Doc Watson, Blind Guitar Wizard Who Influenced Generations, Dies at 89

By WILLIAM GRIMES | May 29, 2012

“…“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.”…”

No exaggeration. Doc Watson is a genuine hero of mine. Ralph Rinzler (for whom I was working as a volunteer) called my parents to say that their 15 year old folk singing son would be home late because he absolutely had to see Doc Watson play and sing at the American Folklife Festival in DC in July 1967. And I did see him. The thrill of it – the clarity and power of his guitar picking, the beauty of his voice, his charm and his humor – still gives me chills, 45 years on. That hour recalibrated my musical life permanently. If you do not know Doc Watson’s music (or if you revere it like me), go listen, right now.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/30/arts/music/doc-watson-folk-musician-dies-at-89.html?_r=1&emc=na

 

 

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