Country Blues: Complete Early Recordings

Dock Boggs | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 17, 1998)
• Original Release Date: 2027
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Revenant Records
• ASIN: B000001Z3Y
• Also Available in: Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #35,523 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #33 in Music > World Music > North America > Appalachian
  • #42 in Music > Indie Music > Folk > Traditional Folk
  • #44 in Music > Country > Classic Country > Old-Time Country

Track Listings

1. Sugar Baby

2. Down Home Blues

3. Country Blues

4. Sammie, Where Have You Been So Long?

5. Danville Girl

6. Pretty Polly

7. New Prisoner's Song

8. Hard Luck Blues

9. Lost Love Blues

10. Will Sweethearts Know Each Other There?

11. Old Rub Alcohol Blues

12. False Hearted Lover's Blues

13. Lost Love Blues (Unissued Alternate Take #1)

14. Will Sweethearts Know Each Other There? (Unissued Alternate Take #1)

15. Old Rub Alcohol Blues (Sole Unissues Alternate Take)

16. Lost Love Blues (Unissued Alternate Take #2)

17. Will Sweethearts Know Each Other There? (Unissued Alternate Take #2)

18. Peddler & His Wife - Dock Boggs/Hayes Shepherd

19. Hard For To Love - Dock Boggs/Hayes Shepherd

20. Bound Steel Blues - Dock Boggs/Bill Shephard

See all 21 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars not for the faint of heart., April 4, 2007

By 

fluffy, the human being. (forest lake, mn) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Country Blues: Complete Early Recordings (Audio CD)

well, this disc fascinates me. I didn't much care for it during my first listen. put it away for a few months & came back to it. by about the 3rd play it was striking a chord in me. this is not easy listening. not by a long shot. if you are going to succeed in liking this cd, you are going to have to have a certain level of tolerance for unusual voices. this man was no honey-throated songbird. usually i have a hard time describing unique voices with words, but in this case it seems easy: when mr boggs sings he sounds like an alcoholic uncle whom you would not trust around your children. i realize this is not sounding like a high recommendation (i do like this disc - i gave it four stars), i just think you should have a clear idea of what you might be getting into here. this is rural folk music with a raw and vital vibe to it. though sounding drunk and demented mr boggs fascinates, and he plays a mean banjo, to boot. lots of excellent banjo on this disc. but back to that voice: i will insist that some of these old tunes are best suited by a voice such as this. take "pretty polly," for example. now, if you are not familiar with old mountain ballads, you might think "pretty polly," that sounds like a nice song; but, if you are familiar with these ballads, you will see that title and think "uh-oh! pretty polly is surely going to die." and of course, die she does. mr boggs sings about murdering her, and he sounds just right for the role. someone like say, oh, how about johnny mathis, could not pull this song off convincingly. this is a truly disturbing song and it deserves a distrubed sounding man to do it justice. now i know next to nothing about doc boggs, the man (i have not even read the lengthy linear notes that come with this disc). maybe he was a great fella. i hope so. but i am saying "he truly sounds like a rural maniac." so that's part of the reason that this disc now fascinates me. that and all the fine music on it. i don't really have time to go further with this now; i have a life and you have a life. we need to get on with things. buy this, or don't. thanks for hearing me out.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Get Out of the Graveyard, March 3, 2004

By 

J. Kerr - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Country Blues: Complete Early Recordings (Audio CD)

Beautifully packaged treatment of Dock's 1920s recordings. Kind of a banjo flailing hillbilly Robert Johnson. Sidenote, I actually met Dock when I was a child, he was a friend of my pawpaw's. They worked in the coalmines together and was wild together back in the old days. I had no idea Dock even played an instrument until I read a book by Greil Marcus years later...

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars greil marcus is a pompous idiot, but dock boggs is great, February 9, 2007

By 

Michael C. Stephens "motherfer" (charlotte, nc, usa) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Country Blues: Complete Early Recordings (Audio CD)

Greil Marcus's American Studies/Joe Campbell influenced "old wierd America" nonsense does a terrible disservice to roots artists like Dock Boggs. A working man who played the banjo and sang old timey blues-drenched folk material in an eerie croak, Boggs is one of the godfathers of American roots music. But Marcus, in his dreadful essay on Boggs which is included in this otherwise beautifully packaged CD/Booklet, tries to turn Boggs into a mythic figure. This is the same hero-worshipping schoolboy mindset that fantasized Robert Johnson as a devotee of Satan. Ironically, Marcus is projecting a showbiz framework (where musicians must be "legends" -- so they may be sold as pure media images) onto musicians who were community entertainers in the days before music was a plastic fantasy world. Boggs is no myth, his humanity is one of the greatest lessons he has to teach us in a world where superstar worship strips away any human relation between artists and their audience. Listen to Dock Boggs for yourself, don't let Marcus pollute your appreciation of this great roots artist.