Arthel Lane "Doc" Watson was an American guitarist, songwriter, and singer of bluegrass, folk, country, blues, and gospel music.
33 Facts About Doc Watson
2.
Doc Watson won seven Grammy awards as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
3.
Doc Watson attended North Carolina's school for the blind, the Governor Morehead School, in Raleigh, North Carolina.
4.
Doc Watson's father told him that if he and his brother David chopped down all the small dead chestnut trees along the edge of their field, they could sell the wood to a tannery.
5.
Doc Watson bought a Sears Silvertone from Sears Roebuck with his earnings, while his brother bought a new suit.
6.
Later in the same interview, Doc Watson mentioned that his first high-quality guitar was a Martin D-18.
7.
Doc Watson later transferred the technique to acoustic guitar, and playing fiddle tunes became part of his signature sound.
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In 1960, as the American folk music revival grew, Doc Watson took the advice of folk musicologist and Smithsonian curator Ralph Rinzler and began playing acoustic guitar and banjo exclusively.
9.
Doc Watson then began to tour as a solo performer and appeared at universities and clubs like the Ash Grove in Los Angeles.
10.
Doc Watson recorded his first solo album in 1964 and began performing with his son, Merle in the same year.
11.
Doc Watson was the first rural acoustic player to truly 'amaze' urban audiences in the early 1960s with his dazzling, fast technique, and he has continued to be a driving, creative force on the acoustic music scene.
12.
Doc Watson played guitar in both flatpicking and fingerpicking style, but is best known for his flatpick work.
13.
Doc Watson's guitar playing skills, combined with his authenticity as a mountain musician, made him a highly influential figure during the folk music revival.
14.
Doc 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.
15.
Doc Watson was an accomplished banjo player and sometimes accompanied himself on harmonica as well.
16.
Doc Watson played a Martin model D-18 guitar on his earliest recordings.
17.
In 1968, Doc Watson began a relationship with Gallagher Guitars when he started playing their G-50 model.
18.
In 1994, Doc Watson teamed 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.
19.
Doc Watson was generally joined onstage by his grandson Richard, as well as longtime musical partners David Holt or Jack Lawrence.
20.
On June 19,2007, Doc Watson was accompanied by Australian guitar player Tommy Emmanuel at a concert at the Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth, Texas.
21.
Doc Watson performed, accompanied by Holt and Richard, at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in San Francisco in 2009, as he had done previous for several previous festivals.
22.
Doc Watson was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2010.
23.
In 1947, Doc Watson married Rosa Lee Carlton, the daughter of popular fiddle player Gaither Carlton.
24.
Doc Watson was not seriously injured in the fall, but an underlying medical condition prompted surgery on his colon.
25.
Doc Watson died on May 29,2012, at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center of complications following the surgery at the age of 89.
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Doc Watson is buried in the Merle and Doc Watson Memorial Cemetery, Deep Gap with his wife and son.
27.
In 2002, High Windy Audio released a multi-CD biographical album of Doc Watson's work, titled Legacy.
28.
The collection features audio interviews with Doc Watson interspersed with music, as well as a complete recording of a live performance at the Diana Wortham Theatre in Asheville, North Carolina.
29.
In 2010, Blooming Twig Books published a comprehensive biography of Doc Watson, written by Kent Gustavson.
30.
In 1986, Doc Watson received the North Carolina Award and in 1994 he received a North Carolina Folk Heritage Award.
31.
Doc Watson 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.
32.
In 2000, Doc Watson was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor in Owensboro, Kentucky.
33.
In 1997, Doc Watson received the National Medal of Arts from US President Bill Clinton.