Richard Watson
Musician · 1966–2015
Best known for
Guitar
Richard Watson was the third generation of the Watson family to play professionally — grandson of Doc, son of Merle — and he spent the last two decades of Doc’s career at his side, playing the guitar parts his father had played before him.
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- He is the son of Merle Watson, Doc’s son and accompanist, who died in a farm accident in 1985.
- He began performing with his grandfather in the early 1990s and stayed until Doc’s death in 2012 — two decades in a role that carried an unusual weight.
- He played blues as much as bluegrass, and the material he chose with Doc leaned toward the blues end of the Watson repertoire.
- He co-produced Third Generation Blues with Doc, the record that put their names together on the cover.
- He died in 2015, three years after his grandfather.
- In this catalog he appears on five Doc and Richard Watson recordings.
