Doc Watson

Doc Watson turned the guitar into a lead instrument for old-time and bluegrass music. Blind from early childhood, he played fiddle tunes note for note on a flat-top guitar, and his warm baritone carried the songs of the Blue Ridge to audiences everywhere.

Life

Watson lost his sight to an eye infection before he was two, and attended the Governor Morehead School for the blind in Raleigh. In 1953 he joined Jack Williams's country and western swing band, playing electric guitar. In 1960, on folklorist Ralph Rinzler's advice, he switched to acoustic guitar and banjo, and first recorded on Old Time Music at Clarence Ashley's.

His breakthrough came at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival. In 1964 he released his first solo album and began performing with his son Merle, a partnership that lasted until Merle's death in 1985. Later he toured and recorded with David Holt; their album Legacy won the 2002 Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album.

Honours

Watson received a National Heritage Fellowship in 1988, the National Medal of Arts in 1997 and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004, and entered the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor in 2000.

Songs to know

• "Tennessee Stud", made widely known on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's Will the Circle Be Unbroken (1972)
• "Whiskey Before Breakfast" and "Big Sandy/Leather Britches", fiddle tunes played on guitar
• "Keep on the Sunny Side", from the Carter Family songbook

Selected albums

Learn more about the old-time tradition he came from.