Doc's family was an "authentic" mountain family, having lived on the same piece of property for well over 100 years (it may actually be 200, I'm not sure). If you want to hear a broad cross-section of what a 20th century "authentic" mountain family's music sounds like, heads up for a multi-cd (I think at least 4 cds, though it may be 6) Watson Family Album that will be released early next year (I think). It has been put together by Nancy Watson, Doc and Rosa Lee's daughter (and only surviving child) and has everything from Gaither Carleton (Rosa Lee's dad, Doc's father-in-law) playing archaic fiddle tunes to family members singing in church to Doc's original songs to Merle when he had only been playing guitar for a week and even has some of Doc's electric pop guitar playing and singing with Doc Williams, from the 1950s, which is GORGEOUS.

All of Doc's music is authentic to me -- it's a romantic idea, the innocent backwoods mountaineer, but by the 1950s, that's nearly disappeared. There are some examples of that sort of musician, though -- check out the Hammons family. Doc was such a genius, he defies categorization, and I believe that Ralph Rinzler knew that perfectly well. As has been mentioned, we all owe Ralph a huge debt for Doc, Bill Monroe, Clarence Ashley and a whole lot of other music that he made accessible to a wider public. Ralph is definitely one of my heroes.