This past week, the world said farewell to yet another music legend, Doc Watson. He was 89 years old. Doc was a master flat-picker with a warm baritone voice who blended traditional Appalachian folk music with blues, country, gospel, and bluegrass. If you are not familiar with his music or his story, it's high time you were.
A good place to get started might be the Terry Gross interview with Doc Watson on WHYY's Fresh Air.
FRESH AIR INTERVIEW: DOC WATSON
From the LA TIMES:Watson, 89, who recorded more than 50 albums and won seven Grammy Awards, died Tuesday at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C., according to his representatives at Folklore Productions, a Santa Monica management company. He had undergone colon surgery Thursday.
Although Watson is perhaps most acclaimed for his astonishing technique in both the flat-pick and finger-picking styles, his greatest contribution touched on broader concerns.
"Doc arrived at a point where there was the beginning of an audience for traditional music, but not really an informed group of people," Ash Grove owner Ed Pearl said last week.
"Doc was by far the best traditional artist I ever met at talking openly about his people, and just having a casual conversation with an audience.… He was among the most versatile and un-self-conscious bringers of Southern white culture to the Ash Grove possible, and he did that right from the beginning."
With his natural ease as a storyteller, his heartfelt baritone singing, his repository of material and his facility on guitar, Watson was a rare combination of authenticity and artistry.
His example inspired a generation of musicians to explore obscure musical pockets, as well as to upgrade their instrumental technique toward the remarkably high standards he established. He is one of the prime sources of the hybrid, roots-conscious Americana genre, and a key influence on such noted players as Norman Blake, Tony Rice, Buddy Miller and Dan Crary.
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