Doc Watson

This is "Travis style" picking, two-finger, named after Merle Travis. Doc named his son after Merle Travis (the son dying tragically far too early, but what a duet they made when Merle was a young man!). As a boy, Mom used to drop us off at an L.A. television station near Farmers Market (daycare!), where an afternoon country variety show featured Merle Travis, Joe Maphis and others. I used to sit on Merle Travis' lap!

I got to see Doc Watson close up when he visited my folklore class at UCLA and performed for 30 of us. (So did Lightnin' Hopkins, Brownie McGhee & Sonny Terry, whoever was at the Ash Grove at the time. The prof knew everyone. What a class!)