""__--DOC--__""
Mid-Night Rider
Doc Watson:
Legend In Acoustic Music
Arthel "Doc" Watson is without doubt a living legend in acoustic music.
For more than three decades, Doc Watson has been America's most renowned
and influential folk guitar stylist. Now 73 years of age, he's mostly
retired but his few selective performances show no signs of his enormous
talents being dimmed by either age or fewer concert dates on the road.
At any given Doc Watson performance, one will see and hear not only a
guitar player of the finest caliber, but also an intelligent, witty,
down-to-earth 'man of the mountains' who loves to share the music of his
heart and home. Doc is an extraordinary entertainer who never fails to
capture the admiration and affection of his audience. His concerts are
filled with hot flatpicking tunes, slow romantic ballads, gutsy blues
numbers, delicately fingerpicked melodies, and an old time gospel song
or two. Each song is sung with unmatched clarity, each tune played with
a dexterity that has placed Doc Watson's name in the music history
books.
Doc did not set out from his Appalachians mountain home to become a
famous musician. In fact, if given his druthers, he never would have
struck out on the road to make a living as a performer. While music
would have been a part of his life no matter what, carpentry, electrical
work, mechanics, or even engineering would have been Watson's calling of
choice, if he had been given that choice. Sadly, a childhood eye
infection, exacerbated by a congenital vascular disorder near his eyes,
took Doc's vision by the time he was one year old. Doc has always
referred to his blindness only as a hindrance, not a disability. He
would tell you, however, given the opportunity, that one of the very few
regrets of his long and productive life is not having been blessed with
the ability to see the smiles on the faces of his loved ones.
Arthel Lane "Doc" Watson was born in Stoney Fork Township, near what is
now Deep Gap, NC, on March 3, 1923. His father, General Dixon Watson,
was a day laborer and a farmer, who actively sung in the Baptist church
and played the banjo. His mother, Annie, often would gather the family
to sing hymns or read from the Bible. Doc's family was a musically
inclined one and as he remembers, "There was the old phonograph around
the house, and, of course, I heard the singing at the church, and my
mother sang a few of the old ballads when she'd be knitting some of the
boys' overalls or cooking or something or other. Never heard Dad, except
when he was singing the good old gospel songs - he was singing when I
was in church from the time I could remember - up until he made that
little old homemade banjo and taught me a few tunes on it."
Doc's first instrument, bought for him by his father, was the harmonica,
which he started playing at approximately five years of age. By age 11,
his musical talent already growing, he had picked up the banjo, made
with the help of his grandmother's cat, which became the instrument's
drum. Doc's conscience is clear on that point, however, because as he
remembers "I never knew the animal. I never petted it. I never heard it
howl or anything that I remember of. It just got old and decrepit and
couldn't eat and was blind, and it was miserable. Dad persuaded my
brother to put it out of its misery. And he did it without making it
suffer."
As a young teenager, while Watson attended the North Carolina State
School for the Blind in Raleigh, he learned a few guitar chords from a
friend. This accomplishment created the impetus for his father
eventually buying Doc his first guitar. As Doc recalls, "My real
interest in the music was the old 78 records and the sound of the music,
I loved it. And I began to realize that one of the main sounds on those
old records I loved was the guitar. One of my brothers had borrowed one
from a cousin and I was foolin' with it and he says, Dad just says if
you'll learn to play a song on it by the time I get in from work this
evening, we'll go in to town and get you one. Well, I knew some chords
and I just played the rhythm chords to 'When Roses Bloom in Dixieland'.
I had some money saved in my piggy bank, so we took that and he finished
it up and got me a $12 Stella, which was a pretty good little guitar at
the time." Later in his teenage years, Watson earned enough money sawing
wood to buy his own guitar from Sears, Roebuck. He began playing music
with his older brother, Linny, in the style of the old-time brother
duets, like the Louvins, the Monroe Brothers, the Delmore Brothers and
the Carter Family. "I just loved the guitar when it came along. I loved
it," Doc recalls. "The banjo was something I really liked, but when the
guitar came along, to me that was my first love in music." When Watson
was 19, he got a gig performing for a radio show. The announcer felt
"Arthel" was too stuffy and was searching for a replacement when someone
in the audience shouted "Call him Doc." The name stuck and perseveres to
this day.
Not only did Doc Watson come from a musical background, but he married
into another family of music when, at the age of 23, he wed his
15-year-old third cousin Rosa Lee Carlton, whose father, Gaither
Carlton, was a fiddler with whom Watson played regional hymns and
ballads. Doc and Rosa Lee Watson had two children, Eddy Merle, named
after guitar great Merle Travis, and in 1951, Nancy Ellen. Throughout
the 1950's, Doc supported his family by playing music, tuning pianos,
and with great reluctance accepting some financial aid for the blind. He
worked primarily in a country dance band, playing an electric Gibson
(Les Paul model) guitar with pianist Jack Williams. During this period
however, he continued to play the traditional acoustic music of his home
with friends Tom "Clarence" Ashley, Clint Howard, and Fred Price, who
were all accomplished musicians in their on rights. It was while
performing with Ashley, Howard, and Price at Union Grove, North Carolina
in 1960 that the now legendary meeting of folklorist Ralph Rinzler and
Doc Watson took place. As a legendary folk banjoist, Clarence Ashley
introduced Doc to musician and promoter Rinzler, who was impressed by
Watson's abilities on the guitar. Rinzler's "discovery" of Watson led to
Watson's touring the coffeehouse circuit in the Northeast and eventually
took him to the stage of the Newport Folk Festival in 1963, where he was
embraced enthusiastically by the folk community, young and old.
On one of this historic festival's stages, a 41-year-old blind guitar
player from the North Carolina mountains sat down and began to play. He
had wavy, dark hair, a gentle laugh, and a rich, warm baritone that
enveloped his audience like a grandfather's hug. He sang songs about
lost lives and lost loves, murders and muskrats, shady groves and
blackberry blossoms, bringing the sounds of Appalachia to the North. The
performance catapulted Doc Watson to the forefront of the folk revival
where he has remained ever since. That appearance and a historic concert
with the father of bluegrass, Bill Monroe, at Town Hall in New York City
in 1964 paved the way for Watson's first recording contract. These
events put Watson before the public in a big way at the height of the
folk revival, gaining him almost instant renown. As Doc recalls, "I
suspect if it hadn't been for Ralph's encouragement I wouldn't be on the
musical scene as a professional. Ralph helped me very much. He traveled
with me a lot in the early days and taught me a whole lot about how to
program sets from the stage until you got to where it's automatic, you
don't even have to think about it. He encouraged me an awful lot."
The year 1964 marked another momentous event in Doc Watson's rich life.
Upon returning home from a concert tour, Doc found that his son Merle
had taken up the guitar. Doc's wife, Rosa Lee, had taught Merle his
first chords, and Merle, as Doc now remembers, "just took it and went
with it." Doc had entered a period of prodigious musical accomplishment.
Merle started recording and touring with him in late 1964 at the
Berkeley Folk Festival, and for the next two decades they became
opposite sides of the same coin: Doc, the front man, warming the crowd,
doing all the vocals; Merle, quiet and bearded, letting his guitar sing
harmony for him. Together they made 20 albums and won four Grammys
including 'Then and Now" in 1973, and 'Two Days in November' in 1974.
In spite of a surge in the popularity of rock music and a waning of the
folk revival in the 1970's, Doc and Merle continued to play to dedicated
audiences and win critical acclaim until the dark hours of October 23,
1985 when Doc and Rosa Lee's lives were shattered by Merle's tragic,
albeit accidental death. Just days before 'Frets Magazine' honored Merle
by naming him the best finger-style guitarist of the year, Eddy Merle
Watson rolled his farm tractor on a steep hillside near his home, ending
the life of one of the world's great acoustic musicians in a tragedy
eerily reminiscent of the blues ballads he loved. The intervening years
notwithstanding, the pain still resonates in Doc Watson's voice. "I
didn't just lose a good son," he says. "I lost the best friend I'll ever
have in this world."
A year after Merle's death, Bill Young, Doc's close friend and picking
buddy, Frederick W. "B." Townes, the Dean of Resource Development at
Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro, NC, and Ala Sue Wyke approached
him with the idea of doing a benefit concert at the college to raise
money for a memorial garden in honor of his deceased son, Merle. Rosa
Lee and Doc's daughter, Nancy, suggested they invite a number of Merle's
friends to play as well, some of whom were among the country's best
acoustic musicians. This dialog germinated the first Merle Watson
Memorial Festival in the spring of 1988. Artists played on stage in
Wilkes Community College's John A. Walker Center and on the back of two
flatbed trucks to a crowd of 4,000 people. This initially modest event,
now known as MerleFest, has subsequently become one of the most
critically acclaimed acoustic music festivals in the world. MerleFest
'95 included over 100 artists and bands, some already legendary and some
well on their way, performing on nine stages for nearly 40,000 people,
raising funds for the Eddy Merle Watson Garden for the Senses, and
providing an economic boost to the Wilkes County economy approaching
$1.5 million.
Arthel "Doc" Watson is clearly a folklife and acoustical music icon of
legendary proportions who richly deserves his princely place in musical
history. He has always been, and still remains, however, one of the most
fundamentally modest and self-deprecating men you will ever encounter.
When asked how he would like to be remembered by the countless people
from all walks of life whom he has enriched with measures of music and
wisdom of astonishing clarity, he responded by saying "I would rather be
remembered as a likable person than for any phase of my picking. Don't
misunderstand me; I really appreciate people's love of what I do with
the guitar. That's an achievement as far as I'm concerned, and I'm proud
of it. But I'd rather people remember me as a decent human being than as
a flashy guitar player. That's the way I feel about it."
Edited by James H. Barrow (http://www.merlefest.org/)
news:alt.music.novelty
KingCountryI@aol.com (Noah Tall)
> �
> Doc Watson:<
Good post about a true American idol. And to his wish, just a great
great MAN.
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band recorded their legendary LP "Will The
Circle Be Unbroken" almost 40 years ago, and thanks to outtakes and
live communication recorded between cuts, we are treated to an
informal, unrehearsed "live" interchange between the musicians between
songs.
Even today, almost 40 years later, you can listen to PROOF POSITIVE
WITHOUT A DOUBT, that Roy Acuff and Jimmy Martin were two of the
biggest a**holes in the history of mankind, and Doc Watson, Merle
Travis and Maybelle Carter were the polar opposites.
We're ALL products of our enviroment, and the hardships and
difficulties Doc, Merle and Maybelle encountered are etched on their
personalities for all the world to admire, while idiots like Roy Acuff
and Jimmy Martin are seen as the a**holes they always were!
Mid-Night Rider
unknown artist
http://richards-creations.net/Wav/6/bbq-song.wav
news:alt.music.novelty
KingCountryI@aol.com (Noah Tall)
wrote:
> �
> Doc Watson:
> Not only did Doc Watson come from a musical background, but he married
> into another family of music when, at the age of 23, he wed his
> 15-year-old third cousin Rosa Lee Carlton, whose father, Gaither
> Carlton, was a fiddler with whom Watson played regional hymns and
> ballads.
My how the times have changed!
How do you think that would play out today?
Didn't Jerry Lee Lewis get run out of the country for something
similar about 10 years later?
Anyhow, continuing down that acoustic/folk/bluegrass theme, I've been
listening to the Osborne Brothers lately, and to me, they just seem to
have been just about the best thing there was in bluegrass. They never
seemed to get their due. You can have Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs,
The Stanley Brothers etc ... ALL lousy singers with even worse songs.
The Osborne Brothers were head and shoulders above them all.
Mid-Night Rider
Coun...@aol.com (Noah Tall))
On Dec 30 2009, 6:17�pm, MidniteRidr...@webtv.net (Mid-Night
Rider)
wrote:
�
Doc Watson:
Not only did Doc Watson come from a musical background, but he married
into another family of music when, at the age of 23, he wed his
15-year-old third cousin Rosa Lee Carlton, whose father, Gaither
Carlton, was a fiddler with whom Watson played regional hymns and
ballads.
My how the times have changed!
Not round here--grin
How do you think that would play out today?
Didn't Jerry Lee Lewis get run out of the country for something similar
about 10 years later?
To the benefit of Country fans everywhere
Where would Country be without failed POP
stars
Thumper Jones
Conway
Kenny Rogers
Waylon
Anyhow, continuing down that acoustic/folk/bluegrass theme, I've been
listening to the Osborne Brothers lately,
Damn Hell just dropped another 10 degs
http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/9/30/2589755/OsborneBrothers_FootprintsInTheSnow.wav
and to me, they just seem to have been just about the best thing there
was in bluegrass. They never seemed to get their due.
Every jukebox in East Tenn. got Rocky Top on it--grin
You can have Bill Monroe,
No you can have him
Flatt & Scruggs,
Kind of fond of Beverly Hillbillies theme
& the 1 they had about the number of
guitar pickers in Nashville
The Stanley Brothers etc ... ALL lousy singers with even worse songs.
Maybe they just needed a little help
http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/10/6/2595089/StanleyBrothersVernGosdin_WayDownDeep.wav
The Osborne Brothers were head and shoulders above them all.
To be honest I've seen some good ones at
local events
Seen better players & singers than you see on CMT playing local beer
joints--Well back when I
drank anyway
news:alt.music.novelty
KingCountryI@aol.com (Noah Tall)
> Count...@aol.com�(Noah�Tall))
> On Dec 30 2009, 6:17�pm, MidniteRidr...@webtv.net (Mid-Night
> Rider)
> wrote:
> �
> Doc Watson:
> Not only did Doc Watson come from a musical background, but he married
> into another family of music when, at the age of 23, he wed his
> 15-year-old third cousin Rosa Lee Carlton, whose father, Gaither
> Carlton, was a fiddler with whom Watson played regional hymns and
> ballads.
> My how the times have changed!
> Not round here--grin
>
> How do you think that would play out today?
> Didn't Jerry Lee Lewis get run out of the country for something similar
> about 10 years later?
>
> To the benefit of Country fans everywhere
I gotta disagree. The Killer did some incredible Country music,
especially the ballads.
>
> Where would Country be without failed POP
> stars
>
> Thumper Jones
> Conway
> Kenny Rogers
> Waylon
>
Again. I gotta disagree. George "Thumper" Jones was NEVER a failed POP
Star, just a Pappy Daily client, who was forced to try to cross over
on a couple of songs. Same with Waylon. POP singers never sang White
Lightning, Love's Gonna Live Here, Abilene, etc ... Let's try to keep
some sense of truthfullness. Are you Dan Cutrer? : ) LOL !!!!!!!!!
> Anyhow, continuing down that acoustic/folk/bluegrass theme, I've been
> listening to the Osborne Brothers lately,
>
> Damn Hell just dropped another 10 degshttp://www.fileden.com/files/2009/9/30/2589755/OsborneBrothers_Footpr...�
>
> �and to me, they just seem to have been just about the best thing there
> was in bluegrass. They never seemed to get their due.
>
> Every jukebox in East Tenn. got Rocky Top on it--grin
>
> �You can have Bill Monroe,
> No you can have him
>
> �Flatt & Scruggs,
> Kind of fond of Beverly Hillbillies theme
> & the 1 �they had about the number of
> guitar pickers in Nashville
Gotta disagree. Their version of "The Beverly Hillbillies" was God-
awful. You know INSTANTLY why the network hired that singer to do the
vocals! : )
>
> The Stanley Brothers etc ... ALL lousy singers with even worse songs.
>
> Maybe they just needed a little help
>
> http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/10/6/2595089/StanleyBrothersVernGos...
>
> �The Osborne Brothers were head and shoulders above them all.
>
> To be honest I've seen some good ones at
> local events
>
> Seen better players & singers than you see on CMT playing local beer
> joints--Well back when I
> drank anyway
Anybody who used to drink and doesn't anymore is a nothing but a
"QUITTER" ! : )
Mid-Night Rider
(KingC...@aol.com (Noah Tall))
On Feb 10, 11:06�am, MidniteRidr...@webtv.net (Mid-Night Rider)
wrote:
Count...@aol.com�(Noah�Tall))
On Dec 30 2009, 6:17�pm, MidniteRidr...@webtv.net (Mid-Night
Rider)
wrote:
�
Doc Watson:
Not only did Doc Watson come from a musical background, but he married
into another family of music when, at the age of 23, he wed his
15-year-old third cousin Rosa Lee Carlton, whose father, Gaither
Carlton, was a fiddler with whom Watson played regional hymns and
ballads.
My how the times have changed!
Not round here--grin
How do you think that would play out today? Didn't Jerry Lee Lewis get
run out of the country for something similar about 10 years later?
To the benefit of Country fans everywhere
I gotta disagree. The Killer did some incredible Country music,
especially the ballads.
THATS WHAT I SAID -JUST DONT HAVE THE COMMAND OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
YOU DO-KILLER PUT ON
1 OF THE BEST SHOWS I EVER SAW
WITH HIS SISTER (ALL COUNTRY)
Where would Country be without failed POP stars
Thumper Jones
Conway
Kenny Rogers
Waylon
Again. I gotta disagree. George "Thumper" Jones was NEVER a failed POP
Star, just a Pappy Daily client, who was forced to try to cross over on
a couple of songs. Same with Waylon. POP singers never sang White
Lightning, Love's Gonna Live Here, Abilene, etc ... Let's try to keep
some sense of truthfullness. Are you Dan Cutrer? : ) LOL !!!!!!!!!
DO I SOUND GAY---GRIN
Anyhow, continuing down that acoustic/folk/bluegrass theme, I've been
listening to the Osborne Brothers lately,
Damn Hell just dropped another 10
degshttp://www.fileden.com/files/2009/9/30/2589755/OsborneBrothers_Footpr..�
�and to me, they just seem to have been just about the best
thing there was in bluegrass. They never seemed to get their due.
Every jukebox in East Tenn. got Rocky Top on it--grin
�You can have Bill Monroe,
No you can have him
�Flatt & Scruggs,
Kind of fond of Beverly Hillbillies theme & the 1 �they had
about the number of
guitar pickers in Nashville
Gotta disagree. Their version of "The Beverly Hillbillies" was God-
awful. You know INSTANTLY why the network hired that singer to do the
vocals! : )
The Stanley Brothers etc ... ALL lousy singers with even worse songs.
Maybe they just needed a little help
http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/10/6/2595089/StanleyBrothersVernGos...
�The Osborne Brothers were head and shoulders above them all.
To be honest I've seen some good ones at local events
Seen better players & singers than you see on CMT playing local beer
joints--Well back when I
drank anyway
Anybody who used to drink and doesn't anymore is a nothing but a
"QUITTER" ! : )
THERE ARE REASONS FOR QUITTING
1 BELOW
http://biab.8m.com/ontap/98.wav
Drinking and Thinking
We were at the bar on a Saturday night
I was on your left and you were on my right
And I was drinking ... Yeah drinking and thinking
I was drinking beer staring at you
Thinking 'bout what I'd like to do
Yeah drinking and thinking of you
Well hon that red dress is so dang tight
If I ain't careful gonna ruin my sight tonight
I'm drinking and thinking
I was drinking beer staring at you
Thinking 'bout what I'd like to do
Just drinking and thinking of you
Well baby you really do turn me on
It would be no trouble just to take you home tonight
I'm drinking and thinking
I was drinking beer staring at you
Thinking 'bout what I'd like to do
Just drinking and thinking of you
Middle -16 bars-
So I got the nerve to ask you to dance
I said come on baby won't you take a chance
Maybe later we can find romance tonight
Then you smiled at me and you squeezed my hand
And we danced to the music of a country band
You held me close and made me feel so right
But before I knew it there was a big fight
And I was out on the floor with two black eyes
And I was through with drinking and thinking
I was drinking beer staring at you
Thinking 'bout what I'd like to do
But your bass playing boyfriend cured me it's true
From drinking and thinking of you
From drinking and thinking of you
Yeah drinking and thinking of you
news:alt.music.novelty