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Doc Watson biography - free download

07 Jul 12 - 06:03 PM (#3373389)
Subject: Doc Watson biography - free download
From: Murray MacLeod

The biography of Doc Watson, "Blind but Now I See", by Kent Gustavson, is currently available for free on Amazon as a Kindle download, at this link

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0089YLKVW/

If you don't have a Kindle, you can still get Kindle downloads by installing the Kindle software on your PC or Mac.

The book is well worth downloading, you will learn stuff about Doc you never knew before (unless you already bought the paperback )...

07 Jul 12 - 06:05 PM (#3373390)
Subject: RE: Doc Watson biography - free download
From: Murray MacLeod

"Blind but Now I See", by Kent Gustavson

08 Jul 12 - 02:11 AM (#3373513)
Subject: RE: Doc Watson biography - free download
From: Desert Dancer

Thanks for the hot tip!!

~ Becky in Tucson

08 Jul 12 - 09:21 AM (#3373584)
Subject: RE: Doc Watson biography - free download
From: GUEST,John Foxen

Thanks a lot for this. Now installed on my smartphone to make train journeys bearable - I can pretend I'm Southbound instead of creeping into London on a crowded commuter train.

08 Jul 12 - 11:00 AM (#3373601)
Subject: RE: Doc Watson biography - free download
From: GUEST,Hootenanny

I understand that this was not an "official" biography sanctioned by Doc Watson and cannot remember seeing it reviewed. Does anybody have any links to a review?
How is it available for a free downloading, did it not sell? or am I missing something here.
I notice that County Sales have the "real" book back n stock.


Hoot

08 Jul 12 - 11:57 AM (#3373613)
Subject: RE: Doc Watson biography - free download
From: Desert Dancer

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

08 Jul 12 - 04:29 PM (#3373683)
Subject: RE: Doc Watson biography - free download
From: Stilly River Sage

That's good to know about Kindle software. Thanks!

08 Jul 12 - 05:24 PM (#3373700)
Subject: RE: Doc Watson biography - free download
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)

My thanks also Murray.

Mick

08 Jul 12 - 05:26 PM (#3373701)
Subject: RE: Doc Watson biography - free download
From: GUEST,mando-player91

Not working for me weird

09 Jul 12 - 06:41 AM (#3373884)
Subject: RE: Doc Watson biography - free download
From: GUEST,Jim McCullough

What's available appears to be a three chapter "sample". Have I done something wrong?

09 Jul 12 - 07:57 AM (#3373904)
Subject: RE: Doc Watson biography - free download
From: GUEST,Hootenanny

Thanks for that Becky,

That's enough to convince me that I would not enjoy reading it. If anyone is contemplating a real biography on Doc Watson then I think the obvious place to start would be with his wife Rosalie and his daughter Nancy. Doc certainly deserves a serious study, I hope there is someone out ther capable and willing to do the job.

Hoot

09 Jul 12 - 10:06 AM (#3373945)
Subject: RE: Doc Watson biography - free download
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)

Jim

The version I got (via wireless) is 20 chapters + Acknowledgements + Bibliography + Discography + Chapter Notes + Index + End Photos.

I'd try getting it again.

Mick

10 Jul 12 - 04:01 AM (#3374292)
Subject: RE: Doc Watson biography - free download
From: Will Fly

Well, it's on my Kindle and I'm on the 3rd of many chapters. So far it's OK - and the details of Doc's early days at the Raleigh school for the Blind are very interesting - as I know very little of Doc's boyhood.

So far, so good - and I shall reserve judgement until I've finished it.

10 Jul 12 - 04:17 AM (#3374301)
Subject: RE: Doc Watson biography - free download
From: Sir Roger de Beverley

It is not free on the Amazon UK site. Cost is £6.70

R

10 Jul 12 - 04:20 AM (#3374303)
Subject: RE: Doc Watson biography - free download
From: Will Fly

The Kindle version was free on the UK Amazon site - I checked my account and it cost me nothing! They must have gauged interest and priced it up in the last day or so!

10 Jul 12 - 04:32 AM (#3374305)
Subject: RE: Doc Watson biography - free download
From: Sir Roger de Beverley

It is also showing as $10.38 on the link above.

R

10 Jul 12 - 04:32 AM (#3374306)
Subject: RE: Doc Watson biography - free download
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)

It looks like the free offer is over.

Mick