Photos courtesy of The Welch Family Singers

Sights & Sounds

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Types of Artistry

• Band
• Banjo
• Music
• Bluegrass
• Guitar
• Harmonica
• Oldtime

Services Provided

• Performances

Arthel "Doc" Watson

Guitar and Banjo Player, Singer

Watauga County

Born in Watauga County in 1923 into a musically rich family, Arthel "Doc" Watson has spent a lifetime as a performer blending his traditional Appalachian musical roots with bluegrass, country, gospel, and blues creating a unique style and an expansive repertoire. Doc has virtually invented the art of playing mountain fiddle tunes on the flattop guitar, influencing countless musicians. He is also a wonderful singer, and he plays a two-finger banjo style that is traditional in the region. He is a recipient of the National Medal of Arts, National Heritage Fellowship, and North Carolina Folk Heritage Award, and he has won six Grammy Awards for his recordings.

His mother, Annie Watson, sang traditional secular and religious songs, and his father, General Watson, played the banjo, which was Doc's first instrument, as well. At age thirteen he taught himself the chords to "When the Roses Bloom in Dixieland" on a borrowed guitar, and his delighted father bought him a $12 Stella. He later picked up some chords from a fellow student at Raleigh School for the Blind, and began to incorporate material that he heard on records and the radio with the music of his heritage. Back home he played mostly with neighbors and family, among them fiddler Gaither Carlton, who became his father-in-law when Doc married Rosa Lee Carlton in 1947.

In 1953 at age thirty, he met local piano player Jack Williams, and he spent seven years playing gigs with Williams' rockabilly/swing band. He also continued to play traditional music with his family and with his banjo playing neighbor, Clarence "Tom" Ashley. In 1960, spurred by the growing folk revival, Ralph Rinzler and Eugene Earle came south to record Ashley and heard Doc Watson in the process. These sessions resulted in Doc's first recordings, Old-Time Music at Clarence Ashley's. In recent years Doc has returned to this old-time pre-bluegrass style in collaborations with David Grisman and David Holt. His recording with David Holt, entitled Legacy, received the Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Recording of 2002. In 1961 the Friends of Old-Time Music invited Doc, Ashley, Clint Howard and Fred Price to perform at a now-legendary concert in New York City, and one year later Doc gave his first solo performance at Gerde's Folk City in Greenwich Village. From then on, he was a full-time professional, playing a wide range of concerts, clubs, colleges and festivals, including the Newport Folk Festival and Carnegie Hall.

As the folk revival waned in the late 1960s, Doc's son Merle provided the musical and emotional companionship that he needed to continue touring. With Merle playing guitar and banjo and serving as partner and driver, the father-son team expanded their audience nationwide. After working for a while with the band Frosty Morn, they continued to tour with bassist T. Michael Coleman, and brought their music to Europe, Japan and Africa. A series of remarkable recordings, including collaborations with Flatt & Scruggs, Chet Atkins and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, helped make Watson the gold standard among traditional pickers. Although he briefly stopped performing after Merle died in a 1985 tractor accident, Doc (accompanied by guitarist Jack Lawrence) now accepts a limited number of engagements. For the past several years he has hosted the annual Merle Watson Memorial Festival in Wilkesboro, where, surrounded by family and collaborators (including grandson Richard Watson), he can give full breadth to his musical imagination and still sleep in his own house, deep in the Blue Ridge, on land homesteaded by his great-great-grandfather.

Availability:

Doc is available for limited performances arranged through his booking agency.