Another master of classical American music done gone…R.I.P. Doc Watson (March 3, 1923 – May 29, 2012). Check out this snippet of Doc playing a couple tunes with Earl Scruggs (and family). Earl passed away earlier this year (January 6, 1924 – March 28, 2012).
Thankfully, there are still some bluegrass masters still with us. To wit, here’s one of them, nearly forty years ago, flailing his way through Toronto. He’s much more polished today, of course. But it’s nice to see the early years of Steve Martin, when his enormously multivalent talents were still nascent.
I saw the obituary – yes, another giant gone. It strikes me that bluegrass/Americana music is as vibrant as ever. It will never be as big as hip-hop, rock or country, but people (like us) who dig it really get into it and there are some fantastic players out there now…like Steve Martin. I was stunned when I watched him on PBS last fourth of July.