1974. Doc Watson was born in 1920s. A fan in the crowd shouted "Call him Doc!" Death of Doc Watson. Watson bought a $10 Stella guitar from Sears Roebuck with his earnings, while his brother bought a new suit. Following the example of country guitarists Grady Martin and Hank Garland, Watson taught himself to play fiddle tunes on his Gibson Les Paul electric guitar. [19], In 1947, Doc married Rosa Lee Carlton, the daughter of popular fiddle player Gaither Carlton. Eddy Merle Watson (February 8, 1949 – October 23, 1985) was an American folk and bluegrass guitarist. Six more Grammys followed, the last one awarded in 2006. You could hear the mountains of North Carolina in Doc Watson's music. 71 in 1973) and “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” (No. The band seldom had a fiddle player, but was often asked to play at square dances. Merle Watson was a great guitarist, particularly as a finger-picker and slide player, and Doc has maintained that his (Merle's) playing never got the recognition it deserved. He was elected to the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2000. Also of pivotal importance for his career was his February 11, 1961 appearance at P.S. Merle Watson has a strong set of credentials for a young musician. [14] He subsequently began to tour as a solo performer and appeared at universities and clubs like the Ash Grove in Los Angeles. [27][28][29], In April 2013, Open Records released a multi-disc collection of unreleased recordings by Doc Watson. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee, and is a frequent contributor to CMT.com. The Farewell Party — Gene Watson Biography. 41 in Greenwich Village. He was 89. Discover what happened on this day. His father told him that if he and his brother David chopped down all the small dead chestnut trees along the edge of their field, he could sell the wood to a tannery. Obituary. [6], After the folk revival waned during the late 1960s, Watson's career was sustained by his performance of the Jimmy Driftwood song "Tennessee Stud" on the 1972 live album recording Will the Circle Be Unbroken. In 1947, Doc married Rosa Lee Carlton, the daughter of popular fiddle player Gaither Carlton. He is a recipient of a 1988 National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the United States government's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. Watson was generally joined onstage by his grandson (Merle's son) Richard, as well as longtime musical partners David Holt or Jack Lawrence. Watson’s fingerstyle and flat-picking skills, as well as his knowledge of traditional American music, were highly regarded. His earliest instrument was the harmonica, but when he was 10, he learned to play the banjo his father had made for him. [33], A portion of the U.S. Route 421 near Deep Gap (Watson's birthplace) bears a sign reading, "Doc and Merle Watson Highway", dedicating it to Watson and his son. [32] In 2010, he was awarded an honorary doctor of music degree from Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. [8], In a 1989 radio interview with Terry Gross on the Fresh Air show on National Public Radio, Watson explained how he got his first guitar. Before striking out on his own, however, Watson recorded two albums with Ashley for the Folkways label. Arthel Lane "Doc" Watson (March 3, 1923 – May 29, 2012) was an American guitarist, songwriter, and singer of bluegrass, folk, country, blues, and gospel music. Doc Watson died on May 29, 2012, in Winston Salem, North Carolina due to complications from his abdominal surgery. [7], An eye infection caused Doc Watson to lose his vision before his second birthday. [6] Watson recorded his first solo album in 1964 and began performing with his son Merle, the same year. Doc Watson died on May 29th, 2012 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, following complications from abdominal surgery. © 2021 Country Music Television, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Watson did not break any bones, but an underlying condition prompted the surgery. Merle had the double handicaps of being "And Merle Watson"--Doc's long shadow--and substance abuse problems. He went on to be a vital part of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s historic Will the Circle Be Unbroken project. We are yet to notice the deceased obituary details, all further details concerning this news will be updated upon confirmation. [6] According to Watson on his three-CD biographical recording Legacy, he got the nickname "Doc" during a live radio broadcast when the announcer remarked that his given name Arthel was odd and he needed an easy nickname. According to Watson on his three-CD biographical recording Legacy, he got the nickname "Doc" during a live radio broadcast when the announcer remarked that his given name Arthel was odd and he needed an easy nickname. He was best known for his performances with his father, Doc Watson.Merle played and recorded albums together with his father from age 15 until his death in a tractor accident 21 years later. In 1974, Gallagher created a customized G-50 line to meet Watson's preferred specifications, which bears the Doc Watson name. Watson’s early professional stints included working as a street musician and playing in various country and folk bands. Envisioned as a one-time event, it proved so popular that it has been staged every year since and now draws upwards of 80,000 ticket-buyers. Notable deaths of 2010 (Michael Ochs Archives) 10 / 30. CHRIS TALBOTT, The Associated Press. Watson told one interviewer the first song he learned to play on the guitar was the Carter Family’s wistful “When the Roses Bloom Again in Dixieland.” Throughout his long career, he maintained a fondness for such Appalachian ballads, although his musical repertoire grew to extend well beyond that genre, eventually embracing blues, rockabilly (for which he played electric guitar) and country. For his album, see, Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album, Blind But Now I See: The Biography of Music Legend Doc Watson, International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor, 1973 Best Ethnic Or Traditional Recording (Including Traditional Blues), 1974 Best Ethnic Or Traditional Recording, 1979 Best Country Instrumental Performance, 2006 Best Country Instrumental Performance, "Doc's Guitar - The Guitar of Doc Watson", "Fretbase, Doc Watson's first Martin Guitar", "R.I.P. Watson played guitar in both flatpicking and fingerpicking style, but is best known for his flatpick work. The collection features audio interviews with Watson interspersed with music, as well as a complete recording of a live performance at the Diana Wortham Theatre in Asheville, North Carolina. Doc Watson is part of G.I. In 1997, Watson received the National Medal of Arts from U.S. president Bill Clinton. [3][4][5], Watson was born in Deep Gap, North Carolina, United States. It always featured Doc Watson as its host and principal performer. Doc Watson, the Grammy-winning flatpicking guitarist, died Tuesday (May 29) in Winston-Salem, N.C., following a brief illness. By the time Watson reached adulthood, he had become a proficient acoustic and electric guitar player.[12]. Watson and Rosa Lee had two children – Eddy Merle (named after country music legends Eddy Arnold and Merle Travis) in 1949 and Nancy Ellen in 1951.[8]. [10], Watson's earliest influences were country roots musicians and groups such as the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers. He was 89 years of age when he died. "Doc" is the host each spring for MerleFest, a huge concert celebrating traditional American music, held in Wilksboro, North Carolina, in Merle's honor. It was an annual tradition for Watson to join the Nashville Bluegrass Band for a gospel set on the festival's Sunday morning. Watson did not excel only on guitar mastery. Thomas Leo “Doc” Watson, 85, of Hurricane passed away Tuesday, January 12, 2021 at home. Watson stated in an interview with American Songwriter that, "Jimmie Rodgers was the first man that I started to claim as my favorite. Watson and Rosa Lee had two children — Eddy Merle (named after country music legends Eddy Arnold and Merle Travis) in 1949 and Nancy Ellen in 1951. Arthel Lane "Doc" Watson (March 3, 1923 – May 29, 2012) was an American guitarist, songwriter, and singer of bluegrass, folk, country, blues, and gospel music. When Ashley was sidelined by laryngitis, Watson stepped in as lead vocalist, demonstrating he had both the skills and charisma to work as a solo act. Watson had fallen early in the week. In 1994, Watson teamed up with musicians Randy Scruggs and Earl Scruggs to contribute the classic song "Keep on the Sunny Side" to the AIDS benefit album Red Hot + Country produced by the Red Hot Organization. Generation also known as The Greatest Generation. 88, 1978). The decade was one of learning and exploration. [2] Blind from a young age, he performed with his son, guitarist Merle Watson, for over 15 years until Merle's death in 1985 in an accident on the family farm. Here are all of Doc Watson… Doc Watson was 89 years old at the time of his death. Watson pioneered a fast and flashy bluegrass lead guitar style including fiddle tunes and crosspicking techniques which were adopted and extended by Clarence White, Tony Rice and many others. [24] The collection won the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album. Richard Watson passed away causing so much heartbreak and agony to the beloved family. Doc Watson, a master storyteller, was one of the pioneering artists of roots-conscious Americana. By the time he reached his teens, however, he had settled on the guitar as his preferred musical vehicle. Born June 29, 1935, he was a son of the late James H. Watson and Elva Elizabeth Watson Stover. [17] For the last few years, Doc had been playing a Dana Bourgeois dreadnought given to him by Ricky Skaggs for his 80th birthday. [16] Personal life and death. Counting collaborations and compilations, Watson released more than 60 albums and influenced other noted guitarists, including Norman Blake, Tony Rice, Dan Crary and Randy Scruggs. Watson would eventually get his big break and rave reviews for his performance at the renowned Newport Folk Festival in Newport, Rhode Island in 1963. By Jesse Wood. Known also for his distinctive and rich baritone voice, Watson over the years developed a vast repertoire of mountain ballads, which he learned via the oral tradition of his home area in Deep Gap, North Carolina. [20] Watson died on May 29, 2012 at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center[21] of complications following the surgery at the age of 89. Released in 1972, it featured such other country, folk and bluegrass luminaries as Roy Acuff, Mother Maybelle Carter, Jimmy Martin, Earl Scruggs and Merle Travis. It was for best country instrumental performance, a recognition Watson shared with fellow guitarist Bryan Sutton for their rendition of “Whiskey Before Breakfast.”. They occasionally toured together across the country and in Europe. Merle and "Doc" played music and recorded together for fifteen years before his untimely death in a tractor accident on his family farm. Watson's fingerstyle and flatpicking skills, as well as his knowledge of traditional American music, were highly regarded. He was born July 20, 1966, in Watauga County to Geneva Sarah Greene Watson Hennessee and the late Eddy Merle Watson. Doc Watson - Biography. [30], In 1986, Watson received the North Carolina Award and in 1994 he received a North Carolina Folk Heritage Award. The book also goes into detail on the life, supporting role and ultimate death of Merle Watson. Watson’s newest release is this live recording of some of his earliest shows in New York City, 1962 in Greenwich Village, when he was one of the rising stars of the budding folk revival. He performed with his son, guitarist Merle Watson, for over 15 years until Merle's death … Richard Watson, the grandson of musical icon, Doc Watson, and son of another great musician, the late Merle Watson, passed away on Monday evening at the age of 48. Watson played a Martin model D-18 guitar on his earliest recordings. Musician. [18] The festival has continued after his death. His first Gallagher, which Watson refers to as "Old Hoss", is on display at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee. [13] In 1985, Merle died in a tractor accident on his family farm. Watson won seven Grammy awards as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. [9] Later in that same interview, Watson explained that his first high-quality guitar was a Martin D-18. [1] Watson won seven Grammy awards as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1988, three years after Merle Watson’s death, Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro, N.C., launched MerleFest to raise funds for a campus garden. He was not seriously injured in the fall, but an underlying medical condition prompted surgery on his colon. Doc Watson; Read Our 2012 Interview", "Doc Watson, Blind Guitar Wizard Who Influenced Generations, Dies at 89", "INTERVIEW- Doc's orders: No heavy metal at MerleFest", "Doc Watson, folk music legend, dies at 89", "Doc Watson Bluegrass Legend Dies at 89 in Winston-Salem", "Folk Pioneer Doc Watson Dead at 89 | Music News", "Arthel Lane "Doc" Watson (1923–2012) – Find A Grave Memorial", "24-February-2013 Kent Gustavson interview on Outsight Radio Hours", "Interview: Author Dr. Kent Gustavson Discusses His Doc Watson Biography "Blind But Now I See, "Doc Watson's daughter, ETSU professor create box set of legendary guitar player", Collection of Doc Watson performances from the Florida Folklife Collection, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Doc_Watson&oldid=996645622, Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners, United States National Medal of Arts recipients, Wikipedia articles with MusicBrainz identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 27 December 2020, at 21:22. Watson was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2010. [22] He is buried in the Merle and Doc Watson Memorial Cemetery, Deep Gap, Watauga County, North Carolina, with his wife and son. He lost his eyesight by the age of 1 when he developed an eye infection that was worsened by … On June 19, 2007, Watson was accompanied by Australian guitar player Tommy Emmanuel at a concert at the Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth, Texas. Bluegrass guitarist Eddy Merle Watson, son of country music star Doc Watson, was killed Wednesday when a tractor he was riding slipped down an embankment, overturned and … The name stuck. The collection was created by Watson's daughter Nancy and is being produced by ETSU Bluegrass and ETSU professor Roy Andrade. Doc Watson, the Grammy-winning flatpicking guitarist, died Tuesday (May 29) in Winston-Salem, N.C., following a brief illness. A cause of death has not been released. With the Nashville Bluegrass Band. #richard watson #doc watson #merlefest #bluegrass #folk music Impressed by what he saw and heard, Rinzler booked Ashley’s band at gigs in New York City and Los Angeles. Multimedia. Watson also appeared on 2002’s sequel, Will the Circle Be Unbroken, Vol. Richard Watson Death / Obituary – It is with sadness as we learnt on October 7, 2020, that Richard Watson was pronounced dead leaving loved ones in great sadness. The festival features a vast array of acoustic style music focusing on the folk, bluegrass, blues and old-time music genres. It would be his final performance. "[11] Watson proved to be a natural musical talent and within months was performing on local street corners playing songs from the Delmore Brothers, Louvin Brothers, and Monroe Brothers alongside his brother Linny. Among these were The Doc Watson Family (1963), Doc Watson & Son (1965) and Southbound (1966). Two years later Merle Fest was inaugurated in remembrance of him.[15]. He received an award of the “Entertainer of the Year” from R.O.P.E awards in 2018. Guestbook. Death. His guitar playing skills, combined with his authenticity as a mountain musician, made him a highly influential figure during the folk music revival. He continued performing with Doc Watson at various venues until Doc’s death in 2012. CMT and all related titles and logos are trademarks of Country Music Television, Inc. Grammy-Winning Musician Was a Major Player on. Doc Watson was born March 3, 1923, in what is now Deep Gap, N.C., in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Ashley’s band was booked at a festival in Union Grove, N.C., when Watson caught the attention of folklorist Ralph Rinzler, who was also doubling as a member of the Greenbriar Boys. Photos. Arthel Lane Watson was born in Deep Gap, N.C., on March 2, 1923. The collection, titled Milestones, features 94 songs as well as stories, remembrances, and over 500 photographs. 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