Summary: A festival that started small at Wilkes Community College in North Carolina has become one of the most enthusiastically supported roots music events in the U.S. Merlefest began in 1988 as an event to support the college and memorialize Eddy Merle Watson, the son of Doc Watson, who had died in a tractor accident on the family farm. As Doc put it at the time, “When Merle and I started out we called our music ‘traditional plus’, meaning the traditional music of the Appalachian region plus whatever other styles we were in the mood to play.
