2023 Monday Portrait: Throwback of Doc Watson

Arthel Lane “Doc” Watson was my fourth cousin, but more importantly than that he was an American guitarist, songwriter, and singer of bluegrass, folk, and gospel music. He won the Grammy Awards seven times as well as earning the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Doc Watson was born in Deep Gap, North Carolina on March 3, 1923, and passed from this life into the next on May 29, 2012, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina at the age of 89. Doc was blind from infancy. He grew up on a farm and was encouraged at an early age, by his father, to learn to play the guitar, banjo, and harmonica. He often picked out tunes he heard on the radio or on old records. He introduced a flat-picking style which elevated the acoustic guitar from a rhythmically strummed background instrument to a leading role in bluegrass, country, folk, and rock music.

Doc’s Appalachian culture and roots enabled him to be presented to become the region’s unofficial ambassador to the world stage. He made appearances all across the country and recorded his first solo album in 1964. Je also recorded an album with his son, Merle in 1965. In 1973, Arthel “Doc” Watson received his first honorary doctorate. He continued to perform his musical talents until 2012, when he made his final appearance at MerleFest. MerleFest was started in 2009 in honor of Doc’s son Merle who passed on in 1985.

Doc Watson recorded over 40 albums; been awarded eight Grammys; held honorary doctorates from University of North Carolina Asheville and Berklee College of Music as well as Appalachian State University at the time of his death. He also received the North Carolina Award, the North Carolina Folk Heritage Award, a National Heritage Fellowship, and the National Medal of the Arts; been inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor; and was honored with a life-size statue on King Street in Boone, North Carolina.