He also received a National Heritage Fellowship and, in 1997, a National Medal of the Arts, presented by President Bill Clinton, who remarked: "There may not be a serious, committed babyboomer alive who didn't at some point in his or her youth try to spend a few minutes at least trying to learn to pick a guitar like Doc Watson." Altogether Watson won seven Grammys, as well as a 2004 Grammy lifetime achievement award. A collaboration with the banjoist David Holt, Legacy, won a Grammy in 2002. Richard and Coleman also formed part of the band Frosty Morn with which Watson played in the early 2000s. Merle died in a tractor accident on his farm in 1985 at the age of 36, and for a time Watson found it hard to work, but he resumed with the guitarist Jack Lawrence or with his own grandson, Richard, with whom he recorded Third Generation Blues in 1999. The Watsons were also sought as collaborators by other musicians, notably the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band for the triple LP Will the Circle Be Unbroken (1972), a record that revived their career, which had flagged after interest in folk music waned in the late 60s. Often accompanied by the bass guitarist T Michael Coleman, they toured all over the world, playing at venues from concert halls to folk clubs, and made many albums, among them Doc Watson & Son, Doc Watson on Stage, Ballads From Deep Gap, Pickin' the Blues and Then and Now. Then in 19, at Rinzler's instigation, Watson appeared at the Newport Folk festival, and in 1963 he recorded his first solo album, for Vanguard.įor two decades, Watson's companion on recordings and live was his son, Merle, a gifted guitar-player and banjoist. In 1961 Ashley, Watson and two other participants in the Ashley sessions, Clint Howard and Fred Price, gave a memorable performance at a concert in New York, staged by the Friends of Old-Time Music. The result, two Folkways label LPs of Old Time Music at Clarence Ashley's, alerted folk enthusiasts to the talent of the guitarist, who until then had played chiefly in a local rockabilly band. In 1960 Rinzler recorded the old-time banjo player and singer Clarence Ashley in a freewheeling session with friends and neighbours, including Watson. Yet Watson first came to the attention of folk music enthusiasts beyond his home region only as a supporting player. His flatpicking style has no precedent in early country music history." In bluegrass, too, his adaptations of traditional fiddle tunes to the guitar allowed the instrument to go beyond rhythm-setting and take on a leading role. His folklorist friend Ralph Rinzler would later write that Watson was "single-handedly responsible for the extraordinary increase in acoustic flatpicking and fingerpicking performance. In his hands, the use of the guitar in American folk music expanded radically. No investment in a young musician ever paid such dividends. Doc himself first learned the harmonica and banjo, then at 13 began teaching himself the guitar on an instrument bought for him by his father for just a few dollars.
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