In 1962, Doc Watson and some of his musician neighbors set out from
their home in the Blue Ridge Mountains on the journey of a lifetime, to
perform at the Ash Grove folk club in Los Angeles.
"I remember the
first trip we did," Watson said in a 2008 interview. "We borrowed a
little station wagon from the late Clarence Ashley's son and drove to
California and back, and I remember thinking, 'Lord, what a big old
country this is.' I was a mountaineer, just a country boy. I'd never
been nowhere like that before."
Within a few years, Watson
seemingly had been everywhere, as his prowess on guitar and his vast
store of traditional Southern music made the blind musician an
internationally celebrated artist.
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.
"Doc
Watson sort of defined in many ways what Americana has become," Jed
Hilly, executive director of the Americana Music Assn., told The Times.
"He played different styles of American roots music. He played
traditional country, he played what would be traditional folk, he played
what was traditional bluegrass, he played gospel. All those elements
sort of interwoven, that's what Buddy Miller does today.… Nothing is
more definitive than Doc Watson's appreciation for a broad spectrum of
music in the Americana world."
He received a National Medal of Arts in 1997 and a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy in 2004.
Remarkably, Watson was well into his 40s when he embarked on a serious music career.
Arthel
Lane Watson was born March 2, 1923, one of nine children in a farming
family in Deep Gap, N.C. Blinded by an eye infection before he was 2, he
was encouraged by his father to be active on the farm. His father also
helped foster his musical leanings.
Arthel received a new
harmonica every Christmas; and when he was 11 his father made him a
banjo, with the head formed from the skin of the family's recently
deceased cat. He got his first guitar at 13 and steeped himself in the
music he heard on the Grand Ole Opry radio broadcasts and records by
such country pioneers as Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family.
Watson
and his brother Linney played on street corners in nearby Boone, and he
later played in local country bands, developing a style influenced by
Merle Travis, Eddy Arnold and Chet Atkins. He also tuned pianos to help support a new family — in 1947 he married his teenage cousin Rosa Lee
Carlton, daughter of noted fiddler Gaither Carlton. Watson's new in-law
helped him stockpile his repertoire of traditional songs.
Nicknamed
Doc by an announcer at a radio station where his group sometimes
played, Watson joined a dance band in 1953, adding his electric guitar
to its mix of country, pop, swing and square dance music. He had tried
to play fiddle but was dissatisfied with his bowing skill, so he began
to play the up-tempo fiddle leads on his Les Paul, a la Nashville session stars Grady Martin and Riley Puckett.
For
Watson, the traditional acoustic music remained a private passion, so
he was intrigued in the late 1950s when the Kingston Trio and other
big-city singers began to find success interpreting the old songs.
But
his own breakthrough came by accident. Musician and folklorist Ralph
Rinzler traveled to the South to record old-time singer and banjo
player Clarence "Tom" Ashley, who recruited some neighbors, including
Watson, for the session. Watson had to borrow a friend's Gibson because
he didn't own an acoustic guitar.
The recordings stirred up some
interest, and Rinzler took the players to New York for a concert at
Town Hall that helped coalesce the growing folk audience. Watson also
got a booking at Gerde's Folk City in Greenwich Village;
and in 1962 Watson, Ashley and company headed west for their first Ash
Grove engagement. They also played key folk festivals, including those
at Newport, R.I., and UCLA.
Watson eventually followed Rinzler's
advice and emerged as a solo performer, though he was soon accompanied
regularly by his guitarist son, Merle. For Watson, the career offered an
opportunity to pull his weight and support his family, and one of his
proudest moments was informing a North Carolina state agency that he no
longer needed financial assistance for the blind.
It all came to a
temporary halt when Merle was killed in a tractor accident in 1985, but
after a hiatus Watson returned to the road. In 1988 he organized
MerleFest, an informal folk music gathering in Wilkesboro, N.C., that has grown into one of the country's major folk festivals.
Watson,
who recorded for a variety of record labels, disliked touring because
it kept him away from his home and family, and he first announced his
retirement from the road in 1988. He gradually cut back on his schedule
but continued to play occasional concerts.
On "Legacy," a 2002 recording of music and conversation with Watson and musician David Holt, Watson is asked how he'd like to be remembered.
"Just as a good
old, down-to-earth boy that didn't think he was perfect and that loved
music," he says. "And I'd like to leave quite a few friends behind....
Other than that, I don't want anybody putting me on a pedestal when I
leave here. I'm just one of the people."
Besides his wife of nearly 66 years, Watson is survived by his daughter Nancy Ellen, two grandchildren, several great-grandchildren and a brother, David.
Source
Posted 05/2012
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