American guitarist and folk musician Doc Watson, 89, passed away on May 29, 2012, at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

According to USA Today, Agent Mitch Greenhill, of Folklore Productions, said Watson was responding and recovering last week from undergoing colon surgery he had on Thursday. It was said Watson remained in critical condition on Friday. Nancy, Watson’s daughter, told the Associated Press, Watson fell on Monday.

The legendary guitarist and Grammy winning musician’s death was confirmed Tuesday night.

The folk musician was born Arthel Watson near Deep Gap, North Carolina on March 3, 1923. He lost his vision before he was 1 year old but began playing instruments from a young age, starting with a harmonica and a banjo given to him by his father. When he picked up a guitar he began teaching himself and started playing for tips.

Watson married Rosa Lee Carlton in 1947, they had two children, Merle and Nancy. In 1953, he started playing with country dance band, Jack Williams and the Country Gentlemen. A few years later he sat with Tom Ashley for a recording session, a year later he performed with Ashley and other musicians at a concert in Greenwich Village which was the start of his career.

When Watson’s music career took off in 1963 when he released his solo debut, Doc Watson and Family. In 1964, he began touring with his 15-year-old son Merle Watson.

The father son duo played together for the next 20 years until Merle’s death after a farming accident in 1985. Over the years, Watson won eight Grammys, seven of them for different albums and the eighth Grammy was a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004. While he earned many musical awards and honors through out his career, none of his 60+ albums ever went gold according to the Chicago Tribune.

“Doc was a legendary performer who blended his traditional Appalachian musical roots with bluegrass, country, gospel and blues to create a unique style and an expansive repertoire,” his management company, Folklore Productions, said. ”He was a powerful singer and a tremendously influential picker who virtually invented the art of playing mountain fiddle tunes on the flattop guitar.”

Watson made music that influenced many artists and guitarists. Known for his fingerpicking and flat-pick guitar styles, he pioneered a new bluegrass style playing fiddle style tunes on guitar at a quick pace. He changed folk music forever.

“Overall, Doc will be remembered as one of America’s greatest folk musicians. I would say he’s one of America’s greatest musicians,” said David Holt, a longtime friend and collaborator.

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When it comes to Grammy-winning singer/songwriter P!nk, Rolling Stone critic Robert Sheffield has said it best:

This is a prolific pop artist who is sometimes famous and successful, sometimes obscure, who nonetheless keeps making her own kind of music. Every few years, the spotlight comes back around to her — but her fans can trust that when the spotlight moves along, Pink will keep on writing Pink songs.

P!nk is a global superstar. This much is obvious. She has broken touring records in Australia more than once, she has gone platinum with her records in just about every country with a flag, and when she returned home to the U.S. after a mammoth two-year world tour, she topped the Billboard Pop Songs chart with two consecutive singles from her greatest hits compilation CD with almost zero promotion.

P!nk has won two Grammys, collaborated with Eminem and John Legend, written for Adam Lambert, contributed her vocals to several motion picture soundtracks, toured the world several times over, and yet remains a self-confessed ‘underdog’.

Like the Rolling Stone critic says, the spotlight comes back around her way every few years. For example, in 2006 she released ‘Stupid Girls’, a song which along with its accompanying music video satirised vain celebrity culture, and which led to P!nk appearing on ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’ to discuss the representation of women in the media.

Then, in 2008 she underwent a high-profile separation from her husband Carey Hart, resulting in the song ‘So What’ becoming the first U.S. Hot 100 single of her career. In late 2010, P!nk announced her pregnancy and she quickly became a target of tabloid fascination, with the singer revealing in November that “there was a $250,000 bounty on her [daughter Willow's] head for the first photo“.

Yet, aside from these few-and-far-between events, P!nk has maintained a relatively low profile since her debut record was released in early 2000.

The likely reason for this can be explained by P!nk herself, who was once quoted as saying:

Instead of going and becoming a cover girl and endorsement girl and popular girl and having #1s, I kind of just hit the road and pounded the pavement … and became a touring artist … You don’t have to be popular when you’re a touring artist, you just have to be good.

And so, P!nk has maintained a successful career and transitioned into a well-respected artist in her own right, as well as an acknowledged humanitarian. At the Human Rights Campaign’s National Dinner in 2010, P!nk was presented with the Ally for Equality award for her work with PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), her advocation for marriage equality, and for many other organisations which she actively supports.

Meanwhile, at this year’s Grammy Awards, MTV reported that a replay of P!nk’s aerial performance of ‘Glitter in the Air’ at the 2010 ceremony “captivated the audience so much that when they cut back to the show, the entire crowd groaned.”

After the actual performance two years earlier, P!nk received a standing ovation from the entire audience which included Celine Dion, Sheryl Crow, Rihanna, and Jon Bon Jovi, while the song – which was never intended to be a single – charted at number 18 on the Hot 100 based on the strength of the Grammy performance alone.

This year, P!nk is back in the studio recording her sixth album and is reportedly working with Dan Wilson, who worked heavily on Adele’s record-breaking LP ’21′. She also has a film role coming up in the ensemble comedy ‘Thanks for Sharing’, which stars Mark Ruffalo and Gwyneth Paltrow, and she was rumoured to have been wooed by ‘The X Factor USA’ chiefs to join its judging panel.

All of these developments would point toward the spotlight once again coming back around to her as Rolling Stone predicted it would, yet, it would seem that P!nk has never been in a stronger nor more established position in her career as she finds herself right now. It is for this reason then that P!nk, in her 13th year in the business, is one of the most important and relevant solo performers of her generation.

Image Courtesy of   http://www.pinkspage.com

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Merck (known as MSD outside the United States and Canada) announced that three-time Grammy award-winning Cuban-American recording artist and songwriter Jon Secada is adding his voice to the Tune In to Hep C public health campaign to help raise awareness of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection.

Secada revealed for the first time that his father recently passed away from complications associated with chronic HCV infection, a disease that disproportionately affects the Hispanic community. He hopes that sharing his family’s personal experience through this bilingual awareness campaign will activate Hispanic Americans with chronic HCV to take action and speak to their doctors about their options.

Secada joins Merck, the American Liver Foundation (ALF) and fellow Grammy winners Gregg Allman of The Allman Brothers Band and Natalie Cole on the Tune In to Hep C initiative, which Merck and ALF launched last year.

Chronic HCV is a viral infection of the liver that is potentially serious and can damage the liver over time and lead to cirrhosis, end-stage liver disease and liver cancer. Of the approximately 3.2 million Americans who have chronic HCV, an estimated one million are Hispanic.

Research has shown that complications due to chronic HCV develop more quickly and result in more health issues in Hispanics when compared to other ethnic groups, especially considering many people infected with chronic HCV, Hispanic or non-Hispanic, do not know that they have the virus – approximately 70 to 80 percent of people newly infected with the virus do not have symptoms.

“My father chose not to tell anyone about his disease for a long time, and he chose not to take action against it for reasons I may never understand. Before he passed away, he told me that he wanted me to share his story to help other people like him who have chronic hepatitis C but aren’t taking action,” said Secada, who was unaware of his father’s diagnosis for more than a decade.

“You can’t be silent with a silent disease that has consequences like chronic hepatitis C — you need to talk to your doctor and talk to your family. Take it from me, the people who love you want to be there to help you, and want you to be there for them.”

The American Liver Foundation partnered with Merck on the Tune In to Hep C campaign to help address barriers that can keep people from managing their disease, including lack of awareness and social stigma.  The American Liver Foundation is a national organization advocating for those living with liver disease and their families, and provides education, support and research for the prevention, treatment and cure of liver disease.

“Chronic hepatitis C disproportionately affects the Hispanic community but, unfortunately, there is stigma and low awareness of the disease and its potential complications, so it is not widely discussed among Hispanics in the U.S.,” said Newton Guerin, president and chief executive officer, American Liver Foundation. “We hope Jon’s desire to turn his family’s loss into a positive message for those who face this disease will encourage them to take action.”

“For more than 30 years, Merck has been committed to fighting chronic HCV. That commitment extends beyond science and is part of our overall mission to help people around the world be well,” said Mark Timney, president, Global Human Health – U.S. Market, Merck.  ”We believe Jon’s message is an important one that will motivate Hispanic Americans with hepatitis C to take action and speak with their doctors, and we applaud him for his efforts in this campaign.”

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