Arthel “Doc” Watson 1923-2012

A Tribute to a great American Player

His guitar sound was a clear as a bell.  His fingers flew and the box resonated with the touch of a master craftsman.  Doc Watson,  Arthel Watson,  if you will, died today in his beloved North Carolina, and now he joins wife, RosaLee, and son, Merle in Bluegrass Heaven.

Doc Watson got a real kick out of playing.  He found joy on the stage and a good deal in just plain practicing.  Not that he needed too.  I knew Doc, and had about as much respect for him as for any other musician I have known and worked with.  First time he played for FolkTree, my old concert/festival company, Doc talked about being paid in $1 bills.  That way, he couldn’t be cheated if some unscrupulous promoter told him the $1s were $20s.  We laughed, but I paid in in $1s at least that one time.
As a blind man traveling the world, Doc relied on family, friends, and sidekicks, like gentleman Jack Lawrence, himself an extraordinary picker, to get him where he needed to be.  Usually cheerful, ever the corn-pone humorist, Doc just lit up our world with his performances, be they live or on his many, many recordings.  Tonight, I choose to play Tom Paxton’s “The Last Thing On My Mind.”  It is a fine example of Doc singing, and pickin’ like the dickens, in his beautiful syncopated rhythm.

Now word came down, as they say, that he is gone.  Tonight, we honor a great man, a great American, a master craftsman- in bidding farewell to Doc Watson.   While we say farewell, perhaps he is reuniting again with family, old friends, and a bunch of fine pickers, raising the roof in Bluegrass Heaven.   Godspeed, Doc.    HL