Subject: RE: Doc Watson biography - free download
From:
Desert Dancer
Date: 08 Jul 12 - 11:57 AM
Here is the book's official website.
Here is a mixed review by Ted Lehmann. Excerpts:
... while this book organizes and presents much of the previously published material on the great blind singer and musician's life, it fails to break much new ground and is largely flawed in many areas.
...
In this book, he is at his strongest when functioning as a musicologist. His sections on the importance of Ralph Rinzler in the discovery of Doc Watson on a music collecting tour in the Appalacians and his bringing Doc to New York to introduce him to the folk music world there is particularly interesting and strong. He also is at his best when discussing Doc Watson's contributions to American music and his virtuosity on the guitar. ... Gustavson's use of secondary sources and contemporary phone interviews to develop a picture of the folk music world of the 1960's and seventies is interesting and solidly developed.
Gustavson also finds and develops significant linkages between Doc Watson's innovative creativity and the emergence of contemporary guitar technique. ... The chapter "Traditional Plus" may make this book worth the price of admission. In a series of interviews, he uses the voices of others to develop a strong case for the founders of musical genres (Monroe, Louis Armstrong) establishing a foundation for the further development of their genres rather than imposing limits upon them.
I have not read a fuller description of the importance of Merle Watson as a musician or as companion and manager for his father than Gustavson develops in this book.
...
All the above makes this volume worth reading. However, the book is deeply flawed as biography, scholarship, and in its writing. Serious readers will have to get past these flaws to reap the benefits the book has to offer. It is virtually useless as a work that might serve for scholarly reference due to its not having an index or a discography. Anyone looking for specific supporting material for future work will have to dig deeply into the end notes for each chapter to find it. (Note: The publishers have notified me that an online index is available here, and that it will be printed in subsequent editions of the book.)
...
By allowing his interviewees to speak for themselves without editorial intervention, Gustavson often allows their voices to become confusing and less than helpful in moving along the story of Doc Watson.
...
Gustavson's writing contains any number of authorial tics I would suppose a teacher of advanced composition, like him, would slash out of others' drafts. There were three I found particularly glaring. In instances where Watson achieved moments of transition in his life, Gustavson insists on writing, "Little did Doc imagine..." that in some future time he would.... These attempted journeys inside Doc Watson's mind fall completely flat. Similarly, the author insists on throwing in "of course' in many instances where there is no "of course." While everyone is on a path of some sort or other, next steps don't happen "of course" but either by design or happenstance. Also, from the beginning of the book, Gustavson refers to Arthel Watson as Doc. Good biographical writing argues that such an error is anachronistic. From birth until the nickname "Doc" was bestowed on him and stuck, Watson's name was Arthel, and that should have been the name Gustavson used. There are also many other errors which solid editorial intervention could have remedied. The jarring reference to runner Usain Bolt is one. Two others are the mis-spellings of Terry Gross (Grosz) and Bryan (Brian) Sutton's names. In fact, this book cries out for professional editing from an objective outsider.
Most other reviews are better. Here's one from No Depression, and one from Bluegrass Journal.
I can't find another biography in book form, Hoot, except that Amazon has one for $210, a dissertation--??
~ Becky in Tucson
|
sj
