T. Michael Coleman is one of the most respected bluegrass and folk-music bass players of his generation. Across a career of more than five decades, he spent roughly seventeen years playing bass for Doc Watson — first in the Doc & Merle Watson trio from 1974 through Merle’s death in 1985, continuing with Doc and guitarist Jack Lawrence until 1987, and later rejoining Doc until the end of Watson’s life in 2012. After leaving the Watsons the first time he became a longtime member of the Seldom Scene, then co-founded the progressive acoustic group Chesapeake, and in recent years has performed and recorded with Bryan Sutton and David Holt as Deep River Rising (also known as Sutton, Holt & Coleman).