Dock Boggs

Description:

Old time singer, banjo player

Comparisons:

As part of the early generation of recording artists playing old time music, Dock Boggs can most easily be compared to folks like the Carter Family and Charlie Poole. More contemporarily, notable old time artists that are up and coming include Foghorn String Band and the Tallboys.

Recommended Recordings by Dock Boggs:

His Folkways Years 1963-1968 (Smithsonian Folkways)

Purchase/Download Dock Boggs MP3s:

"Brother Jim Got Shot"
"Old Rub Alcohol Blues"
"Prayer of a Miner's Child"

Dock Boggs Biography:

Dock Boggs (Moran Lee Boggs) was born in Norton, VA, in February, 1898. He started working in the coal mines when he was 12, and soon began learning to play the banjo. Although he learned in the clawhammer style, Boggs soon began picking the banjo with a three-finger style which was different from Scruggs Style in that he played banjo similar to the way a guitarist picks guitar.

Boggs was also widely influenced by blues music. He eventually signed a recording contract with Brunswick Records after auditioning for them in Tennessee. While he recorded a number of songs for Brunswick, he stopped making music after the stock market crashed and his wife fell ill.

He went back to working in the mines until New Lost City Ramblers banjoist Mike Seeger found him in 1963 and convinced him to start playing music again. As a result, Boggs became an influential member of the mid-century folk revival, as his banjo playing was so heavily influenced by the blues, in contrast to Earl Scgruggs' bluegrass picking style.