Wednesday Video Spotlight: RIP Doc Watson

Legendary folk musician Doc Watson died Tuesday at the age of 89.

According to the Associated Press, Watson died at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, where he was hospitalized recently after falling at his home in Deep Gap, 100 miles northwest of Charlotte. He underwent abdominal surgery while in the hospital and had been in critical condition for several days.

Born March 3, 1923, in Deep Gap, Arthel Lane “Doc” Watson was blind from the age of 1. He lost his eyesight when he developed an eye infection that was worsened by a congenital vascular disorder, according to a website for Merlefest, the annual musical gathering named for his late son Merle.

 Though he knew how to play the banjo and harmonica from an early age, Watson came to favor the guitar. His flat-picking style helped translate the fiddle- and mandolin-dominated music of his forebears for an audience of younger listeners who were open to the tales that had echoed off the mountains for generations, and to the new lead role for the guitar.