POP MUSIC REVIEW : Doc Watson Makes a Fitting Exit for the King of Folk Music

When basketball’s Doc, Julius (Dr. J) Erving, was set to retire, he made a fanfare-filled farewell tour of the NBA, with a special ceremony in each town to send him off. But folk music’s Doc, Arthel (Doc) Watson, is having none of that.

His show Saturday at UCLA’s Wadsworth Theatre (part of what the 65-year-old blind guitarist-singer says will be his last full concert tour) was carried off with no more fuss than any of the many jaunts he’s made since first heading out from his Deep Gap, N.C., home on a Trailways bus in 1964. Accompanied by guitarist Jack Lawrence (taking over for Watson’s son, Merle, who died in a tractor accident in 1985), Watson presented an informal retrospective of his life in music, which means a roundup of American music of this century.

With his dry but warm singing and intricate finger- and flat-picking guitar playing (he still ranks as a premiere practitioner of the latter), Watson offered such sources as the mountain music of the Carter Family and the black country blues of John Hurt along with more popular variations like bluegrass, country and even Gershwin, making a strong case that they are all cut from the same cloth.

Particularly moving was the simple tribute he made to Merle in the form of the folk standard “I Gave My Love a Cherry.” Nothing fancy or flashy, just a man and his music--all in all a fitting way for this national treasure to slip gracefully off into history.