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Post by drlj on Mar 4, 2012 8:46:31 GMT -5
The good doctor turned 89 yesterday, March 3rd. Hard to believe but then I find my own age pretty hard to believe most days, too.
I met Doc and Merle many, many years ago and after talking to him for a few minutes (he was a man of very few words, as I recall) he reached in a bag he had and gave me an old set of strings he had used on stage as a souvenir. They probably did that for others, since they were in a plastic packet with a label identifying them as strings used by Doc on stage. Kind of silly, maybe, but I still have them and they are one of my favorite souvenirs of life.
It is a day late, but Happy Birthday to Doc.
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Tamarack
Administrator
Ancient Citizen
Posts: 9,390
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Post by Tamarack on Mar 4, 2012 8:53:48 GMT -5
Happy Birthday Doc!
A gentleman who has influenced my guitar playing
Really
I like music with deep roots and lots of fun...
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Post by millring on Mar 4, 2012 9:37:09 GMT -5
Jim Shenk tells of being a rock'n'rolling, electric guitar-playing teenager until one day, while punching buttons on the car radio, he stumbled upon Doc Watson playing "Tennessee Stud".
He still plays rock'n'roll and an electric guitar when he wants to. But he became an acoustic guitar player and builder in no small part because of Doc Watson.
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Post by drlj on Mar 4, 2012 9:54:27 GMT -5
I remember, back in the mid 60's when I was in HS, going to a friend's house. He pulled out a Doc Watson album and said, "You have to hear this." We listened to it for hours and were just blown away by a guy playing acoustic guitar in a way we had never heard before. What an inspiration the guy has been. He played the music he loved, too, and it did not matter if it was country, bluegrass, folk, or pop. He made it all fresh and his own. I was just showing Barb the set of old, rusty strings I mentioned in the first post.
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Post by theevan on Mar 4, 2012 9:56:06 GMT -5
Docsthebest
Saw Doc n Merle at Tulage's in Boulder. Must've been '70 or '71
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Post by millring on Mar 4, 2012 10:05:56 GMT -5
I like the partnering with David Holt. It is such a nice fit -- featuring songs and an old-timey side that is, to me, the best of Doc.
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Post by Cosmic Wonder on Mar 4, 2012 10:32:00 GMT -5
In a former life, with a former wife, we were on a ski trip to either Crested Butte or Taos, don't remember which, but we saw Doc and Merle play. He was great.
mike
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Post by RickW on Mar 4, 2012 11:18:00 GMT -5
It's funny, I started out with acoustic guitar, and loved it. Tried classical and loved that. But I missed much of the celtic fingerstyle stuff that was going on, and is still going on, and missed the great bluegrass stuff - we did NOT do country.
Now, after hanging around guitar forums for several years, I turn on Folk Alley, and listen to all the great acoustic music that's there, that has been sitting there all these years. It's wonderful stuff. And I hear people like Doc play and I think that all the crap and BS that is the popular music scene really doesn't much matter. There's always good stuff going on out there.
Happy B'day, Doc. One of the founding fathers.
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Dub
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I'm gettin' so the past is the only thing I can remember.
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Post by Dub on Mar 4, 2012 14:48:31 GMT -5
I met Doc in 1964 at the Univ. of Chicago Folk Festival. An altogether amazing musician and human being. In the late '60s through early '70s Doc used to stay with a friend of mine in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood when he was in town performing.
I remember that Doc was discovered almost by accident. Ralph Rinzler and Eugene Earle had gone to North Carolina to record the great old-time banjo player, Clarence Ashley. Doc was a neighbor of Clarence's and had been invited over to provide accompaniment. If you go back and listen to the (Folkways?) LP "Old Time Music at Clarence Ashley's," you'll hear Doc in there too. When they got back and started listening to the Ashley recordings they started to ask each other "Who is this guy?" Soon they were back in NC to talk to Doc.
Doc was an electric country and western swing guitarist. He started playing acoustic because Rinzler convinced him he'd reach a wider audience and get more gigs.
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Post by drlj on Mar 4, 2012 16:28:55 GMT -5
I have that recording on pristine vinyl and I was listening to it this morning. Doc is shown on the cover playing a J-45.
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Post by millring on Mar 4, 2012 17:30:15 GMT -5
I can't wait for the day when LJ and Dub meet.
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Post by drlj on Mar 4, 2012 21:03:28 GMT -5
I am looking forward to that, too.
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Dub
Administrator
I'm gettin' so the past is the only thing I can remember.
Posts: 19,916
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Post by Dub on Mar 4, 2012 22:14:53 GMT -5
Me too.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 5, 2012 4:21:55 GMT -5
How many good things could I say about Doc Watson that haven't already been said? Probably none!
I will say one thing. The man has always amazed me in the way he makes it look so effortless. He must be some kind of musical mutant from another planet or something.
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