Dock Boggs, 1966

November 2, 2008 5:15 AM

As a young man in the 1920s, Dock Boggs [previously] recorded some songs that were released as 78s, and they are wonderful treasures of southern Americana, but I was always even more fond of his recordings from the 1960s, when, as an old man, he was rediscovered during the folk boom. So I was delighted to find that three of his 60s-period performances have recently shown up on YouTube. Here's Pretty Polly, Country Blues and I Hope I Live, all from 1966.

Just one more thing here, for the [more inside]... I came across this clip from a YouTuber called banjochris, and his rendition of Dock Bogg's "Drunkard's Lone Child" is really beautiful. Check it out.

posted by flapjax at midnite (15 comments total)

I love this raw folk music. Interesting to hear a banjo player who isn't racing through the notes.
posted by RussHy at 6:10 AM on November 2, 2008

Dock Boggs talks about recording 78 records. Looks like it's from the same 1966 session. He says that auditioning 'Country Blues' won him his first recording contract...

Thanx, flapjax.
posted by ardgedee at 6:20 AM on November 2, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

You can download mp3s of Country Blues, Danville Girl and Pretty Polly from archive.org
posted by bjrn at 6:23 AM on November 2, 2008

Cool post. Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music included some of these recordings.
posted by acro at 7:04 AM on November 2, 2008

Love the post. Boggs had 2 songs on the Anthology of American Folk Music: Country Blues and my favorite Boggs song Sugar Baby.
posted by factory123 at 7:48 AM on November 2, 2008

Fantastic stuff. There's even a haunting quality to the compression artefacts on the video and audio that's analogous to the crackle and hiss of the 78s (at least, as they came down to me on CD resissue).
posted by GeorgeBickham at 8:24 AM on November 2, 2008

If you like Dock Boggs, you may also be interested in Buell Kazee. Here are a few of his songs:

The Wagoner's Lad
The Dying Soldier
The Butcher's Boy
posted by interrobang at 8:39 AM on November 2, 2008

Amazon has 5 Dock Boggs albums for sale in MP3. Lots of preview love, too.
posted by Nelson at 9:34 AM on November 2, 2008

Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music included some of these recordings.

Boggs had 2 songs on the Anthology of American Folk Music: Country Blues and my favorite Boggs song Sugar Baby.

And those two, of course, were from the 1920's recordings (it was 1927, I think) that Boggs made. Harry Smith took those from the original 78s.

If you like Dock Boggs, you may also be interested in Buell Kazee.

Absolutely. And included in this FPP are lots more musicians that Dock Boggs-lovers will almost certainly want to check out.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:53 PM on November 2, 2008

The Folkways 2-cd collection is well worth it for the later Boggs, but the Revenant Reissue of the early stuff is truly extraordinary. The vinyl release is particularly beautiful, on clear vinyl. The color of moonshine.
posted by OmieWise at 11:49 AM on November 3, 2008

Yay Dock Boggs, my favorite old-time banjo player!
I always boggled at the thought that someone who played like that could have just stopped for thirty years or so. There's some more detail here about why he stopped playing and on his rediscovery. I've also read that he stopped due to his wife's ill health , and because his wife threatened to leave him if he didn't (if I recall that's what the liner notes on the Folkways rerelease say).
posted by smartyboots at 12:34 PM on November 3, 2008

...but the Revenant Reissue of the early stuff is truly extraordinary. The vinyl release is particularly beautiful, on clear vinyl. The color of moonshine.

Didn't know that about the vinyl release, omie wise. I've really enjoyed the CD copy I've got, though, which is a beautiful package as well: bound like a book. Very nice.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:29 PM on November 3, 2008

And speaking of Revenant, for those of you who don't have it already, I can't recommend their American Primitive highly enough. Just buy it.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:31 PM on November 3, 2008

Yes, pretty much everything on Revenant is outstanding. I'm actually bummed out that I'm not into Albert Ayler to have an excuse to get that set. The Charley Patton is incredible, if overpriced. You can get the music more cheaply through JSP, but it's a pretty cool package. I don't have it, but after seeing it I had to hunt down a copy of Fahey's book on Patton. That I now have xeroxed.
posted by OmieWise at 8:17 AM on November 4, 2008

God, this is awesome. Thanks for posting, flapjax.
posted by ORthey at 6:36 PM on November 8, 2008