Dock Boggs
Encyclopedia
Moran Lee "Dock" Boggs was an influential old-time
singer, songwriter and banjo
player. His style of banjo playing, as well as his singing, is considered a unique combination of Appalachian folk music
and African-American blues
. Contemporary folk musicians and performers consider him a seminal figure, at least in part because of the appearance of two of his recordings from the 1920s, "Sugar Baby" and "Country Blues", on Harry Smith's
1951 Anthology of American Folk Music
collection. Boggs was initially recorded in 1927 and again in 1929, although he worked primarily as a coal miner for most of his life. He was "rediscovered" during the folk music revival
of the 1960s, and spent much of his later life playing at various folk music festivals and recording for Folkways Records
.
in 1898, the youngest of ten children. In the late 1890s, the arrival of railroads in Central Appalachia brought large-scale coal mining to the region, and by the time Dock was born, the Boggs family had transitioned from a susbsistence farming family to a wage-earning family living in mining towns. Dock's father, who worked as a carpenter and blacksmith, loved singing and could read sheet music. He taught his children to sing, and several of Dock's siblings had learned to play banjo.
In an interview with folk musician Mike Seeger
in the 1960s, Dock recalled how, as a young child, he would follow an African-American guitarist named "Go Lightning" up and down the railroad tracks between Norton and Dorchester, hoping the guitarist would stop at street corners to play for change. Dock's version of the ballad "John Henry
" was based in part on the version he learned from Go Lightning during this period. Dock also recalled sneaking over to the African-American camps in Dorchester at night, where he first observed string band
s playing at dances and parties. Dock was enamoured with the bands' banjo players' preference for picking, having previously been exposed only to the "frailing" style of his siblings.
Around the time he began working in coal mines, Dock began playing music more often and more seriously. He learned much of his technique during this period from his brother Roscoe and an itinerant musician named Homer Crawford, both of whom shared Dock's preference for picking. Crawford taught Dock "Hustlin' Gambler," which was the basis for Dock's "Country Blues." Dock also picked up several songs (such as "Turkey in the Straw
") from a local African-American musician named Jim White. Dock probably began playing at parties around 1918.
at the Norton Hotel. Although he played on a banjo borrowed from a local music store and needed whiskey to calm his nerves, he played well enough to gain a contract to record several sides in New York later that year. He recorded only eight sides for Brunswick, however, as he deemed their payment sufficient for only that number.
Dock's records sold moderately well, and Dock returned to the mining areas of Southwestern Virginia and Eastern Kentucky, where he began to play at parties, gatherings, and mining camps. Around this time, Dock's brother-in-law, Lee Hansucker, who was a Holiness
preacher and singer, began teaching Dock religious songs from the Holiness and Baptist traditions. Dock also learned a large number of songs from listening to Hansucker's vast record collection. By 1928, Dock was making enough money to quit working in coal mines and focus exclusively on music. He bought a new banjo and formed a band known as "Dock Boggs and His Cumberland Mountain Entertainers". At one point, he was earning three to four hundred dollars a week.
While Dock was experiencing a moderate amount of success, the life of a travelling musician often left him at odds with his religious neighbors, who considered such a life sinful. His wife, Sara, whom he had married in 1918, despised secular music and was opposed to Dock earning a living by playing music. The constantly moving mining camps were wrought with excess and violence, and Dock was consistently engaging in drunken brawls that often left him or an opponent badly injured. The Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the subsequent Great Depression
hit the Southern Appalachian region particularly hard, and few people had spare change to pay musicians to play at gatherings or buy records.
In 1929, Dock travelled to Chicago to record four sides for Lonesome Ace Records. However, with the onset of the Great Depression, he was unable to profit from these recordings. In 1930, Dock travelled to Atlanta
, where OKeh Records had set up a live audition on radio station WSB. Due to stage fright, however, Dock performed poorly. Dock was offered several other recording auditions over the next three years, but he could not raise enough money to cover the necessary travel expenses. He eventually pawned his banjo, and gave up hopes of making a living playing music.
later that year, and with Seeger's help, Dock began recording again, eventually recording three albums for Folkways Records
. Throughout the 1960s, Dock toured the U.S., playing at various clubs and folk music festivals, including a performance before an audience of 10,000 at the Newport Folk Festival
.
In the early 1970s, Dock's health began to deteriorate, and he died on his 73rd birthday. In 1968, a musician and protege of Dock named Jack Wright started the Dock Boggs Festival, which is still held annually in Dock's hometown of Norton.
, or "frailing" style, he typically played in a style known as "up-picking," which involves picking upwards on the first two strings and playing one of the other three strings with the thumb. He played several songs in a lower D-modal tuning. Dock's technique, which Seeger considered "a style possessed by no other recorded player," was adapted to fit previously unaccompanied mountain ballads.
Dock learned a number of traditional mountain songs from his siblings, namely "Sugar Baby," which he learned from his brother John, "Danville Girl," which he learned from his brother Roscoe, and "Little Omie Wise
," which he learned from his sisters. Lee Hansucker, Dock's brother-in-law, taught him various religious songs, including "Oh, Death," "Little Black Train," "Prodigal Son," and "Calvary." Along with "Turkey in the Straw" and "John Henry", Dock learned songs such as "Banjo Clog" and "Down South Blues" from African-American blues musicians. The song "Wise County Jail"— written by Dock in 1928— was inspired by an incident in which Dock had to flee to Kentucky after attacking a lawman who tried to break up a party at which Dock was playing.
Old-time music
Old-time music is a genre of North American folk music, with roots in the folk music of many countries, including England, Scotland, Ireland and countries in Africa. It developed along with various North American folk dances, such as square dance, buck dance, and clogging. The genre also...
singer, songwriter and banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
player. His style of banjo playing, as well as his singing, is considered a unique combination of Appalachian folk music
Appalachian music
Appalachian music is the traditional music of the region of Appalachia in the Eastern United States. It is derived from various European and African influences, including English ballads, Irish and Scottish traditional music , religious hymns, and African-American blues...
and African-American blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
. Contemporary folk musicians and performers consider him a seminal figure, at least in part because of the appearance of two of his recordings from the 1920s, "Sugar Baby" and "Country Blues", on Harry Smith's
Harry Everett Smith
Harry Everett Smith was an American archivist, ethnomusicologist, student of anthropology, record collector, experimental filmmaker, artist, bohemian and mystic...
1951 Anthology of American Folk Music
Anthology of American Folk Music
The Anthology of American Folk Music is a six-album compilation released in 1952 by Folkways Records , comprising eighty-four American folk, blues and country music recordings that were originally issued from 1927 to 1932.Experimental filmmaker and notable eccentric Harry Smith compiled the music...
collection. Boggs was initially recorded in 1927 and again in 1929, although he worked primarily as a coal miner for most of his life. He was "rediscovered" during the folk music revival
American folk music revival
The American folk music revival was a phenomenon in the United States that began during the 1940s and peaked in popularity in the mid-1960s. Its roots went earlier, and performers like Josh White, Burl Ives, Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Richard Dyer-Bennett, Oscar Brand, Jean Ritchie, John Jacob...
of the 1960s, and spent much of his later life playing at various folk music festivals and recording for Folkways Records
Folkways Records
Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987, and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways.-History:...
.
Early life
Boggs was born in West Norton, VirginiaNorton, Virginia
Norton is an independent city within the confines of Wise County in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2010 Census, the city population was 3,958, making it the smallest city in the state by population...
in 1898, the youngest of ten children. In the late 1890s, the arrival of railroads in Central Appalachia brought large-scale coal mining to the region, and by the time Dock was born, the Boggs family had transitioned from a susbsistence farming family to a wage-earning family living in mining towns. Dock's father, who worked as a carpenter and blacksmith, loved singing and could read sheet music. He taught his children to sing, and several of Dock's siblings had learned to play banjo.
In an interview with folk musician Mike Seeger
Mike Seeger
Mike Seeger was an American folk musician and folklorist. He was a distinctive singer and an accomplished musician who played autoharp, banjo, fiddle, dulcimer, guitar, mouth harp, mandolin, dobro, jaw harp, and pan pipes. Seeger, a half-brother of Pete Seeger, produced more than 30 documentary...
in the 1960s, Dock recalled how, as a young child, he would follow an African-American guitarist named "Go Lightning" up and down the railroad tracks between Norton and Dorchester, hoping the guitarist would stop at street corners to play for change. Dock's version of the ballad "John Henry
John Henry (folklore)
John Henry is an American folk hero and tall tale. Henry worked as a "steel-driver"—a man tasked with hammering and chiseling rock in the construction of tunnels for railroad tracks. In the legend, John Henry's prowess as a steel-driver was measured in a race against a steam powered hammer,...
" was based in part on the version he learned from Go Lightning during this period. Dock also recalled sneaking over to the African-American camps in Dorchester at night, where he first observed string band
String band
A string band is an old-time music or jazz ensemble made up mainly or solely of string instruments. String bands were popular in the 1920s and 1930s, and are among the forerunners of modern country music and bluegrass.-String bands in old-time music:...
s playing at dances and parties. Dock was enamoured with the bands' banjo players' preference for picking, having previously been exposed only to the "frailing" style of his siblings.
Around the time he began working in coal mines, Dock began playing music more often and more seriously. He learned much of his technique during this period from his brother Roscoe and an itinerant musician named Homer Crawford, both of whom shared Dock's preference for picking. Crawford taught Dock "Hustlin' Gambler," which was the basis for Dock's "Country Blues." Dock also picked up several songs (such as "Turkey in the Straw
Turkey in the Straw
"Turkey in the Straw" is a well-known American folk song dating from the early 19th century.The song's tune was first popularized in the late 1820s and early 1830s by blackface performers, notably George Washington Dixon, Bob Farrell and George Nichols. Another song, "Zip Coon", was sung to the...
") from a local African-American musician named Jim White. Dock probably began playing at parties around 1918.
Initial career, 1927-1931
In the mid-1920s, various record companies sent representatives to Southern Appalachia to hold auditions in hopes of finding new sources of talent. Around late 1926 or early 1927, Dock tried out at one such audition held by Brunswick RecordsBrunswick Records
Brunswick Records is a United States based record label. The label is currently distributed by E1 Entertainment.-From 1916:Records under the "Brunswick" label were first produced by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company...
at the Norton Hotel. Although he played on a banjo borrowed from a local music store and needed whiskey to calm his nerves, he played well enough to gain a contract to record several sides in New York later that year. He recorded only eight sides for Brunswick, however, as he deemed their payment sufficient for only that number.
Dock's records sold moderately well, and Dock returned to the mining areas of Southwestern Virginia and Eastern Kentucky, where he began to play at parties, gatherings, and mining camps. Around this time, Dock's brother-in-law, Lee Hansucker, who was a Holiness
Holiness movement
The holiness movement refers to a set of beliefs and practices emerging from the Methodist Christian church in the mid 19th century. The movement is distinguished by its emphasis on John Wesley's doctrine of "Christian perfection" - the belief that it is possible to live free of voluntary sin - and...
preacher and singer, began teaching Dock religious songs from the Holiness and Baptist traditions. Dock also learned a large number of songs from listening to Hansucker's vast record collection. By 1928, Dock was making enough money to quit working in coal mines and focus exclusively on music. He bought a new banjo and formed a band known as "Dock Boggs and His Cumberland Mountain Entertainers". At one point, he was earning three to four hundred dollars a week.
While Dock was experiencing a moderate amount of success, the life of a travelling musician often left him at odds with his religious neighbors, who considered such a life sinful. His wife, Sara, whom he had married in 1918, despised secular music and was opposed to Dock earning a living by playing music. The constantly moving mining camps were wrought with excess and violence, and Dock was consistently engaging in drunken brawls that often left him or an opponent badly injured. The Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the subsequent Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
hit the Southern Appalachian region particularly hard, and few people had spare change to pay musicians to play at gatherings or buy records.
In 1929, Dock travelled to Chicago to record four sides for Lonesome Ace Records. However, with the onset of the Great Depression, he was unable to profit from these recordings. In 1930, Dock travelled to Atlanta
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
, where OKeh Records had set up a live audition on radio station WSB. Due to stage fright, however, Dock performed poorly. Dock was offered several other recording auditions over the next three years, but he could not raise enough money to cover the necessary travel expenses. He eventually pawned his banjo, and gave up hopes of making a living playing music.
Rediscovery
In June 1963, at the height of the folk music revival in the United States, folk music scholar Mike Seeger sought out and found Dock at his home near Needmore, Virginia. Seeger was delighted to learn that Dock had recently repurchased a banjo and had been practicing the instrument for several months before his arrival. He convinced Dock to play at the American Folk Festival in Asheville, North CarolinaAsheville, North Carolina
Asheville is a city in and the county seat of Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. It is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the 11th largest city in North Carolina. The City is home to the United States National Climatic Data Center , which is the world's largest active...
later that year, and with Seeger's help, Dock began recording again, eventually recording three albums for Folkways Records
Folkways Records
Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987, and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways.-History:...
. Throughout the 1960s, Dock toured the U.S., playing at various clubs and folk music festivals, including a performance before an audience of 10,000 at the Newport Folk Festival
Newport Folk Festival
The Newport Folk Festival is an American annual folk-oriented music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, which began in 1959 as a counterpart to the previously established Newport Jazz Festival...
.
In the early 1970s, Dock's health began to deteriorate, and he died on his 73rd birthday. In 1968, a musician and protege of Dock named Jack Wright started the Dock Boggs Festival, which is still held annually in Dock's hometown of Norton.
Technique and repertoire
While Dock Boggs was familiar with the clawhammerClawhammer
Clawhammer is a highly rhythmic banjo playing style and common component of American old-time music. The principal difference between clawhammer style and other styles is the picking direction...
, or "frailing" style, he typically played in a style known as "up-picking," which involves picking upwards on the first two strings and playing one of the other three strings with the thumb. He played several songs in a lower D-modal tuning. Dock's technique, which Seeger considered "a style possessed by no other recorded player," was adapted to fit previously unaccompanied mountain ballads.
Dock learned a number of traditional mountain songs from his siblings, namely "Sugar Baby," which he learned from his brother John, "Danville Girl," which he learned from his brother Roscoe, and "Little Omie Wise
Omie Wise
Omie Wise or Naomi Wise was an American murder victim, who is remembered by a popular murder ballad about her death.-The song:Omie Wise's death became the subject of a traditional American ballad...
," which he learned from his sisters. Lee Hansucker, Dock's brother-in-law, taught him various religious songs, including "Oh, Death," "Little Black Train," "Prodigal Son," and "Calvary." Along with "Turkey in the Straw" and "John Henry", Dock learned songs such as "Banjo Clog" and "Down South Blues" from African-American blues musicians. The song "Wise County Jail"— written by Dock in 1928— was inspired by an incident in which Dock had to flee to Kentucky after attacking a lawman who tried to break up a party at which Dock was playing.