Merle Watson Information
Merle Watson Quotes

Eddy Merle Watson Memorial Garden for the Senses

In the early dark hours of October 23, 1985, just days before 'Frets Magazine' named him the best finger-picking guitarist of the year in folk, blues, or country music, Eddy Merle Watson rolled his farm tractor on a steep hillside near his home, ending the life of one of the world's great musicians in a tragedy worthy of the blues ballads he loved. Some people knew Merle Watson well, some were acquainted with him as a consequence of brief interactions of one sort or another, some had only the privilege of seeing him perform his musical wizardry on stage or listening to one or more of his many recordings, but everyone loved and respected him. Merle touched lives world wide as is evidenced by over 700 cards, letters, and other written condolences received by his family, Doc, Rosa Lee, and Nancy, after Merle's fatally tragic accident. These expressions of sympathy were in addition to the hundreds of phone calls and personal visits to the Watson's Deep Gap, North Carolina home. This tremendous outpouring of support was not engendered by a love of Merle's music alone, but also by the way his charisma and kindness transcended his fundamental shyness and silence on stage to reveal themselves in his exquisite fingerwork and gentle smile.

Merle Watson was born in February of 1949 following a beautiful, spring-like day, which is unusual for February in the northwest mountains of North Carolina. Mother Nature smiled warmly on his birth as the rest of the typically harsh mountain winter was unseasonably mild. Merle was dark-haired like his seventeen-year-old mother, Rosa Lee, and fair-skinned like his father, Arthel "Doc" Watson. When the midwife carried him out to the front room to his blind father's waiting arms, his chubby little legs were churning furiously as if he had already embarked on a musical career which would eventually carry him far and wide. That night seemed to set the stage for the rest of his regrettably short life, for during his 21 year musical ministry, he traveled more than four million miles by automobile in addition to the many thousands of miles he flew. It could truly be said that Merle Watson was born traveling! Ultimately, Merle and his legendary father, Doc Watson, would tour the U.S. many times over, performing in every state except two. They would also perform in Africa, Japan, Canada, Mexico, and most of the European countries, sharing their musical talents and heritage from the stages of some of the most celebrated theatres in the world's largest cities to the dusty, remote villages of the South African bush.

At six years of age, Merle fell victim to the polio epidemic and was paralyzed from the waist down for almost two months. This illness left him with hip joint damage and a bad limp, but Howard Campbell, a friend of Doc's, gave Merle a used bicycle and the therapy of riding significantly reduced his limp. However, as a consequence of this childhood malady, Merle was quite often in pain later in his adult life, yet his indomitable spirit and determination allowed him to persevere in a musical career which delighted fans of acoustic music time and time again.

Merle was fourteen years old in 1963 when Doc Watson took the stage at the Newport Folk Festival where he was embraced enthusiastically by the folk community, young and old. This performance, and a historic concert with the father of bluegrass music, Bill Monroe, at Town Hall in New York City in 1964, catapulted Doc Watson to the forefront of the folk revival where he remains to this day. It was at this point in his legendary father's blossoming career that Merle, at home with his mother and sister while his dad was touring, made a momentous decision. "Mama," he said, "I've decided what I want to do." "What's that, honey?" Rosa Lee asked, "Play the drums?" He had received a set of drums the previous Christmas. "No. I've got nobody to play drums with except a George Jones record. I want to play the guitar." Rosa Lee took the guitars out and taught Merle his first basic chords. In June of 1964 he accompanied his father to concerts in Berkeley and San Francisco, California, performing for the first time before an audience of 12,000 people. In November, he and Doc recorded their first LP album, "Doc Watson And Son."

Merle grew up quickly, not only in size for he was a large man, but in maturity. He was married at sixteen, a father of a son, Richard Eddy Watson, at seventeen, and less than two years later a daughter, Karen Annette Watson. Merle was devastated when his marriage broke up several years later and he never truly recovered from the loss of his family. But continuing to care for them deeply and consistently, he continued weaving the quilt of his acoustic accomplishments winning Grammy awards and the hearts of everyone he met. In 1985, he won the "Best Finger Picking Guitarist-Folk/Blues or Country" award from Frets Magazine. Tragically, Merle Watson was not to live to learn of this prestigious tribute.

On the night of October 22, 1985, Merle was restless and unable to sleep. Some time after midnight, he went to the basement, tied on his nail apron, and proceeded to trim some red beech paneling that had been misgrooved, making it ready to panel his basement walls. The saw blade hit an undetected fault in the grain and a good-sized piece of hardwood splintered off, embedding itself in the muscle of Merle's upper arm. He grabbed his all-weather jacket, fumbled around in the pocket for the key to his farm tractor, and left to seek help. Merle went to the houses of three of his neighbors, all of whom knew him well, but no one ventured forth from the comfort of their homes to help him. Finally, spotting a lighted house at the summit of a steep hill, he continued in that direction, praying he would not black out before he got there. The people who lived there, however, were afraid to attempt the removal of the embedded wood from his arm. "Maybe I can get it out," Merle said, "I've got to have my arm. I have to pick the guitar. Have you got a knife and something for pain?" They didn't have anything for pain, however, except some wine. Merle sterilized the knife with the wine, and then drank some as an anesthetic. Merle successfully removed the huge splinter and the couple whose house he had come to wrapped a bandage around his arm, covering the wound. Weak from the trauma and loss of blood, Merle left. On the way back down the steep incline of their drive, the tractor brakes locked, leading it over the high embankment. Merle was thrown off and the large tractor then landed on him, killing him instantly. The life of one of acoustic music's brightest and most beloved musicians was at a premature end.

Three weeks before this tragedy, Doc and Merle were coming home from Nashville, Tennessee where they had just finished filming a segment of TNN's New Country show with David Holt. "Son," said Doc, "I know I'm the last person in the world that's worthy to talk to you about this, but how is it between you and God?" Merle replied "Dad, you don't have to go to church to make it right. I've been on my knees in the woods, and I've made my peace with God, and if I have to die I'm not afraid." Neither father nor son could have possibly known how soon those fateful words would be relevant.

As a testament to Merle's popularity and musical accomplishments, one of the world's most renowned gatherings of acoustic musicians began two years after Merle's death in the fall of 1987. Wilkes Community College's Dean of Development, Frederick W. "B" Townes, Bill Young, Doc Watson's close friend and "pickin buddy", and Ala Sue Wyke visited the legendary guitarist and Grammy award winner and his family at their Deep Gap, NC home. At this historic meeting, Townes and Young broached with Doc the idea of doing a benefit concert at the College to raise funds for a memorial garden in honor of Merle. This annual event, now known as MerleFest, attracts thousands of fans, and is an enduring tribute to the imposing presence of Eddy Merle Watson, both before and after his untimely death. Perhaps a song about Merle written and performed by Mike Cross at the first MerleFest captures the essence of folks' feelings for this great musician....... 

"The mountain breeze is blowing through the meadow where you played,
The smell of honeysuckle fills the air here in the glade,
A cowbell in the distance whispers lightly in my ear,
And if I sit here quietly, I feel your spirit near.

Music bubbled in your blood and grew out of your soul,
Childhood's end came quickly with the calling of the road,
The gift you had, you had to share, that's what was meant to be,
You played the songs on your guitar and lived your destiny.

Chorus
So long for a little while, I'll see you by and by,
Somewhere between the moon and stars, way up on the sky,
There we'll share a memory for every tear we've cried,
So long for a little while, we'll see you by and by.

Life was like a river you could hardly wait to swim,
You dove head first into it, splashing back and forth again;
You wrapped your arms around the time and threw out all the years,
Played the songs your fingers heard, in laughter and in tears.

So long for a little while, I'll see you by and by,
Somewhere between the moon and stars, way up in the sky,
And there we'll share a memory for every tear we've cried,
So long for a little while, we'll see you by and by.