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Master flatpicker Doc Watson was in critical condition Thursday at a North Carolina hospital after falling at his home in Deep Gap earlier this week.

Watson’s daughter, Nancy, said in a telephone interview that Watson fell Monday at his home. She said he didn’t break any bones but that he was “real sick.” A spokeswoman at Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem said Arthel Watson — Arthel is Doc Watson’s legal first name — was in critical condition Thursday.

The 89-year-old blind musician has won several Grammys, including a lifetime achievement award. He’s also received the National Medal of the Arts.

He’s known as a master of the flatpicking style of guitar playing and also for starting Merlefest, an annual gathering of musicians in North Wilkesboro named after his son, a musician who died in a tractor accident in 1985.

Doc Watson’s wife of more than 60 years, RosaLee, has been in a nursing home since last year, Nancy Watson said. The two married when she was 15 and he was 23.

“She saw what little good there was in me and there was little,” Doc said in an interview with The Associated Press in 2000. “I’m awful glad she cared about me, and I’m awful glad she married me.”

In that interview, Doc said he almost retired after Merle died. Instead, he kept playing and taught Merle’s son, Richard, who said then that he had a hard time keeping up.

At that point, they had worked together 10 years, and Doc’s talent still intimidated him. He also had a nagging fear that others expected him to replace his father. “It’s all building up to meeting their reputations,” Richard Watson said.

He had no reason to worry, Doc said: “He may feel a little overwhelmed, but I don’t think he actually feels intimidated.”

Replied Richard: “Everybody that’s picked with you says you intimidate them, and that includes some of the best.”

There was reason for that, said Scott Nygaard, who was associate editor of Acoustic Guitar magazine.

“He could probably be called the first, great modern flatpicker,” Nygaard said. “His playing when he came on the scene in the early ‘60s really blew everyone away. He influenced a whole generation of musicians, both with his guitar-playing and his musicianship in general.”