Has there ever been a better picker than Doc Watson ?

[kentuck]

[rampartc]

1. not likely

tennessee stud" is another good one.

[woofless]

7. Funny story.

I saw Doc and Merle a couple times in the mid 70's. One evening in a small room (maybe 200 folks) some joker yelled out "Tennessee Stud" after every song. Finally fed up, Doc leaned into the mike and said "It ain't time to ride that hoss yet boy." Shut the dude up. He eventually did play it of course.

[rampartc]

8. a saw doc and merle several times in the 70s as well

that is a good story.

[Hoyt]

2. Saw Doc and Merle Watson decades ago, sitting less than 10 feet away. Incredible.

[yellowdogintexas]

4. So did I, at the Exit In in Nashville

Went to see him at least 3 times, with Merle.

Amazing

[hlthe2b]

3. I surely don't know, but my late Dad would argue, Chet Atkins...

Heavens he wore through albums and cassettes by the dozens during the last years of his life...
Fond memories, even though I was into other genres at the time.

[The Polack MSgt]

5. Once you get up into the rarified air

where Doc Watson is, there are only immortals and it comes down to personal preference.

There aren't many players up there and you can't really argue one is actually better the others. Doc is a bad bad man and not to trifled with...

But I really like Clarence White

And I think Molly will be as great a picker as any that ever played by the time she's done

[cemaphonic]

9. In general, I agree, but...

in Doc's case, no other guitarist was doing those kind of fast fiddle-style leads and complex chromatic runs before him. Clarence and Tony and all the others are very much standing on his shoulders.

Plus, he was just ridiculously versatile. He could play bluegrass, country blues, electric rockabilly, and so on.

He wrote some pretty great songs too:

[Paladin]

6. Nope. (nt)

[panader0]

10. I love Doc Watson, but my favorite will always be

Mississippi John Hurt,