RIP Doc Watson

[Pam]

He gave so much and encompassed so many different kinds of music
including blues.  Time for me to break out the Old Time Music at
Clarence Ashley's for some really down to earth music.


Jimmy Jacobs wrote:

>Breaking News Alert
>The New York Times
>Tuesday, May 29, 2012 -- 8:38 PM EDT
>-----
>
>Doc Watson, Renowned Guitarist and Folk Singer, Dies
>
>Doc Watson, the guitarist and folk singer whose flat-picking style elevated
>the acoustic guitar to solo status in bluegrass and country music, and
>whose interpretations of traditional American music profoundly influenced
>generations of folk and rock guitarists, died on Tuesday in Winston-Salem,
>N.C. He was 89.
>
>Mr. Watson, who had been blind since he was a year old, died in a hospital
>after recently undergoing abdominal surgery, The Associated Press quoted a
>hospital spokesman as saying.
>
>Mr. Watson, who came to national attention during the folk music revival of
>the early 1960s, injected a note of authenticity into a movement awash in
>protest songs and bland renditions of traditional tunes. In a sweetly
>resonant, slightly husky baritone, he sang old hymns, ballads and country
>blues he had learned growing up in the northwestern corner of North
>Carolina, which has produced fiddlers, banjo pickers and folk singers for
>generations.
>
>His mountain music came as a revelation to the folk audience, as did his
>virtuoso guitar playing. Unlike most country and bluegrass musicians, who
>thought of the guitar as a secondary instrument for providing rhythmic
>backup, Mr. Watson executed the kind of flashy, rapid-fire melodies
>normally played by a fiddle or a banjo. His style influenced a generation
>of young musicians learning to play the guitar as folk music achieved
>national popularity.
>
>“He is single-handedly responsible for the extraordinary increase in
>acoustic flat-picking and fingerpicking guitar performance,” said Ralph
>Rinzler, the folklorist who discovered Mr. Watson in 1960. “His
>flat-picking style has no precedent in earlier country music history.”
>
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