[Nfbmo] NPR.org - Doc Watson, Folk Music Icon, Dies At 89

[DanFlasar at aol.com]

Doc Watson is very well-known among bluegrass/oldtime country fans like  
me.  I've seen him in concert at least 3 or 4 times here in St.  Louis..  He's 
been around forever.  I personally didn't think  NPR over emphasized his 
blindness - anyone who knew of Doc Watson knew he  was blind just as we all 
know Stevie Wonder is.   We're hearing about  him now because he died 
recently, so everyone goes back into their archives to  get material to compose a 
story.  NPR in particular generally conducts  in-depth interviews with their 
guests.  And although Doc didn't seem to  dwell on his blindness in any of 
the stories I've heard on him, over the course  of 40 minutes a life-changing 
event like vision loss is inevitable.
 
    It's important to remember that the experience of people  who lose 
their vision consider it to be a very big event in their life, whereas  someone 
who has never been able to see never experienced a specific event that  
caused their lack of vision (though we all get reminders all the time that we  
live in a sighted world).
     He was a gentle soul - that comes out in his  interviews and his 
music.  In one concert he was teamed  up with  Doctor John - whose genre is quite 
different - Doctor John is roots New Orleans  rock/jazz/Cajun/voodoo 
whereas Doc Watson is roots white folk/country (pre  1950s).   They did separate 
sets for the most part but they did get  together for a few numbers at the 
end of the event.   An interesting  evening with two of my favorites.  Another 
night was at teh Sheldon some  115 years ago - just him, his guitar and a 
stool... Had us all in the palm of  his hand the whole night.
 
    Here's a clip from Youtube with one of my favorites -  "Summertime" 
from Porgy & Bess.  Enjoy!
 
Dan
 
 
In a message dated 5/30/2012 11:05:00 A.M. Central Daylight Time,  
johnsusanford at earthlink.net writes:

I also heard  this NPR story.  My attention is always gotten when I hear 
that  
someone is blind.  The story was interesting, even though I had never  
heard 
of this guy.  The attitude of the writer wasn't good.   That person thought 
the story was newsworthy because he was blind.  I  thought it was 
noteworthy 
and would have been, even if his blindness was  never mentioned.  He played 
the guitar and banjo and is known as the  best in his particular kind of 
playing.  Read it, if you  can.
Susan

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sagi McCleary"  <sagi.mccleary at att.net>
To: <nfbmo at nfbnet.org>
Sent:  Wednesday, May 30, 2012 9:54 AM
Subject: [Nfbmo] NPR.org - Doc Watson, Folk  Music Icon, Dies At 89


>
> Reggie thought you would be  interested in this story: Doc Watson, Folk 
> Music
> Icon, Dies  At 89
>  
http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2012/05/29/153697428/doc-watson-folk-music-icon-dies-at-89?sc=emaf
>
>
>  This message was included:
>
> this should be the text of the  story we listened to
>
> *Listen/Watch on NPR.org*
> Many  stories at NPR.org have audio or visual content. When you visit the
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> For  technical support, please visit NPR's Audio/Visual Help page:
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>
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