Coming just on the heels of the death of Earl Scruggs, this really gets me down. I discovered the music of Scruggs and Watson simultaneously when I found my father's old "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" album by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. The Dirt Band was essentially a group of long-haired hippies with an appreciation of bluegrass and traditional old-timey music who had the foresight to get a bunch of the masters together for a recorded "jam session" back in the early 1970s. The album is pure perfection.
When Scruggs died, I played nothing but his music for three days. Then there was the two days of Levon Helm.
I have enough Doc Watson recordings to last a week, and I start right now.
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It's a sad day. But Doc lived a long and accomplished life. It's remarkable that both he and Earl Scruggs were touring pretty much right up until the end. I consider myself very lucky to have seen both of them perform in the past couple of years. Tonight I learned to play Walk On Boy in Doc's memory. I can think of no better way to remember him than through his music.
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