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Doc Watson
I Am a Pilgrim: Doc Watson at 100
by Pedro Keul
Doc Watson died in 2012 but his influence on American music was undeniable. Master of flatpicking--the technique of striking the strings of a guitar with a pick (also called a plectrum) held between the thumb and one or two fingers--Watson released nearly 30 albums; solo and with relatives (The Watson Family) and numerous bluegrass and blues artists such as Earl Scruggs, Ricky Skaggs, and Taj Mahal. I Am A Pilgrim: Doc Watson at 100 features new renditions of some of ...
read moreDoc Watson: Trouble in Mind
by C. Michael Bailey
Culled from ten Vanguard and Sugar Hill recordings, Trouble in Mind is an exquisite assemblage of white rural blues by its greatest living practitioner, Arthel "Doc" Watson, the now 80-year-old flat picking savant from Deep Gap, North Carolina. Watson exists today as the only extant proponent of that link between African-American and Caucasian rural music. He is equal parts John Hurt and Jimmie Rogers, Blind Blake and Merle Travis. Doc Watson is like Ray Charles in the respect that neither ...
read moreDoc Watson and Frosty Morn: 'Round The Table Again
by C. Michael Bailey
Please make welcome, a national treasure, Doc Watson..."
With that fitting introduction, Doc Watson, with his late son Merle’s band Frosty Morn, begin their appearance at the Wilkes Community College, Wilkesboro, North Carolina. Wilkes Community College is the home of the annual Merlefest, a traditional American music festival sponsored in honor of Merle Watson, which was inaugurated in 1988. The music contained herein proves that talent and sincerity great enough will abolish genre definitions.
Arthel Watson was born March 3, ...
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