![]() But we're going to start with a couple of songs from the concert he recorded on FRESH AIR in 1989. ![]() We're going to hear the interview Terry recorded with Doc Watson in 1988. Doc Watson organized an annual music festival in North Carolina in his honor, known as MerleFest. In the folk music community, Watson is best known for his part in preserving the traditional ballads and melodies of southern Appalachia. In 1985, Merle was killed in a tractor accident. His 24 albums have earned him four Grammys. His flat-pick style of playing traditional folk and bluegrass has made his sound one of the most distinctive of any folk artist. Octo Actor, director and screenwriter Billy Bob Thornton's latest film is Friday Night Lights, based on the best-selling book about Texas high. After finding his way to a Thailand refugee camp he was adopted by an American relief worker, Peter Pond, and brought to the U.S. Arthel 'Doc' Watson, one of America's premier acoustic folk guitarists. After seeing his friends die, he fled into the jungle and survived mimicking the eating habits of monkeys. At age 14, Chorn-Pond was forced into the Khmer Rouge army to fight the invading Vietnamese. Perhaps the mission of an artist is to interpret. He was taught to play the flute to play propaganda songs, which helped assure his survival. fresh-est and most fascinating Negro characters in American fiction. As a child, Chorn-Pond was held in a Khmer Rouge labor camp where many children starved to death, many others were murdered, and those who survived were forced to work from 5 am to midnight. Doc Watson, a legend of folk and bluegrass music, died Tuesday at a hospital in North Carolina, his manager reported. Arn Chorn-Pond is the subject of the new documentary The Flute Player. Photo by Appalachian Encounters via Flickr. His first number one single was "Crying My Heart Out Over You" in 1981, and he continued to have a string of hits throughout the eighties. Skaggs started performing as a young child and was considered a prodigy. Ricky Skaggs has a new album out called The Three Pickers, and it features Skaggs playing along with Earl Scruggs and Doc Watson. I think I really shocked some people in some of the clubs.Country and bluegrass musician Ricky Skaggs and Khmer Rouge survivor Arn Chorn-Pond on this edition of Fresh Air. "They used to call me 'ethnic' until they found out I knew a few of the tunes, other than the old hand-me-downs and the old ballads, the good old tunes I cut my teeth on. "Oh, Lord, if you'd have taken an electric guitar on the stage at some of those festivals, they would have booed you off the stage," Watson said in a 1988 interview on Fresh Air. After picking up the electric guitar as a teenager - and learning how to play rockabilly and old rock standards on his Les Paul - Watson switched exclusively to the banjo and acoustic guitar. they would have booed you off the stage,' Watson said in a 1988 interview on Fresh Air. Watson, who learned to play the banjo and the guitar as a young child, got his start performing on street corners around Raleigh, N.C. Doc Watson performs at the 2009 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on May 1, 2009. MerleFest, the acoustic music festival founded in 1988 by Doc Watson to celebrate the life of his son, is held once a year on the Wilkes Community College campus.ĭoc Watson has been called "a living national treasure" for his virtuoso flat-picking and his repertoire of traditional folk and bluegrass tunes.įor more than five decades, the blind guitarist has been one of America's preeminent folk and country performers.
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