Profiles by Lucy Walker

Doc Watson, blind at birth, lived and grew up in North Carolina. It was an area steeped in mountain music, and he soaked up many influences from the mountain folk and popular country artists like Jimmie Rodgers, The Carter Family, and The Delmore Brothers. Throughout the 1950s, he was working strictly as a non-professional musician picking up tips from guitarists like Grady Martin, Chet Atkins, and Merle Travis - who he named his son after. Merle Watson, Doc's son, played with his father since the Berkeley Folk Festival in 1964. He was quiet on stage, but business-like off. He played backup guitar, occasional banjo, and later often took the lead guitar breaks. It was his mother, rather than his father, who first showed and encouraged him to play guitar when he was 15. Doc was suitably impressed by his son’s dedication to the instrument and took him along on a tour in 1964. He virtually learned to pick the guitar whilst touring with his father and ultimately became an outstanding lead picker. The two of them worked in successful partnership, as evidenced in the music they produced. Their music was traditional, mostly the songs and tunes that Doc Watson heard in his youth. It's the acoustic style that has made Watson fans listen for years. Richard Watson, Merle’s son occasionally played with them as well on tour. Years later, in 2011, Doc Watson died. Merle Watson had passed in 1985 from a tractor accident. 

Presley Barker, even as a teenager, has made a name for himself in the Bluegrass and country music industry. At the age of two, he started singing and continued to strengthen his guitar and singing career when he auditioned for American Idol (Season 4, 2021) and won a golden ticket. Born in Traphill North Carolina, he grew up with his mother, his father, and his younger brother, Luke. Living out in the "country," he not only uses his free time for boosting his music career but also for driving tractor-trailers and doing cattle hoof trimming. After being eliminated from American Idol, he released two singles, "Time Machine" and "Middle of Somewhere." He has performed at Merlefest and opened for Travis Ledoyt. He aspires to be like his music inspirations, Chris Stapleton, Eric Church, and Blake Shelton, and he hopes to soon play at Red Rocks in his future career. As for now, he is writing music and experimenting on new ways to broaden and learn from the folk industry. 

Ola Belle Reed was born into a large family, with 12 siblings to be exact.  She grew up in Lansing, North Carolina, where she had musical influences on both sides of her family. Both her father and grandfather played many musical instruments, and she grew up in an environment of traditional Appalachian music. As a member of the North Carolina Ridge Runners, Ola Belle Campbell played old-time banjo and sang for the Appalachian migrant audience in the Maryland-Delaware-Pennsylvania area. After she married Bud Reed in 1949, she organized the band "New River Boys" with her brother, Alex. Reed continued to perform with her family at informal gatherings that she organized for her friends and family. Through the years, Reed wrote a number of songs that speak of her Appalachian past and her commitment to family traditions, religious values, and social justice. Reed eventually suffered a stroke in 1987 which led to her passing.