Doc Watson is a very large part of this series. It was his concerts that helped inspire me to begin doing artwork based on bluegrass musicians. His drawing was also the first drawing in the series of musicians’ hands. I feel that Doc Watson has a true signature sound that he is able to achieve that distinguishes him from other guitar players in his recordings. Part of what I wanted to achieve in this body of work is to capture the playing styles of the musicians in an effort to show how they achieve these distinctive sounds from their instruments. I titled this work Let Me Pick One, Son for several reasons. Several years ago Doc Watson lost his son, music partner, and best friend Merle. In this drawing you can see that Doc wears two wedding rings, and I have been told that one of those rings was Merle’s. Also the photograph that I used for this drawing was taken at Merlefest, a festival honoring the memory of his son, and I wanted to include a reference to Merle in the title. I really admire the longevity of his career and the hardships that he has endured along the way, and through it all Doc Watson keeps picking.
I feel that Doc Watson is a true living legend if ever there was one. He has been described as one of the first musicians that created guitar solos from the old time music, which in turn led to the completed bluegrass sound.
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