Dock Boggs

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Moran Lee Dock Boggs was born in 1898 in West Norton, Virginia, the youngest of ten children. When he was born, the railway in the Appalachians had only just arrived, and with mining the family changed from self-sufficient farmers into wage workers in mining towns. His father, a carpenter and blacksmith, loved singing and taught his children to sing. As a child Dock followed a Black guitarist, called Go Lightning, who played along the railway, and he sneaked at night to the Black camps to hear string bands. He became fascinated by picking on the banjo, whereas at home he knew only frailing.

Music and breakthrough

When he went to work in the mine, he played more often and more seriously. His brother Roscoe and the travelling musician Homer Crawford taught him many techniques. From Crawford he had Hustlin' Gambler, the basis of his own Country Blues. In 1927 his recording career began, and two records from the 1920s, Sugar Baby and Country Blues, ended up in 1952 on Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music.

Influence

Those recordings made Boggs a key figure for later folk musicians. His banjo playing and singing combine Appalachian folk music with the blues of Black musicians, and that is a mixture of its own. During the folk revival of the 1960s he was rediscovered. He performed at folk festivals and recorded for Folkways Records. He died in 1971, on his seventy-third birthday.

Listening

• 
  Country Blues · Dock Boggs, 1927
  Apple Music ↗

Discography

Studio albums

• 1964Dock Boggs: Legendary Singer and Banjo Player
• 1965Dock Boggs, Vol. 2
• 2006Dock Boggs
• 2009Dock Boggs

See also

• Appalachian folk (mountain music)