If you picked up a guitar any time in the last fifty years, you know Doc Watson. He’s the one who made you feel like just putting it down. Or else you spent hours stopping and starting your vinyl, tape, or CD, struggling in vain to pick up all those notes. 

Guitar started out the last century as a rhythm instrument, but as music started to get hot in the 1920s, artists all over the musical map began picking out leads. Arthel “Doc” Watson, down in Deep Gap, North Carolina, carried that ball way down the field. Blind from infancy, he developed a supernatural sympathy with his chosen instrument, flatpicking and fingerpicking his way right through the crossroads of bluegrass and blues traditions. 

On March 3, 2007, this American music superhero turned 84, and he’s still picking. Check out this video clip from an earlier time and hear this influential voice from the deep root of our musical culture.