Doc (Arthel Lane) Watson, bluegrass legend and master of the flatpicking guitar technique, died at the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center on May 29, 2012. Doc had fallen earlier in the week, and was undergoing treatment; he was 89 years old.
Doc Watson had lost his vision due to an eye infection before the first grade. He lived in the Deep Gap, North Carolina region, and bought his first guitar from Sears Roebuck with money he made from cutting down chestnut trees (and selling them to a tannery). He lived through the folk revival of the 1960s, and received the National Medal of Arts from U.S. president Bill Clinton in 1987. So in other words, the guy is pretty much a legend.
His refined technique helped usher in the era of guitar as a lead instrument, for better or worse. Doc Watson's Gallagher guitar is on display at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, TN.
