Mr. Watson, who came to national attention during the folk music revival of the early 1960s, injected a note of authenticity into a movement awash in protest songs and bland renditions of traditional tunes. In a sweetly resonant, slightly husky baritone, he sang old hymns, ballads and country blues he had learned growing up in the northwestern corner of North Carolina, which has produced fiddlers, banjo pickers and folk singers for generations.
His mountain music came as a revelation to the folk audience, as did his virtuoso guitar playing. Unlike most country and bluegrass musicians, who thought of the guitar as a secondary instrument for providing rhythmic backup, Mr. Watson executed the kind of flashy, rapid-fire melodies normally played by a fiddle or a banjo. His style influenced a generation of young musicians learning to play the guitar as folk music achieved national popularity.
Example:
His style is very similar to the country blues greats I am so familiar with.
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Independent television producer Lee Rich, 93, has died according to his ex-wife Pippa Scott:
When advertisers became less involved in television production, Mr. Rich told The New York Times in 1980, he decided to start a company of his own that would allow him to “do something pertinent and meaningful” in television and film. Between 1969 and 1986, Lorimar placed more than 30 shows on the air and produced a dozen feature-length films, including “Being There” (1979), “The Postman Always Rings Twice” (1981) and “An Officer and a Gentleman” (1982).
Besides “Dallas,” which ran for 13 seasons, and “The Waltons,” which was on the air from 1971 to 1981 and won 29 Emmy Awards, Lorimar’s most successful television productions included the series “Eight Is Enough,” “Falcon Crest” and the “Dallas” spinoff “Knots Landing,” and the made-for-TV movies “Helter Skelter” (1976), about the Charles Manson family, and “Sybil” (1976), starring Sally Field, about a woman with multiple personalities.
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