Doc Watson
Encyclopedia
Arthel Lane "Doc" Watson (born March 3, 1923) is an American
guitar
player, songwriter
and singer of bluegrass
, folk
, country
, blues
and gospel music
. He has won seven Grammy awards as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
. Watson's flatpicking
skills and knowledge of traditional American music are highly regarded. He performed with his son Merle for over 15 years until Merle's death in 1985, in an accident on the family farm.
, North Carolina
. According to Doc on his three CD biographical recording Legacy, he got the nickname "Doc" during a live radio broadcast when the announcer remarked that his given name Arthel was odd and he needed an easy nickname to go by. A fan in the crowd shouted "Call him Doc!" presumably in reference to the Sherlock Holmes
sidekick Doctor Watson. The name stuck ever since.
An eye infection caused Doc Watson to lose his vision
before his first birthday. Despite this, he was taught by his parents to work hard and care for himself. He attended North Carolina's school for the visually impaired, The Governor Morehead School, in Raleigh, North Carolina
.
In a 1988 interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air, Doc explains how he got his first guitar. His father told him that if he chopped down all the small, dead, chestnut trees along the edge of their field he could sell the wood to the tannery. He and his brother did the work and with the money they earned Doc bought a $10 Stella
from Sears Roebuck and his brother bought a new suit of clothes. Later in that same interview, Watson explained that his first high quality guitar was a Martin D-18.
The first song Doc ever learned to play was "When Roses Bloom in Dixieland". Doc proved to be a natural and within months he was performing on local street corners playing Delmore, Louvin and Monroe Brothers' duets alongside his brother Linny. By the time he reached his adult years Doc had become a proficient acoustic and electric guitar player.
In 1947, Doc married Rosa Lee Carlton, the daughter of popular fiddle player Gaither Carlton
. Doc and Rosa Lee had two children—Eddy Merle (named after country music legends Eddy Arnold
and Merle Travis
) in 1949 and Nancy Ellen in 1951.
In 1953, Doc joined the Johnson City, Tennessee
-based Jack Williams' country and western swing band on electric guitar. The band seldom had a fiddle player, but were often asked to play for square dances. Following the example of country guitarists Grady Martin
and Hank Garland
, Doc taught himself to play fiddle tunes on his Les Paul electric guitar. He later transferred the technique to acoustic guitar, and playing fiddle tunes became part of his signature sound. During his time with Jack Williams, Doc also supported his family as a piano tuner.
In 1960 as the American folk music revival
grew, Doc took the advice of folk musicologist Ralph Rinzler
and began playing acoustic guitar and banjo exclusively. That move ignited Doc's career when he played on his first recording, Old Time Music at Clarence Ashley's. He also began to tour as a solo performer and appeared at universities and clubs like the Ash Grove
in Los Angeles. Watson would eventually get his big break and rave reviews for his performance at the renowned Newport Folk Festival
in 1963. He recorded his first solo album in 1964 and began performing with his son Merle the same year. The pair would tour and record together until 1985 when Merle was killed in a tractor accident.
After the folk revival waned during the late 1960s, Doc's career was sustained by his performance of "Tennessee Stud" on the 1972 live album recording Will the Circle Be Unbroken
. As popular as ever, Doc and Merle began playing as a trio, with T. Michael Coleman on bass, in 1974. The trio toured the globe during the late seventies and early eighties, recorded nearly fifteen albums between 1973 and 1985, and brought Doc and Merle’s unique blend of acoustic music to millions of new fans.
Doc plays guitar in both flatpicking
and fingerpicking
style, but is best known for his flatpick work. His guitar playing skills, combined with his authenticity as a mountain musician, made him a highly influential figure during the folk music revival. He pioneered a fast and flashy bluegrass lead guitar style including fiddle tunes and crosspicking
techniques which were adopted and extended by Clarence White
, Tony Rice
and many others. Watson is also an accomplished banjo player and in the past has accompanied himself on harmonica as well. Known also for his distinctive and rich baritone voice, he has over the years developed a vast repertoire of mountain ballads which he learned via the oral tradition
of his home area in Deep Gap, North Carolina
. His affable manner, humble nature and delightful wit have endeared him to his fans nearly as much as his musical talent has.
Doc played a Martin model D-18 guitar on his earliest recordings. In 1968 he began a relationship with Gallagher Guitars when he started playing their G-50 model. His first Gallagher, which Doc refers to as "Old Hoss", is on display at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee
. In 1974, Gallagher created a customized G-50 line to meet Doc's preferred specifications, which bears the Doc Watson name. In 1991, Gallagher customized a personal cutaway
guitar for Doc that he plays to this day and refers to as "Donald" in honor of Gallagher guitar's second generation proprietor and builder, Don Gallagher.
In 1986 he received the North Carolina Award
and in 1994 he received a North Carolina Folk Heritage Award
. Also in 1994, Watson teamed up with Randy Scruggs
and Earl Scruggs
to contribute "Keep on the Sunny Side" to the AIDS
benefit album Red Hot + Country
produced by the Red Hot Organization
.
In 2000 he was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor
. In 1997, Doc received the National Medal of Arts
from U.S. president Bill Clinton
.
In recent years, Watson has scaled back his touring schedule. As of 2007, he is generally joined onstage by his grandson (Merle's son) Richard, as well as longtime musical partners David Holt or Jack Lawrence. Recently, on June 19, he was accompanied by Australian guitar legend Tommy Emmanuel
at the Bass Performance Hall. He also performed, accompanied by Holt and his grandson, Richard, at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass
in 2009, as he had done in several previous years.
He is host to the annual MerleFest
music festival held every April at Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro, North Carolina
. The festival features a vast array of acoustic style music focusing on the folk, bluegrass, blues and old-time music genres. It is named in honor of Merle Watson and is one of the most popular acoustic music festivals in the world, drawing over 70,000 music fans each year.
In 2010, Blooming Twig Books published "Blind But Now I See" by Dr. Kent Gustavson, the first comprehensive biography of the seminal flatpicking guitarist.
Article on Doc Watson and other western NC guitar players http://www.ncfolkloresociety.org/journals/ncfj562.pdf
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
player, songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
and singer of bluegrass
Bluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...
, folk
American folk music
American folk music is a musical term that encompasses numerous genres, many of which are known as traditional music or roots music. Roots music is a broad category of music including bluegrass, country music, gospel, old time music, jug bands, Appalachian folk, blues, Cajun and Native American...
, country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
, blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
and gospel music
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
. He has won seven Grammy awards as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
The Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award is awarded by the Recording Academy to "performers who, during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording."...
. Watson's flatpicking
Flatpicking
Flatpicking is a technique for playing a guitar using a guitar pick held between two or three fingers to strike the strings...
skills and knowledge of traditional American music are highly regarded. He performed with his son Merle for over 15 years until Merle's death in 1985, in an accident on the family farm.
Biography
Watson was born in Deep GapDeep Gap, North Carolina
Deep Gap is an unincorporated community located in Watauga County, North Carolina, United States. The community is named after the natural gap, called Deep Gap, at Fire Scale Mountain, where the Blue Ridge Parkway crosses over US 421...
, North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
. According to Doc on his three CD biographical recording Legacy, he got the nickname "Doc" during a live radio broadcast when the announcer remarked that his given name Arthel was odd and he needed an easy nickname to go by. A fan in the crowd shouted "Call him Doc!" presumably in reference to the Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
sidekick Doctor Watson. The name stuck ever since.
An eye infection caused Doc Watson to lose his vision
Blindness
Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...
before his first birthday. Despite this, he was taught by his parents to work hard and care for himself. He attended North Carolina's school for the visually impaired, The Governor Morehead School, in Raleigh, North Carolina
Raleigh, North Carolina
Raleigh is the capital and the second largest city in the state of North Carolina as well as the seat of Wake County. Raleigh is known as the "City of Oaks" for its many oak trees. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city's 2010 population was 403,892, over an area of , making Raleigh...
.
In a 1988 interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air, Doc explains how he got his first guitar. His father told him that if he chopped down all the small, dead, chestnut trees along the edge of their field he could sell the wood to the tannery. He and his brother did the work and with the money they earned Doc bought a $10 Stella
Stella (guitar)
Stella was a brand of guitars. The Stella brand was owned by the Oscar Schmidt Company and was founded around 1899. Stella produced low-mid level stringed instruments. Stella guitars were played by several notable artists including Leadbelly and Charlie Patton. Doc Watson began playing on a Stella...
from Sears Roebuck and his brother bought a new suit of clothes. Later in that same interview, Watson explained that his first high quality guitar was a Martin D-18.
The first song Doc ever learned to play was "When Roses Bloom in Dixieland". Doc proved to be a natural and within months he was performing on local street corners playing Delmore, Louvin and Monroe Brothers' duets alongside his brother Linny. By the time he reached his adult years Doc had become a proficient acoustic and electric guitar player.
In 1947, Doc married Rosa Lee Carlton, the daughter of popular fiddle player Gaither Carlton
Gaither Carlton
Gaither Wiley Carlton was an American Old-time fiddle player and banjo player. He is best known for his appearances accompanying his son-in-law Doc Watson during the folk music revival of the 1960s. While not recorded before the folk revival, Carlton had been playing with some of the region's...
. Doc and Rosa Lee had two children—Eddy Merle (named after country music legends Eddy Arnold
Eddy Arnold
Richard Edward Arnold , known professionally as Eddy Arnold, was an American country music singer who performed for six decades. He was a so-called Nashville sound innovator of the late 1950s, and scored 147 songs on the Billboard country music charts, second only to George Jones. He sold more...
and Merle Travis
Merle Travis
Merle Robert Travis was an American country and western singer, songwriter, and musician born in Rosewood, Kentucky. His lyrics often discussed the life and exploitation of coal miners. Among his many well-known songs are "Sixteen Tons", "Re-Enlistment Blues" and "Dark as a Dungeon"...
) in 1949 and Nancy Ellen in 1951.
In 1953, Doc joined the Johnson City, Tennessee
Johnson City, Tennessee
Johnson City is a city in Carter, Sullivan, and Washington counties in the U.S. state of Tennessee, with most of the city being in Washington County...
-based Jack Williams' country and western swing band on electric guitar. The band seldom had a fiddle player, but were often asked to play for square dances. Following the example of country guitarists Grady Martin
Grady Martin
Thomas Grady Martin was one of the most renowned, inventive and historically significant American session musicians in country music and rockabilly....
and Hank Garland
Hank Garland
Walter Louis Garland , better known as Hank Garland, was a Nashville studio musician who performed with Elvis Presley, Patsy Cline, Roy Orbison and many others.-Biography:...
, Doc taught himself to play fiddle tunes on his Les Paul electric guitar. He later transferred the technique to acoustic guitar, and playing fiddle tunes became part of his signature sound. During his time with Jack Williams, Doc also supported his family as a piano tuner.
In 1960 as the American folk music revival
American folk music revival
The American folk music revival was a phenomenon in the United States that began during the 1940s and peaked in popularity in the mid-1960s. Its roots went earlier, and performers like Josh White, Burl Ives, Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Richard Dyer-Bennett, Oscar Brand, Jean Ritchie, John Jacob...
grew, Doc took the advice of folk musicologist Ralph Rinzler
Ralph Rinzler
Ralph Rinzler was the co-founder of the annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the Mall every summer in Washington, D.C., where he worked as a curator for American art, music, and folk culture at the Smithsonian....
and began playing acoustic guitar and banjo exclusively. That move ignited Doc's career when he played on his first recording, Old Time Music at Clarence Ashley's. He also began to tour as a solo performer and appeared at universities and clubs like the Ash Grove
Ash Grove (music club)
The Ash Grove was a folk music club located at 8162 Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles, founded in 1958 by Ed Pearl and named after the Welsh folk song, "The Ash Grove."...
in Los Angeles. Watson would eventually get his big break and rave reviews for his performance at the renowned Newport Folk Festival
Newport Folk Festival
The Newport Folk Festival is an American annual folk-oriented music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, which began in 1959 as a counterpart to the previously established Newport Jazz Festival...
in 1963. He recorded his first solo album in 1964 and began performing with his son Merle the same year. The pair would tour and record together until 1985 when Merle was killed in a tractor accident.
After the folk revival waned during the late 1960s, Doc's career was sustained by his performance of "Tennessee Stud" on the 1972 live album recording Will the Circle Be Unbroken
Will the Circle Be Unbroken
Will the Circle Be Unbroken is a 1972 album officially by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, but with collaboration from many famous Bluegrass and country-western players, including Roy Acuff, Mother Maybelle Carter, Doc Watson, Earl Scruggs, Merle Travis, Bashful Brother Oswald, Norman Blake, Jimmy...
. As popular as ever, Doc and Merle began playing as a trio, with T. Michael Coleman on bass, in 1974. The trio toured the globe during the late seventies and early eighties, recorded nearly fifteen albums between 1973 and 1985, and brought Doc and Merle’s unique blend of acoustic music to millions of new fans.
Doc plays guitar in both flatpicking
Flatpicking
Flatpicking is a technique for playing a guitar using a guitar pick held between two or three fingers to strike the strings...
and fingerpicking
Fingerstyle guitar
Fingerstyle guitar is the technique of playing the guitar by plucking the strings directly with the fingertips, fingernails, or picks attached to fingers, as opposed to flatpicking ....
style, but is best known for his flatpick work. His guitar playing skills, combined with his authenticity as a mountain musician, made him a highly influential figure during the folk music revival. He pioneered a fast and flashy bluegrass lead guitar style including fiddle tunes and crosspicking
Crosspicking
Crosspicking is a technique for playing the mandolin or guitar using a plectrum or flatpick in a rolling, syncopated style across three strings. This style is probably best known as one element of the flatpicking style in bluegrass music, and it closely resembles a banjo roll, the main difference...
techniques which were adopted and extended by Clarence White
Clarence White
Clarence White was a guitar player for Nashville West, The Byrds, Muleskinner, and the Kentucky Colonels. His parents were Acadians from New Brunswick, Canada...
, Tony Rice
Tony Rice
Tony Rice is an American acoustic guitarist and bluegrass musician. He is considered one of the most influential acoustic guitar players in bluegrass, progressive bluegrass, newgrass and acoustic jazz.Rice spans the range of acoustic music, from traditional bluegrass to jazz-influenced New...
and many others. Watson is also an accomplished banjo player and in the past has accompanied himself on harmonica as well. Known also for his distinctive and rich baritone voice, he has over the years developed a vast repertoire of mountain ballads which he learned via the oral tradition
Oral tradition
Oral tradition and oral lore is cultural material and traditions transmitted orally from one generation to another. The messages or testimony are verbally transmitted in speech or song and may take the form, for example, of folktales, sayings, ballads, songs, or chants...
of his home area in Deep Gap, North Carolina
Deep Gap, North Carolina
Deep Gap is an unincorporated community located in Watauga County, North Carolina, United States. The community is named after the natural gap, called Deep Gap, at Fire Scale Mountain, where the Blue Ridge Parkway crosses over US 421...
. His affable manner, humble nature and delightful wit have endeared him to his fans nearly as much as his musical talent has.
Doc played a Martin model D-18 guitar on his earliest recordings. In 1968 he began a relationship with Gallagher Guitars when he started playing their G-50 model. His first Gallagher, which Doc refers to as "Old Hoss", is on display at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
. In 1974, Gallagher created a customized G-50 line to meet Doc's preferred specifications, which bears the Doc Watson name. In 1991, Gallagher customized a personal cutaway
Cutaway (guitar)
In guitar construction, a cutaway is an indentation in the body of the instrument adjacent to the neck of the instrument, designed to allow easier access to the upper frets....
guitar for Doc that he plays to this day and refers to as "Donald" in honor of Gallagher guitar's second generation proprietor and builder, Don Gallagher.
North Carolina Award
The North Carolina Award is the highest civilian award bestowed by the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is awarded in the four fields of science, literature, the fine arts, and public service....
and in 1994 he received a North Carolina Folk Heritage Award
North Carolina Folk Heritage Award
The North Carolina Folk Heritage Award is an annual award given out by the North Carolina Arts Council in recognition of traditional artists from the U.S. state of North Carolina. The award was created in 1989. The program was suspended in 2008 due to budget problems. -1990:*The Badget Sisters,...
. Also in 1994, Watson teamed up with Randy Scruggs
Randy Scruggs
Randy Scruggs is a music producer, songwriter and guitarist. He had his first recording at the age of 13...
and Earl Scruggs
Earl Scruggs
Earl Eugene Scruggs is an American musician noted for perfecting and popularizing a 3-finger banjo-picking style that is a defining characteristic of bluegrass music...
to contribute "Keep on the Sunny Side" to the AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
benefit album Red Hot + Country
Red Hot + Country
Red Hot + Country was the follow-up to No Alternative in the Red Hot Series of compilation albums, a series produced to raise awareness and money to fight AIDS/HIV and related health and social issues...
produced by the Red Hot Organization
Red Hot Organization
Red Hot Organization is a not-for-profit, 501 3, international organization dedicated to fighting AIDS through pop culture.Since its inception in 1989, over 400 artists, producers and directors have contributed to over 15 compilation albums, related television programs and media events to raise...
.
In 2000 he was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor
International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor
Induction to the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame, called the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor from its creation in 1991 through 2006, is managed by the International Bluegrass Music Association, and the Hall itself is maintained at the International Bluegrass Music Museum in...
. In 1997, Doc received the National Medal of Arts
National Medal of Arts
The National Medal of Arts is an award and title created by the United States Congress in 1984, for the purpose of honoring artists and patrons of the arts. It is the highest honor conferred to an individual artist on behalf of the people. Honorees are selected by the National Endowment for the...
from U.S. president Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
.
In recent years, Watson has scaled back his touring schedule. As of 2007, he is generally joined onstage by his grandson (Merle's son) Richard, as well as longtime musical partners David Holt or Jack Lawrence. Recently, on June 19, he was accompanied by Australian guitar legend Tommy Emmanuel
Tommy Emmanuel
William Thomas "Tommy" Emmanuel AM is an Australian guitarist, best known for his complex fingerpicking style, energetic performances and the use of percussive effects on the guitar. In the May 2008 and 2010 issues of Guitar Player Magazine, he was named as "Best Acoustic Guitarist" in their...
at the Bass Performance Hall. He also performed, accompanied by Holt and his grandson, Richard, at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, or HSB for short is an annual free music festival held the first weekend of October in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. From its outset, the festival has been subsidized by San Francisco venture capitalist Warren Hellman. The first festival was held in 2001, originally...
in 2009, as he had done in several previous years.
He is host to the annual MerleFest
MerleFest
MerleFest is an annual "traditional plus" music festival held in Wilkesboro, North Carolina on the campus of Wilkes Community College . The festival, which is held the last weekend in April, is hosted by Grammy Award winner Doc Watson and is named in memory and honor of his son, Eddy Merle Watson,...
music festival held every April at Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro, North Carolina
Wilkesboro, North Carolina
Wilkesboro is a town in and the county seat of Wilkes County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 3,159 at the 2000 census, and it is the second largest municipality in the county. The 2010 Census listed the town's population at 3,044. The town is located along the south bank of the...
. The festival features a vast array of acoustic style music focusing on the folk, bluegrass, blues and old-time music genres. It is named in honor of Merle Watson and is one of the most popular acoustic music festivals in the world, drawing over 70,000 music fans each year.
In 2010, Blooming Twig Books published "Blind But Now I See" by Dr. Kent Gustavson, the first comprehensive biography of the seminal flatpicking guitarist.
Grammy awards
- 1973 Best Ethnic Or Traditional Recording (Including Traditional Blues): Doc Watson for Then And Now
- 1974 Best Ethnic Or Traditional Recording: Merle Watson & Doc Watson for Two Days In November
- 1979 Best Country Instrumental Performance: Doc Watson & Merle Watson for Big Sandy/Leather Britches
- 1986 Best Traditional Folk Recording: Doc Watson for Riding The Midnight Train
- 1990 Best Traditional Folk Recording: Doc Watson for On Praying Ground
- 2002 Best Traditional Folk Album: Doc Watson & David Holt for Legacy
- 2004 Lifetime Achievement AwardGrammy Lifetime Achievement AwardThe Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award is awarded by the Recording Academy to "performers who, during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording."...
- 2006 Best Country Instrumental Performance: Bryan Sutton & Doc Watson for Whiskey Before Breakfast track from Not Too Far From The Tree by Bryan SuttonBryan SuttonBryan Sutton is an American musician. Primarily known as a flatpicked acoustic guitar player, Sutton also plays many other instruments including mandolin, banjo, and electric guitar....
External links
- Doc's Guitar : A site dedicated to the guitar and music of Doc Watson
- Podcast of Doc Watson and Jack Lawrence performing live at the 1996 Florida Folk Festival from the Florida Folklife Collection (made available for public use by the State Archives of Florida)
- Live 1977 recording of "The Cuckoo Bird" by Doc and Merle Watson from the Florida Folklife Collection (made available for public use by the State Archives of Florida)
- Live 1996 recording of "Shady Grove" by Doc and Jack Lawrence from the Florida Folklife Collection (made available for public use by the State Archives of Florida)
- MerleFestMerleFestMerleFest is an annual "traditional plus" music festival held in Wilkesboro, North Carolina on the campus of Wilkes Community College . The festival, which is held the last weekend in April, is hosted by Grammy Award winner Doc Watson and is named in memory and honor of his son, Eddy Merle Watson,...
- MerleFest official website
- "Doc's orders: No heavy metal at MerleFest" 2007 article in the Hook weeklyThe Hook weeklyThe Hook is a weekly newspaper published in Charlottesville, Virginia and distributed throughout Central Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley. It was founded in 2002 by a number of former employees of another Charlottesville weekly, C-ville Weekly, including its co-founder and editor Hawes Spencer.In...
- National Public Radio
- Prairie Home Companion
- Doc Watson & Taj Mahal August 9, 1986 (db.etree.org)
- October 23, 1999
- February 14, 2004
Article on Doc Watson and other western NC guitar players http://www.ncfolkloresociety.org/journals/ncfj562.pdf