Posted on 05/29/2012 5:12:20 PM PDT by doubleA
Breaking News: Grammy-winning folk musician Doc Watson died at 89 at a Winston-Salem hospital Tuesday evening, according to his manager and a hospital spokesman.
(Excerpt) Read more at wral.com ...
I went to see Doc in his final concert tour last year. It was amazing to see and hear him perform at his age.
Most moving was his testimony of how during the past few years another musician came to see him and shared how he could know he was going to spend eternity in the presence of God through faith in Jesus Christ. Doc shared how he came to trust Christ as his Savior.
What a homecoming it will be with Doc on guitar!
Thanks for the link. That version of Black Mountain Rag is one of the tracks on the “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?” album.
I probably shouldn’t admit this here but “Circle” was on my turntable for an entire summer in whe I was in Hogh School. I smoked more pot to that album that year just listening to the incredible musicianship embedded on those pieces of vinyl.
“Circle” is the one of only two albums I have in their entirety on my iTunes. The other is “Last Waltz”.
1923 Arthel Lane “Doc” Watson born in Stoney Fork Township, near Deep Gap, North Carolina, on March 3, 1923
1947 Doc marries Rosa Lee Carlton
1949 Son Eddy Merle Watson born (Named after Eddy Arnold and Merle Travis)
1951 Daughter Nancy Ellen Watson born
1953 Doc gets a job playing electric lead guitar in Jack Williams’ country and western swing band
1960 Doc is “discovered” when Ralph Rinzler meets him while in North Carolina to record Clarence “Tom” Ashley
1961 Doc, Gaither Carlton, Tom Ashley, Fred Price, and Clint Howard travel to New York to perform a concert sponsored by Friends of Old Time Music
1962 Doc’s first solo appearance, at Gerde’s Folk City
1964 Merle starts learning the guitar; in June he plays backup guitar for Doc at the Berkeley Folk Festival
1973 Doc receives his first Grammy award. This is followed by five more Grammys over the years
1985 Merle Watson dies tragically in a tractor accident on the night of October 23rd
1988 Doc is awarded the National Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts
1988 The first Merlefest is held in remembrance of Merle Watson
1997 Doc receives the the National Medal of the Arts from President Clinton
2004 Doc is awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences at their 2004 Grammy Awards show
Mea culpa! It just dawned on me that I gave bad info in my previous reply. Maybelle Carter didn’t play the dulcimer; she played the Autoharp. In fact, she complained on the album that she had restrung her autoharp herself. And like a lot of “ideas” we get, that one turned into a nightmare, because of SO MANY strings on the instrument! She said she’d never tackle a job like THAT again.
RIP.
But, you know, it's hard to sing that old music and not believe. Faith in Christ is in the bones and sinews of that music.
May the Lord keep you, Doc.
Rest in peace.
I was strolling one day in a lonely graveyard
When a voice from the tomb seemed to say
I once lived as you lived
walked and talked as you talk
But from earth I was soon called away
Oh those tombs (oh those tombs)
lonely tombs (lonely tombs)
Seemed to say in a low gentle tone
Oh how sweet (oh how sweet) is the rest (is the rest)
In our beautiful Heavenly home
Every voice from the tomb seemed to whisper and say
Living man you must soon follow me
And I thought as I looked on those cold marble slabs
What a dark lonely place that must be
Then I came to the place where my mother was laid
And in silence I stood by her tomb
And her voice seemed to say in a low gentle tone I am safe with my Savior at home...[Doc Watson]
An autoharp is a whole lot of trouble, my mother has one but I never really got into it.
I was wondering when you mentioned a hammer dulcimer and thought my memory was going or something. That is not really an old-timey instrument - at least not in the SE mountains where you would see plucked dulcimers w/ 3 or 4 strings. More of an upper-tier-state instrument i.e. New York, Pennsylvania and points west -- mostly where the Germans and Eastern Europeans were). It didn't catch on in the folk-music world here until relatively recently.
LOL! The statute of limitation has run, and you’re not running for president :-)
God’s given us years of happiness here
Now we must part
And as the angels come and call for you
The pains of grief tug at my heart
Oh my darling
My darling
My heart breaks as you take your long journey
Oh the days will be empty
The nights so long without you my love
And when god calls for you I’m left alone
But we will meet in heaven above
Oh my darling
My darling
My heart breaks as you take your long journey
Fond memories I’ll keep of happy ways
That on earth we trod
And when I come we will walk hand in hand
As one in heaven in the family of god
Oh my darling
My darling
My heart breaks as you take your long journey
Written by Rosa Lee, Doc’s wife, many years ago. But today is the day it became reality.
Doc tells the story and sings it here at age 85:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ugpejfhu9H8
Excellent. Thanks.
I got ripped on it earlier, but Doc performed it and that’s truly how I think he felt.
I was hard on him when Merle died too
From left to right at this show:
Marty Stuart (yes, that Marty Stuart-a phenomenal mandolin player who started in bluegrass), Merle Watson (Doc’s son), T. Michael Coleman on bass, and then Doc.
The guitar Doc is playing in this video (which was shot at MerleFest in Wilkesboro, NC on May 1, 2011) is a Wayne Henderson cutaway style. Wayne makes high quality handmade instruments in VA and is a picker in his own right with a unique style of playing.
For most of Doc’s career he played Gallagher guitars (made in Wartrace, TN). Distinctive sound, handcrafted- American.
Classic
Meant to copy you on my reply to invisible hand. In that video, the guitar is a Wayne Henderson (VA) custom cutaway acoustic. On most other videos, except early black and whites, you’ll see Doc playing a Gallagher (made in Wartrace, TN.
Doc referred to a Les Paul when he talked about developing his flatpicking of fiddle tunes. He played them in a country band, on electric guitar—a Gibson Les Paul model, which is a solid body legendary design by the great, deceased genius Les Paul (he of the Les Paul/Mary Ford duo, inventor of multitrack recording and the loop tape special effect).
Love Doc’s version of this great Delmore Brothers song (Alton and Rabon Delmore). Thanks!
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