Doc and Merle Watson – 48 Years 1964-2012 | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: I have initiated this new segment on BCN, where I determine the Best Music Ever ... and, 'with a little help from my friends'. I do this from my opinion, for what that is worth, where I will measure the best music that I am familiar with.

    I do this for two reasons: 1) I want to expose the best music that I know to the rest of us. 2) Popular Music today may be the very worst it has ever been, and that is saying much, since I lived through Disco.

    For a list of all of the contributions to this series, please click here.

    As previously mentioned, there will be others who share their favorites with our BCN readers, in particular here, Bobby Tony.

    A native of Deep Gap, North Carolina who was blinded by an eye infection as a baby and became one of the icons of Bluegrass Music. Along with his son Merle, he made a great impact on the acoustic guitar flat picking genre.

    In a previous post about the Great Southeast Music Hall, I listed Doc and Merle as one of the acts I saw during 1972. The act consisted of just Doc and Merle with bass player. Doc also was responsible for making a Tennessee Family guitar shop famous. Gallagher Guitar's in War Trace, Tn. makes high end custom acoustic guitars. I have always wanted one since I saw Doc playing it in 1972. Maybe I thought the guitar would make a better player of me. Perhaps a post on them is forthcoming.

    Merle died in a tractor accident in October 1985. Doc continued to play with Merle's son for many years. Doc passed in May 2012 at 89 after a fall. Merle's son passed in 2015 at 49. All three were great guitar players. If you are ever in Boone, NC, stop by and share a bench with Doc.



    I would be hard pressed to pick a favorite so I include three songs for review. Bluegrass and Blues at its best unplugged.

    Summertime Live performance

   

    House of the rising Sun- Studio Version

   

    Rolling In My Sweet Baby's Arms