Our dear Doc has passed. I first met Doc in 1971 at the Lavonia GA bluegrass festival at the age of 14. This was a 10 day, two weekend festival plus the days in between were for workshops and jamming. Our teenage bluegrass band, The Sunshine Bluegrass Boys camped out on the rain soaked muddy hills down by the creek. It was a life changing musical dream for all of us.

Our dear Doc has passed.

I first met Doc in 1971 at the Lavonia GA bluegrass festival at the age of 14.

This was a 10 day, two weekend festival plus the days in between were for workshops and jamming.

Our dear Doc has passed. I first met Doc in 1971 at the Lavonia GA bluegrass festival at the age of 14. This was a 10 day, two weekend festival plus the days in between were for workshops and jamming. Our teenage bluegrass band, The Sunshine Bluegrass Boys camped out on the rain soaked muddy hills down by the creek. It was a life changing musical dream for all of us.

Our dear Doc has passed.

I first met Doc in 1971 at the Lavonia GA bluegrass festival at the age of 14.

This was a 10 day, two weekend festival plus the days in between were for workshops and jamming.

Our teenage bluegrass band, The Sunshine Bluegrass Boys camped out on the rain soaked muddy hills down by the creek. It was a life changing musical dream for all of us. Jamming all night long and seeing our heroes on stage over two weekends.

The Deliverance movie had just come out and the Will the Circle Be Unbroken 3 LP set had hit the stores. There was a resurgence of interest in American roots music much like the Oh Brother movie has given us recently. So you had a nice assortment of hippies and true to life southerners all mingling and finding connection through this music we all loved.

So here comes this kid who was raised up north but had just moved to Florida and he gets his first BLAST of traditional American music square in the face at his first bluegrass festival experience.

It was a mind blowing, riveting, life affirming week and it set me on my musical path that continues today.

At the center of this festival and one of the weekend ‘heros’ for many of us was Doc Watson.

I suppose Doc had just cut one of the first LPs with his son Merle around that time and they performed as a duo.  I had already learned the classics...Black Mountain Rag, Salt Creek, Billy in the Low Ground and Windy and Warm on guitar, so I was ‘ready’.  What can I say?

Here comes the master…. The King of flatpicking. A musical icon.a A Legend already. A walking American Musical Heritage songbook. Bluegrass, Folk, Rock, Blues, Old Timey? Who cares about styles or labels?… It was Doc and Merle. That’s it. And it was everything you can imagine. Boy’s life changed forever.

But I think what gets me and still rings true to this day is…here was a true to life ‘Southern Gentleman'. A man who knew how to behave. Knows what to say. Knows how to make everyone in the room swell up with pride. Pride in their heritage. Pride in their understanding and appreciation for this art form. Pride at their intelligence at getting their butts THERE.

There was not enough kindness, dignity, classiness or general goodness that this fellow could give his fellow human beings, no matter what their standing. From the promoter to the fine ladies in the front row, to the drunks yelling requests, to the clueless soundman.

They were all equals at that moment.

His approach to asking for more guitar in the monitors was one of the sweetest things to witness. "Hey good buddy, do you think I could have just a touch more of myself up here in the front monitors? Oh… there you go. That’s just right. Thank you SOOO much.”

Everyone in the room now likes the sound guy for the first time all weekend.

Amazing!

Did he not practically invent what we think of as flatpicking on the guitar? How can a man be both the deepest traditionalist of any of us and yet be the guy pushing the boundaries and showing us the way to the potential future of this music? It’s almost too much. His LPs with Sam Bush on mandolin showed me the way. Momma Don’t Allow, Curly Headed Baby, Blues Stay Away from Me. His presence on Will the Circle riveted that project into a steel toned beautifully eternal sound that could only be Doc.

This was Doc. When he walked on the stage the air seemed to change. The light went to a new hue. The ambience he created simply by saying hello, recognizing his fellow musicians, and introducing his tunes, gave all of us a sense of greatness. We knew we were in the presence of one of us yet someone touched by light. We somehow were being showered with it from above and it was being reflected back to Doc in some magical way. He could see us with those ears I am sure.

We’ll miss him. But we’ve got his memories, his recordings and all that he taught us to take us forward. Thank you Doc. We’ll try to be as much like you as we can.

- Mike Marshall

Doc Watson

1923-2012