![\"\"](\"http:\/\/dh.wcu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/2.480666236_87ded6ac8d_z.jpg\" "\\"2.480666236_87ded6ac8d_z\\"")
Creative Commons Image Obtained Through Flickr<\/a>Arthel Lane \u201cDoc\u201d Watson is a living legend.\u00a0 Born in Deep Gap, North Carolina, in 1923, into a family with a rich musical tradition, Young Arthel lost his vision to an eye infection prior to his first birthday. He learned ballads and sacred songs from his mother and from the radio. He played music at home and with
<\/p>\n
<\/h5>\nMultimedia:<\/h3>\nBelow is the Digital Heritage Moment as broadcast on the radio:<\/h2>\n[audio:http:\/\/dh.wcu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/DocWatson60Mx.mp3|titles=DocWatson60Mx]\n
Below is the Digital Heritage Moment as broadcast on the radio:<\/h2>\n[audio:http:\/\/dh.wcu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/DocWatson60Mx.mp3|titles=DocWatson60Mx]\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.0.48″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″ parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on”][et_pb_accordion _builder_version=”3.9″][et_pb_accordion_item title=”Doc watson essay” open=”on” _builder_version=”3.9″ title_text_shadow_horizontal_length=”0em” title_text_shadow_vertical_length=”0em” title_text_shadow_blur_strength=”0em” body_text_shadow_horizontal_length=”0em” body_text_shadow_vertical_length=”0em” body_text_shadow_blur_strength=”0em”]<\/p>\n
Essay by Timothy N. Osment, History M.A., WCU 2008<\/span><\/p>\n It is understood when you reach a marked degree of fame that you give up your rights to any amount of privacy \u2013 that your \u201cpersonal life\u201d in essence belongs to the world.\u00a0 That characteristic is certainly true of folk musician and singer, Doc Watson.\u00a0 However, for many years before this timeless artist emerged into the national spotlight he belonged primarily to his beloved native homeland which were the hills of southern Appalachia \u2013 a natural and fitting starting point from which to explore the roots and life of such a unique musical treasure.<\/p>\n Regionally, the Watson name dates back to the late 18th<\/span>\u00a0century when a Scots pioneer named Tom Watson homesteaded over 3000 acres in North Carolina.\u00a0 Over time, many of Watson\u2019s descendants migrated west into a remote, upper corner of North Carolina bordering modern-day Tennessee and Virginia.\u00a0 During that period, traditional folk music was one of the threads that linked together families, neighbors, and\u00a0entire\u00a0communities.\u00a0 The isolation of the mountainous terrain created a fertile cultural seedbed responsible for producing and preserving a rich repository of original song and lore.\u00a0 It was in this setting in 1923 that Tom Watson\u2019s most famous descendent, Arthel Lane Watson was born.<\/p>\n The sixth of nine children, Arthel grew up in an environment focused on family, church, and music.\u00a0 Watson biographer Dan Miller writes,<\/p>\n \u201cIn the evenings the family read from the Bible and sung hymns from the Christian Harmony, a shape-note book published in 1866.\u00a0 Arthel\u2019s father, a farmer and laborer, led the singing at the local Baptist church.\u00a0 Arthel has said that his earliest memories of music reach back to his days as a young child being held in his mother’s arms at the Mt. Patron Church and listening to the harmony and shape-note singing.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n As a boy, Arthel attempted to play anything that would make a sound.\u00a0 Beginning with a harmonica, Arthel soon taught himself to pick tunes on a homemade fretless banjo.\u00a0 He loved to learn songs sung by the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers, songs he first heard played on a wind-up Victrola owned by his parents.\u00a0 Later, while attending school in Raleigh, two things happened to Arthel: (1) He began to study various forms of music such as big band, jazz, rock, and swing and (2) He fell in love with the guitar.<\/p>\n After leaving school, Arthel returned to his Appalachian home. \u00a0Armed with a new $12 Stella guitar, he spent his nights playing both traditional tunes and recent recordings at small community-sponsored events.\u00a0 He also joined a band that had a regular radio program on a station in Lenoir, NC.\u00a0 During one show, an announcer referred to the young guitarist as \u201cDoc\u201d \u2013 and the name stuck. \u00a0Doc especially enjoyed making music with fiddler Gaither Carlton, a man who eventually became his father-in-law when Rosa Lee Carlton married Doc in 1947.<\/p>\n In 1953, Doc joined Jack Williams in a band that played western swing and \u00a0rockabilly music with Doc featured on electric guitar.\u00a0 It was here that Doc began picking out square dance numbers on his guitar, perfecting the \u201cflat-picking\u201d style that would eventually become his trademark.\u00a0 Working with Williams, Doc performed a variety of music styles, from country to rock to pop \u2013 while working as a piano tuner to pay the bills.\u00a0 After eight years, he joined the Clarence Ashley String Band and appeared with the group in a Friends of Old-Time Music concert in New York.\u00a0 At the concert, Doc\u2019s performance was such a success he was invited to play at Gerde\u2019s Folk City in Greenwich Village.\u00a0 These gigs in New York were indication the folk revival of the early 1960s was beginning to gain momentum.\u00a0 In 1961, Doc made his recording debut with Clarence Ashley\u2019s band.\u00a0 Also about that time, at age 38, Doc switched from electric to acoustic guitar.\u00a0 Two years later, he stole the show with his performance at the Newport Folk Festival and later that year he played alongside Bill Monroe at New York\u2019s Town Hall.\u00a0 In 1964, he released his first solo album, Doc Watson & Family<\/em>, and began touring with his son Eddie Merle Watson (named for Eddy Arnold and Merle Travis).<\/p>\n The folk boom lasted most of the decade before fading in the late 1960s.\u00a0 However, Doc retained a legion of loyal fans and, upon being featured on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band\u2019s Will The Circle Be Unbroken<\/em> in 1972, gained a whole new generation of admirers. \u00a0In 1974, he won the Grammy for Best Traditional Recording and the following year, he and Merle took home the same award for their duet Two Days in November<\/em>.\u00a0 The bond between father and son continued to grow.\u00a0 Merle, like Doc, was raised in the high mountains of northwest North Carolina like his father,\u00a0and\u00a0there was taught to treasure home, family, and music.\u00a0 Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, Doc and Merle expanded their audience nationwide, often spending up to three hundred nights a year on the road.\u00a0 Merle acted as bus driver, manager, and fellow musician for his father, as well as providing companionship and support.\u00a0 Sadly, in 1985, tragedy struck.\u00a0 Merle was killed in a tractor accident on the family farm.<\/p>\n Losing both his son and partner, Doc found it difficult to continue playing music remarking, \u201cthe best friend I ever had in the world.\u201d\u00a0 In a 1997 interview for Acoustic Magazine, Doc remembers,<\/p>\n “The night before the funeral I had decided to quit, just give up playing. \u00a0Well that night I had this dream. \u2026 in this dream it was so dark I could hardly stand it. \u00a0It was like I was in quicksand up to my waist and I felt I wasn’t gonna make it out alive. \u00a0Then suddenly this big old strong hand reached back and grabbed me by the hand and I heard this voice saying, ‘Come on dad, you can make it. Keep going.’ \u00a0Then I woke up. I think the good Lord was telling me it was all right to continue with my music. \u00a0It’s been a struggle, but I still have the love for the music.”<\/em><\/p>\n Soon Doc was back on the road, playing his unique sound for sold-out audiences and performing alongside many of the best musicians available.\u00a0 In 1988, Doc hosted the first annual Merle Watson Memorial Festival, soon to be labeled Merlefest.\u00a0 Performers staged on the back of two flatbed trucks played to a crowd of about 4,000.\u00a0 Since then, Merlefest has become one of the largest traditional music events in the nation.\u00a0 Today\u2019s festival lasts four days and is attended by close to 45,000 people including a wide range of musical styles together with folk, country, bluegrass, blues, Cajun, Celtic, old-time, gospel, and acoustic jazz.<\/p>\n Since the early 1960s, Doc Watson has recorded over one hundred albums, many solo, many were with Merle, and others with various artists.\u00a0 Favorites include Will the Circle be Unbroken Vol. I & II <\/em>(1972), Pickin\u2019 the Blues <\/em>(1985, with Merle), My Dear Old Southern Home <\/em>(1991), and Songs from the Southern Mountains <\/em>(1994).\u00a0 There is also a fabulous 4-CD set, The Vanguard Years <\/em>(1995), that features 1960s performances from two Newport Folk Festivals and other tracks recorded when Doc was with the Vanguard label.\u00a0 These recommendations will provide a little something for everyone to enjoy as well as a great sampling of Doc\u2019s best works.<\/p>\n Today, well into his 80s, Doc does not tour as much as before.\u00a0 However, he continues to perform regularly throughout southern Appalachia.\u00a0 Recognized for his charm and comfortable wit, Doc remarks in a familiar drawl, \u201cI’m like an old dog, I hate to be run off from home.\u201d\u00a0 Doc also continues to achieve recognition after recognition for his music; he seems to get better with age.\u00a0 In addition to five Grammys, he has been awarded a National Heritage Fellowship, received a National Medal of the Arts, and in 2004, was presented the Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences<\/p>\n Doc is truly an American original.\u00a0 For almost fifty years, his simple and straightforward style has influenced popular trends while also preserving the spirit of old-time traditional music.\u00a0 His vast contributions to our regional and national culture are without a doubt, genuine, unique, and lasting.<\/p>\n Oh – by the way<\/strong>, Doc Watson lost his eyesight before his first birthday and has been blind now for over 80 years.\u00a0 Nonetheless, this \u201cminor inconvenience\u201d obviously has done nothing to lessen the accomplishments, or dim the proud light that glows so brightly within the soul of this cherished symbol of our southern Appalachian heritage.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_accordion_item][et_pb_accordion_item title=”For more information” open=”off” _builder_version=”3.9″ title_text_shadow_horizontal_length=”0em” title_text_shadow_vertical_length=”0em” title_text_shadow_blur_strength=”0em” body_text_shadow_horizontal_length=”0em” body_text_shadow_vertical_length=”0em” body_text_shadow_blur_strength=”0em”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_accordion_item][et_pb_accordion_item title=”online resources” open=”off” _builder_version=”3.9″ title_text_shadow_horizontal_length=”0em” title_text_shadow_vertical_length=”0em” title_text_shadow_blur_strength=”0em” body_text_shadow_horizontal_length=”0em” body_text_shadow_vertical_length=”0em” body_text_shadow_blur_strength=”0em”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_accordion_item][\/et_pb_accordion][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Arthel Lane \u201cDoc\u201d Watson is a living legend. Born in Deep Gap, North Carolina, in 1923, into a family with a rich musical tradition, Young Arthel lost his vision to an eye infection prior to his first birthday. He learned ballads and sacred songs from his mother and from the radio. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1192,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":" \u00a0Arthel Lane \u201cDoc\u201d Watson is a living legend.\u00a0 Born in Deep Gap, North Carolina, in 1923, into a family with a rich musical tradition, Young Arthel lost his vision to an eye infection prior to his first birthday. He learned ballads and sacred songs from his mother and from the radio. He played music at home and with neighbors until the 1950\u2019s when he joined a western swing band, playing electric guitar.\u00a0 In the early phase of a national folk music revival in the 1960s, \u201cDoc\u2019s\u201d genius as a traditional musician was discovered. He became one of the most popular performers on the folk circuit.\u00a0 His many Grammy Awards and his recognition as a premier American artist are testimony to his impact on the nation\u2019s musical culture.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote> It is understood when you reach a marked degree of fame that you give up your rights to any amount of privacy \u2013 that your \u201cpersonal life\u201d in essence belongs to the world.\u00a0 That characteristic is certainly true of folk musician and singer, Doc Watson.\u00a0 However, for many years before this timeless artist emerged into the national spotlight he belonged primarily to his beloved native homeland which were the hills of southern Appalachia \u2013 a natural and fitting starting point from which to explore the roots and life of such a unique musical treasure.<\/p> Regionally, the Watson name dates back to the late 18th<\/span>\u00a0century when a Scots pioneer named Tom Watson homesteaded over 3000 acres in North Carolina.\u00a0 Over time, many of Watson\u2019s descendants migrated west into a remote, upper corner of North Carolina bordering modern-day Tennessee and Virginia.\u00a0 During that period, traditional folk music was one of the threads that linked together families, neighbors, and\u00a0entire\u00a0communities.\u00a0 The isolation of the mountainous terrain created a fertile cultural seedbed responsible for producing and preserving a rich repository of original song and lore.\u00a0 It was in this setting in 1923 that Tom Watson\u2019s most famous descendent, Arthel Lane Watson was born.<\/p> The sixth of nine children, Arthel grew up in an environment focused on family, church, and music.\u00a0 Watson biographer Dan Miller writes,<\/p> \u201cIn the evenings the family read from the Bible and sung hymns from the Christian Harmony, a shape-note book published in 1866.\u00a0 Arthel\u2019s father, a farmer and laborer, led the singing at the local Baptist church.\u00a0 Arthel has said that his earliest memories of music reach back to his days as a young child being held in his mother's arms at the Mt. Patron Church and listening to the harmony and shape-note singing.\u201d<\/em><\/p> As a boy, Arthel attempted to play anything that would make a sound.\u00a0 Beginning with a harmonica, Arthel soon taught himself to pick tunes on a homemade fretless banjo.\u00a0 He loved to learn songs sung by the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers, songs he first heard played on a wind-up Victrola owned by his parents.\u00a0 Later, while attending school in Raleigh, two things happened to Arthel: (1) He began to study various forms of music such as big band, jazz, rock, and swing and (2) He fell in love with the guitar.<\/p> After leaving school, Arthel returned to his Appalachian home. \u00a0Armed with a new $12 Stella guitar, he spent his nights playing both traditional tunes and recent recordings at small community-sponsored events.\u00a0 He also joined a band that had a regular radio program on a station in Lenoir, NC.\u00a0 During one show, an announcer referred to the young guitarist as \u201cDoc\u201d \u2013 and the name stuck. \u00a0Doc especially enjoyed making music with fiddler Gaither Carlton, a man who eventually became his father-in-law when Rosa Lee Carlton married Doc in 1947.<\/p> In 1953, Doc joined Jack Williams in a band that played western swing and \u00a0rockabilly music with Doc featured on electric guitar.\u00a0 It was here that Doc began picking out square dance numbers on his guitar, perfecting the \u201cflat-picking\u201d style that would eventually become his trademark.\u00a0 Working with Williams, Doc performed a variety of music styles, from country to rock to pop \u2013 while working as a piano tuner to pay the bills.\u00a0 After eight years, he joined the Clarence Ashley String Band and appeared with the group in a Friends of Old-Time Music concert in New York.\u00a0 At the concert, Doc\u2019s performance was such a success he was invited to play at Gerde\u2019s Folk City in Greenwich Village.\u00a0 These gigs in New York were indication the folk revival of the early 1960s was beginning to gain momentum.\u00a0 In 1961, Doc made his recording debut with Clarence Ashley\u2019s band.\u00a0 Also about that time, at age 38, Doc switched from electric to acoustic guitar.\u00a0 Two years later, he stole the show with his performance at the Newport Folk Festival and later that year he played alongside Bill Monroe at New York\u2019s Town Hall.\u00a0 In 1964, he released his first solo album, Doc Watson & Family<\/em>, and began touring with his son Eddie Merle Watson (named for Eddy Arnold and Merle Travis).<\/p> The folk boom lasted most of the decade before fading in the late 1960s.\u00a0 However, Doc retained a legion of loyal fans and, upon being featured on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band\u2019s Will The Circle Be Unbroken<\/em> in 1972, gained a whole new generation of admirers. \u00a0In 1974, he won the Grammy for Best Traditional Recording and the following year, he and Merle took home the same award for their duet Two Days in November<\/em>.\u00a0 The bond between father and son continued to grow.\u00a0 Merle, like Doc, was raised in the high mountains of northwest North Carolina like his father,\u00a0and\u00a0there was taught to treasure home, family, and music.\u00a0 Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, Doc and Merle expanded their audience nationwide, often spending up to three hundred nights a year on the road.\u00a0 Merle acted as bus driver, manager, and fellow musician for his father, as well as providing companionship and support.\u00a0 Sadly, in 1985, tragedy struck.\u00a0 Merle was killed in a tractor accident on the family farm.<\/p> Losing both his son and partner, Doc found it difficult to continue playing music remarking, \u201cthe best friend I ever had in the world.\u201d\u00a0 In a 1997 interview for Acoustic Magazine, Doc remembers,<\/p> \"The night before the funeral I had decided to quit, just give up playing. \u00a0Well that night I had this dream. \u2026 in this dream it was so dark I could hardly stand it. \u00a0It was like I was in quicksand up to my waist and I felt I wasn't gonna make it out alive. \u00a0Then suddenly this big old strong hand reached back and grabbed me by the hand and I heard this voice saying, 'Come on dad, you can make it. Keep going.' \u00a0Then I woke up. I think the good Lord was telling me it was all right to continue with my music. \u00a0It's been a struggle, but I still have the love for the music.\"<\/em><\/p> Soon Doc was back on the road, playing his unique sound for sold-out audiences and performing alongside many of the best musicians available.\u00a0 In 1988, Doc hosted the first annual Merle Watson Memorial Festival, soon to be labeled Merlefest.\u00a0 Performers staged on the back of two flatbed trucks played to a crowd of about 4,000.\u00a0 Since then, Merlefest has become one of the largest traditional music events in the nation.\u00a0 Today\u2019s festival lasts four days and is attended by close to 45,000 people including a wide range of musical styles together with folk, country, bluegrass, blues, Cajun, Celtic, old-time, gospel, and acoustic jazz.<\/p> Since the early 1960s, Doc Watson has recorded over one hundred albums, many solo, many were with Merle, and others with various artists.\u00a0 Favorites include Will the Circle be Unbroken Vol. I & II <\/em>(1972), Pickin\u2019 the Blues <\/em>(1985, with Merle), My Dear Old Southern Home <\/em>(1991), and Songs from the Southern Mountains <\/em>(1994).\u00a0 There is also a fabulous 4-CD set, The Vanguard Years <\/em>(1995), that features 1960s performances from two Newport Folk Festivals and other tracks recorded when Doc was with the Vanguard label.\u00a0 These recommendations will provide a little something for everyone to enjoy as well as a great sampling of Doc\u2019s best works.<\/p> Today, well into his 80s, Doc does not tour as much as before.\u00a0 However, he continues to perform regularly throughout southern Appalachia.\u00a0 Recognized for his charm and comfortable wit, Doc remarks in a familiar drawl, \u201cI'm like an old dog, I hate to be run off from home.\u201d\u00a0 Doc also continues to achieve recognition after recognition for his music; he seems to get better with age.\u00a0 In addition to five Grammys, he has been awarded a National Heritage Fellowship, received a National Medal of the Arts, and in 2004, was presented the Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences<\/p> Doc is truly an American original.\u00a0 For almost fifty years, his simple and straightforward style has influenced popular trends while also preserving the spirit of old-time traditional music.\u00a0 His vast contributions to our regional and national culture are without a doubt, genuine, unique, and lasting.<\/p> Oh - by the way<\/strong>, Doc Watson lost his eyesight before his first birthday and has been blind now for over 80 years.\u00a0 Nonetheless, this \u201cminor inconvenience\u201d obviously has done nothing to lessen the accomplishments, or dim the proud light that glows so brightly within the soul of this cherished symbol of our southern Appalachian heritage.<\/p> The text was written primarily with help from, and additional information is available at, the following sources:<\/strong><\/p> [audio:http:\/\/dh.wcu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/DocWatson60Mx.mp3|titles=DocWatson60Mx]<\/p>","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[255,265,358,359,556],"class_list":["post-204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-grammy-award","tag-guitar","tag-merle-watson","tag-merlefest","tag-watauga-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.wcu.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.wcu.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.wcu.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.wcu.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.wcu.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dh.wcu.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7898,"href":"https:\/\/dh.wcu.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204\/revisions\/7898"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.wcu.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.wcu.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.wcu.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.wcu.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\n
Creative Commons Image Obtained Through Flickr<\/a><\/p>Essay by Timothy N. Osment
History M.A.
WCU 2008<\/h5>Online Resources:<\/h3>
Multimedia:<\/h3>
Below is the Digital Heritage Moment as broadcast on the radio:<\/h2>