By Dan Miller Volume 2, Issue 6 of Flatpicking Guitar Magazine.
Over the past fifty years the guitar has had a very powerful influence on American music.
Predominantly a rhythm instrument at the turn of the century, the guitar began to step out of the rhythm section in the 1930ʼs and 40ʼs and has maintained a dominant presence in every form of music from rock, to folk, to country, bluegrass, blues, and old-time.
While Elvis, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and other pop icons of the 50ʼs and 60ʼs certainly played a large role in bolster ing the guitarʼs popularity, the man who has had the deepest, most enduring, and most profound influence on the way the acoustic flat top guitar is played as a lead instrument in folk, old-time, and bluegrass music today is Arthel “Doc” Watson.
To those of us who have spent hundreds of hours slowing down Doc Watson records in order to learn the tastefully selected notes that he plays and emulate the clear, crisp tone he pulls out of hi