via Boston Herald
From the page:
While he played all over the world, Watson still lived most of his life in the vicinity of the Deep Gap community where he was born in 1923. Blind since infancy, Watson’s first childhood instrument was harmonica. His father made him a banjo at age 10, and he learned the basics of guitar from a neighbor.
Watson was always pragmatic about music as a way to make a living. He began playing for money in the 1940s because, as a blind man, he had few other career options. Jack Lawrence, who played with Watson for more than a quarter-century, frequently said that Watson preferred home to being on the road and was less interested in being remembered for his music than as “the good ol’ boy down the road.”
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I heard Doc tell the story of how he lost his eyesight at birth because the midwife’s eye solution was contaminated. To imagine that in an alternate history of time, that bottle of solution might have been replaced…
Thankfully, we lived together in this time with this humble man who has influenced so many musicians.
http://youtu.be/2XsJS9d6TAI