Doc Watson biography

Synopsis

Early Life

Legendary folk guitarist/singer Doc Watson was born Arthel Lane Watson in Stoney Fork Township, near Deep Gap, North Carolina on March 3, 1923. As an infant, he was left blind from an eye infection, but his parents encouraged him to rise above his disability. They also encouraged his musical talent – his father, General Dixon Watson, led the singing at the local church, and his mother, Annie, sang old-time ballads at home, and music quickly became part childhood.

Watson received his first musical instrument, a harmonica, as a Christmas gift at the age of 5 or 6, and later a fretless banjo given to him by his father when he was 11. Part of the Watson’s family lore is that his father made the head of that banjo from the skin of a recently deceased family cat.

His father continued to encourage his musical interests. After his father saw Watson playing a borrowed guitar, he promised to buy him one if he could teach himself a song in a day. Watson met his father’s musical challenge by playing the Carter Family’s "When the Roses Bloom in Dixieland" and he received his first guitar, a $12 Stella acoustic, at the age of 13. Watson immersed himself in music, learning songs he had heard on Grand Ole Opry radio broadcasts and by country pioneers like Jimmie Rodgers.

Musical Career

As a teenager, Watson took his music to the streets literally, performing with his brother Linney, on street corners in the nearby town of Boone, North Carolina, where in 2011 a life-size statue was erected in his honor. He received his nickname “Doc” when an audience member suggested it  during a radio broadcast performance.

Watson's first national acclaim came during the folk music revival of the early 1960s. His performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1963 helped launch his solo career, and he released his debut album Doc Watson and Family that same year.

In 1964, Watson put his own family into the act when his 15-year-old son Merle joined him as a guitarist. Father and son performed together for 20 years, receiving Grammy Awards for their albums Then and Now (1974), Two Days in November (1975) and Big Sandy/Leather Britches (1980). They toured together until Merle’s death in 1985 after a tractor accident. After his son’s tragic death, Watson's return to music was bittersweet, winning Grammys for his albums Riding the Midnight Train (1987), On Praying Ground (1991) and Legacy (2003).