Sitting next to Doc, musicians will pick a tune with their banjo or guitar, while kids have fun adorning Doc with a hat or sunglasses. Two years later, families still crowd around the statue and pose with the legend. The statue, located at the corner of King and Depot streets, has become a tourist attraction. In the summer of 2011, his career came “full circle” – as one of his picking buddies said – when John Cooper and the Downtown Boone Development Association dedicated a bronze statue of Doc sitting on a bench playing his Gallagher guitar, otherwise known as “Ol Hoss.” Upon arriving on the strip, he would strap a tin can to his guitar and play for tips. Being blind, he didn’t have many job opportunities, so Doc, who passed away at the age of 89, would walk the miles to downtown by himself with a travel cane. His performing career began on the sidewalks of downtown Boone in the ‘40s. Throughout all the years and all of the accolades, Doc always lived just down the road in Deep Gap, which is a few miles from Boone.
He passed after surgery.A Bronze Statue Of Doc Sitting On A Bench Playing His Gallagher GuitarĮven though Doc passed away a few years ago, the High Country will always be Doc Watson country. No bones were broken, but an underlying condition prompted the surgery. The 89-year-old Watson had fallen early in the week. In late May 2012, Watson was listed in critical condition but was responsive at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, after undergoing colon surgery. Held on the last weekend in April since 1988, MerleFest draws more than 75,000 annually to Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro, N.C. Merle's memory is honored by MerleFest, an annual North Carolina roots-music festival that the elder Watson hosted. For many years, Watson toured with his son, Merle Watson, who died in a 1985 tractor accident. Watson also won seven Grammys over a 33-year period and received Grammy's lifetime achievement award in 2004. In 2000, Watson was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor in Owensboro, Kentucky. In 1997, Watson received the National Medal of Arts from President Bill Clinton. 1999 saw a release of a compilation album The Best of Doc Watson 1964-1968.He was a master of both finger-picking and flat-picking styles. Before folklorist and musician Ralph Rinzler first recorded him backing old-time banjo player Clarence "Tom" Ashley in 1960, he worked with a local dance band, playing honky-tonk, rockabilly, pop and square-dance tunes. Watson was instrumental in developing the canon for 1960s folk musicians with his recordings of traditional tunes like Deep River Blues and Shady Grove he didn't play just the music of the Appalachian Mountains. He was born Arthel Lane Watson and picked up the nickname "Doc" at the suggestion of an audience member at a radio broadcast when he was in his teens. He attended North Carolina's school for the visually impaired. He grew up playing harmonica and a homemade banjo but learned guitar after his father bought him a $12 Stella acoustic when he was 13. Doc was blind from infancy due to an eye infection before his first birthday.
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