Guitar-picker extraordinary, and one of the most influential figures in traditional American music, Arthel "Doc" Watson has died aged 89.
Brian Braiker in the Guardian:
For a man who would become a standard bearer of authenticity and technical wizardry in Americana music, Watson was not even discovered until 1960, approaching middle age and playing old fiddle songs on an electric guitar for a rockabilly party band. Watson rode the folk revival wave of that decade, becoming one of its most recognisable and revered figures – his name commanding the same admiration as the likes of Earl Scruggs, Merle Travis and Bill Monroe.
He would go on to record more than 50 albums, win eight Grammy awards, including a lifetime achievement award, and influence multiple generations of younger musicians. But his astonishing virtuosity – all the more impressive given that he was blind since the age of one – was a genre of music unto itself, as trailblazingly modern as it was faithful to its roots, a style of playing that was mimicked by many and mastered by none.
Here he is from 1991, in a duet with Jack Lawrence, explaining in his spoken intro essentially how he became such a guitar pioneer - by transposing the parts usually played by the traditional lead instruments in an old-style Country band, like the fiddle. After Doc, the guitar would take centre stage:
That's how to flat-pick.
Also, previously here, a solo Deep River Blues, and Blue Railroad Train - though to be honest Doc was never the greatest vocalist. Plus a duet with Chet Atkins.
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