Comprehensive information and links about Doc Watson

Doc Watson (born March 3, 1923) in Deep Gap, North Carolina, is a guitar player, songwriter and singer of bluegrass, folk, country, blues and gospel music. The nickname 'Doc' comes from his days in radio when he needed a short name. The nickname stuck because of the reference to Sherlock Holmes's sidekick.

The first song Doc ever learned to play was "When Roses Bloom in Dixieland"; his father was so proud, he took Doc to the store and bought him his first guitar, a $12 Stella.

- In fact: Doc got his nickname from a studio employee who asked what the name of the artist was. Because no one knew that at the time the man said: "call him Doc". Besides that, Doc usually is a nickname for the seventh child (son) in a family.

An eye infection caused Doc Watson to lose his vision prior to his first birthday.

He often performed with his son, (Eddy) Merle Watson (Named after Eddy Arnold and Merle Travis), who was killed in a tractor accident at the age of 36 in 1985.

He plays in both flatpicking and fingerpicking , but is best known for his flatpick work. His virtuosity combined with his authenticity as a mountain musician made him a highly influential figure in the folk music revival of the early sixties. He pioneered the fast and flashy bluegrass lead guitar which has been adopted and extended by others such as Clarence White and Tony Rice.

He is also an excellent and soulful singer, who started by developing a repertoire of mountain ballads which he learned via the oral tradition of his home area in Deep Gap, North Carolina. His first recordings were made with Clarence Ashley, Fred Price, Clint Howard, and others from this area. Prior to this, he worked as an electric guitar player in a honky-tonk band.

In 1986 he received the North Carolina Award and in 2000 he was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor.

Live 1977 recording of "The Cuckoo Bird" by Doc and Merle Watson from the Florida Folklife Collection (made available for public use by the State Archives of Florida)