Last year, Doc Watson stood in front of the crowd at the Spirit of Sunday service at MerleFest, playing a guitar that had been made for him by his good ...

Doc Watson, Folk Guitar Icon, Dies at 89. The Grammy-winning musician, blind since the age of 1, recently had abdominal surgery that resulted in his hospitalization.

Remembering Doc Watson, Folk Guitar Hero (1923-2012) Smithsonian Folkways honors the blind folk musician who died yesterday at the age of 89. Aviva Shen. May 30, 2012. Get our newsletter!

Doc Watson got his musical start in 1953, playing electric lead guitar in a country-and-western swing band. His road to fame began in 1960 when Ralph Rinzler, a musician who also managed Bill ...

Arthel "Doc" Watson's mastery of flatpicking helped make the case for the guitar as a lead instrument in the 1950s and 1960s, when it was often considered a backup for the mandolin, fiddle or banjo.

Since the early '60s, guitar novices have been slowing down Doc Watson albums to figure out just how he crafts those elegantly crisp, tastefully flat-picked melodies.

View full size Associated Press Grammy-award winning folk musician Doc Watson whose lightning-fast style of flatpicking influenced guitarists around the world for more than a half-century, died ...

Doc Watson dead, guitar master was 89. In this May 1, 2011 file photo, master flatpicker Doc Watson performs with The Nashville Bluegrass Band during "Spirit of Sunday" during MerleFest in ...

How Doc Watson Made the Guitar the Guitar. The blind boy of Americana and a legacy of wood and string. By Allen St. John Published: May 30, 2012. Every product was carefully curated by an Esquire ...

Blind from the age of 1, Watson was left to listen to the world around him and it was as if he heard things differently from others. ... Guitar-picking master Doc Watson dies at 89.

RALEIGH, N.C. - Doc Watson, the blind Grammy-award winning folk musician whose mountain-rooted sound was embraced by generations and whose lightning-fast style of flatpicking influenced guitarists ...