Bluegrass in New York

The New York Times: Doc Watson, the guitarist and folk singer whose flat-picking style elevated the acoustic guitar to solo status in bluegrass and country music, and whose interpretations of traditional American music profoundly influenced generations of folk and rock guitarists, died on Tuesday in Winston-Salem, N.C. He was 89… “He is single-handedly responsible for the extraordinary increase in acoustic flat-picking and fingerpicking guitar performance,” said Ralph Rinzler, the folklorist who discovered Mr. Watson in 1960. “His flat-picking style has no precedent in earlier country music history.”

Associated Press: Doc Watson was born in what is now Deep Gap, N.C., in the Blue Ridge Mountains. He lost his eyesight by the age of 1 when he developed an eye ­infection that was worsened by a congenital vascular disorder, according to a website for ­Merlefest, the annual musical gathering named for his late son Merle… He came from a musical family. His father was active in the church choir and played banjo, and his mother sang secular and religious songs, accord­ing to a statement from Folklore Productions, his management company since 1964… Doc Watson’s father gave him a harmonica as a young child, and by 5 he was playing the banjo, according to the Merlefest website. He learned a few guitar chords while attending the North Carolina Morehead School for the Blind in ­Raleigh, and his father helped him buy a Stella guitar for $12.

Stars pay tribute: Chely Wright, Rosanne Cash and Steve Martin are among the stars who have paid tribute to Doc Watson following his death… Cash lamented, “To lose Earl Scruggs, Levon Helm and Doc Watson in one year is just too, too much”, while Chely Wright simply stated: “Rest in peace”…  Country singer Ricky Skaggs said in a statement, “An old ancient warrior has gone home. He prepared all of us to carry this on. He knew he wouldn’t last forever. He did his best to carry the old mountain sounds to this generation.”

Rolling Stone: Watson won seven Grammys and received the Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement award in 2004. In 1997, then-President Bill Clinton presented Watson with the National Medal for the Arts, in recognition of his significant impact on national heritage music.  

Slate: But Watson didn’t restrict himself to the “old-time” tunes. He bought his first guitar from Sears Roebuck with money he got from chopping down chestnut trees on the family field and selling it “for pulpwood to the tannery.” And he took quickly to rockabilly, which he played throughout the 1950s. In the early ’60s, however, the folklorist Ralph Rinzler suggested he go back to the acoustic guitar and play the songs he’d learned growing up. Watson took his advice and became a star of the ’60s folk scene.

CNN: Watson got his nickname during a live radio broadcast. “The announcer remarked that his given name Arthel was odd and he needed an easy nickname,” according to a biography on the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame website.  ”A fan in the crowd shouted ‘Call him Doc.’ The name stuck ever since.”