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Doc Watson - The Rest of the Story
Arthel "Doc" Watson was born in Stoney Fork, Watauga County, North
Carolina on March 3rd, 1923. He was raised in Deep Gap, North
Carolina, and he still lives there. He learned to play the
harmonica at the age of six and the banjo when he was eleven, and
shortly after that he mastered the guitar. Over the course of
his music career, he has been a powerful influence on every form of
American music, including rock, folk, country, bluegrass, blues, and
old-time.
Doc is a music legend and an American hero, both as an instrumentalist
and a vocalist. He has won five Grammy awards; he was
recognized by President Carter as a "national treasure;" he was awarded
the National Medal of the Arts by President Clinton; and, he was given
an honorary doctorate degree from the University of North
Carolina. Doc is a witty, intelligent, charming, easy-going
story-teller. He has suffered his share of misfortune,
including the accidental death of his son Merle, who was also his best
friend. Still, he is comfortable, relaxed, and laid-back.
In a biography by Dan Miller, Doc says that the most valuable thing his
father ever did for him was not putting him at the end of a cross-cut
saw when he was fourteen years old. Doc said, "He put me to
work and that made me feel useful." This taught him not to be
afraid to do anything. Over the years, Doc re-wired his house
and built a two room utility building completely by himself with a
handsaw and miter box. (The utility building was later found
to be almost perfectly square).
Oh, there's one more thing that Doc had to say about his father making
him work on that crosscut saw: "He made me know that just
because I was blind, certainly didn’t mean I was
helpless." Yes, he is blind. When he was born, he
had a defect in the vessels that carried blood to his eyes.
He developed an eye infection which caused him to completely loose his
vision before his first birthday. Doesn't this make you want
to re-read his accomplishments above? Philippians 4:13 says,
"I can do all this through him who gives me strength."
Owen Weber 2012 |
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