By Peter Cooper
The Tennessean
and Associated Press
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. â€" The manager of Grammy-winning folk musician Doc Watson says the artist has died. He was 89.
Mitchell Greenhill said in a news release that Watson died Tuesday at Wake Forest Baptist Hospital Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C. A hospital spokeswoman also confirmed Watson’s death.
Watson was a master flatpicker, playing his acoustic guitar at lightning speeds that could intimidate other musicians. The blind musician also sang and played other instruments, including the harmonica.
A North Carolinian throughout his life, Mr. Watson was a profound influence on Nashville music and musicians. Considered among the four most influential folk/country guitarists of the past half century (along with Merle Travis, Chet Atkins and Tony Rice), his rapid flatpicking style is emulated by many of Music City’s finest players, including country star Vince Gill and bluegrass flashes Andy Leftwich and Bryan Sutton.
“He was the first guitar player I ever saw live who was doing what I was trying to do,†Sutton told Nashville journalist Craig Havighurst, talking about being 10-years-old and witnessing Mr. Watson’s show in Maggie Valley, North Carolina. “I’d never heard anybody flatpick like that.â€
Himself inspired by Nashville guitarists including Travis, Grady Martin and Hank Garland, Mr. Watson often teamed with Father of Bluegrass Bill Monroe, as may be heard on Smithsonian Folkways’ Bill Monroe and Doc Watson: Live Duet Recordings 1963-1980 album.Â
Mr. Watson traveled to East Nashville’s Woodland Studios in 1971 to take part in the now-legendary Will the Circle Be Unbroken album, a multi-generational gathering spearheaded by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. He figured prominently on the finished album (released in 1972), both in the musical selections and in a recording that documents his first ever meeting with the great Merle Travis.Â
“I named my son for you and Eddy Arnold,†Watson told Travis. “I figure a little of that good guitar picking might rub off on him.
“Look who’s talking,†Travis replied.
On the Dirt Band’s Will The Circle Be Unbroken Volume III, released in 2002, Mr. Watson performed “I Am A Pilgrim†as a tribute to the late Travis, who recorded that song on the initial Circle album.
Will The Circle Be Unbroken was a springboard to national fame for Mr. Watson, as the album’s commercial and critical success helped the guitar wizard to find new audiences. The album was praised for connecting musicians of varying ages, styles, upbringings and political outlooks, though for the young members of the Dirt Band, the thrill wasn’t in the reviews, it was in the playing.
“Whether or not we realized that this was crossing this huge generational gap, cultural gap, I was just happy to be there playing in the room with Doc Watson,†Dirt Band guitarist and vocalist Hanna told music journalist Jason Hamad last year.
Each year, many Nashville musicians travel to Wilkesboro, NC for the annual Merlefest, a music festival that began in 1988 as a way to honor Mr. Watson’s late son, Eddy Merle Watson, who died in a 1985 tractor accident. The festival draws more than 80,000 fans and features 90 artists, few of whom draw louder cheers than does legendary Nashville songwriter Guy Clark, particularly when Clark sings of his own worldly good fortune in “Dublin Blues:†“I have seen the David/ Seen the Mona Lisa, too/ And I have heard Doc Watson play ‘Columbus Stockade Blues.’â€
