Dock Boggs: His Folkways Years 1963-1968

Dock Boggs | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 15, 1998)
• Original Release Date: October 20, 1998
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Smithsonian Folkways
• ASIN: B00000AFQO
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #25,804 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #24 in Music > World Music > North America > Appalachian
  • #26 in Music > Country > Classic Country > Old-Time Country

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Down South Blues

2. Country Blues

3. Pretty Polly

4. Coal Creek March

5. My Old Horse Died

6. Wild Bill Jones

7. Rowan County Crew

8. New Prisoner's Song

9. Oh, Dear

10. Prodigal Son

See all 24 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Banjo Clog

2. Wise County Jail

3. Sugar Baby

4. The Death Of Jerry Damron

5. Railroad Tramp

6. Poor Boy In Jail

7. Brother Jim Got Shot

8. John Henry

9. Davenport

10. Dying Ranger

See all 26 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Dock Boggs champions will look back at 1998 as a monumental year for the Virginia-born banjo-playing songster who, but for a few years in the late '20s and the early '60s, lived in obscurity. His first recordings have been beautifully reissued in Revenant's Country Blues: Complete Early Recordings package. His shadow looms over Greil Marcus's Invisible Republic--the critic's best book since Mystery Train. And Smithsonian Folkways has brought back 50 recordings made by Mike Seeger during the autumn of Boggs's life. Together with the Revenant material, this two-CD reissue--including a brilliant essay by Barry O'Connell--details one of the most mysterious voices in American music. When Boggs sings he tears each line to pieces and, in turn, the language of his death-obsessed blues rends his voice into a scratchy, painful tremolo. This is not folk music for the timid. "Oh, I've got no sugar baby now," he wails in one of his best-known songs. "It's all I can do for to see peace with you / And I can't get along this-a-way." Along with celebrated material from the '20s, Boggs also chose for these '60s sessions a few gospel tunes, which are sung with the revealing intensity. And on every track, even on the shaky, jagged instrumentals, Boggs captures the darkest and resiliency of a man's soul. --Roy Kasten

Product Description

Dock Boggs recorded only 12 songs in the 1920s, but his raw, powerful singing and distinctive banjo-playing caused Harry Smith to include him in his Anthology of American Folk Music (SFW 40090) and Mike Seeger to search for him in the hills of Kentucky in 1963. A new series of recording sessions captured the 50 blues, instrumentals, regional and religious songs included in this two-CD set. Originally released to high acclaim on three Folkways Records LPs in the 1960s, they have influenced musicians ever since. Extensive notes by Mike Seeger and Barry O'Connell.

The complete text of Barry O'Connell's essay on Dock Boggs is available here.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Darkness and redemption, June 4, 2000

By 

Rob Damm - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dock Boggs: His Folkways Years 1963-1968 (Audio CD)

This is dark music. Not stagey, Marilyn Manson dark, but really the deepest dark of the soul. All the tunes here sound even better-- more tortured, sadder, lonlier than they did on Boggs' original recordings from the 20's. Best are the "new" gospel tunes he chose for this session... the conviction and passion is just awe-inspiring. Sit in a dark room and listen to these recordings alone. It is a life changing experience. The quality of the recordings (especially with HDCD gear) is spectacular... you can almost believe Dock is in the corner, singing his soul out... just for you...and the demons.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Otherworldly, unforgettable music Ground Zero, December 20, 2006

By 

John H. Rasmussen II "Cleggy" (Middletown, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dock Boggs: His Folkways Years 1963-1968 (Audio CD)

Dock Boggs is the quintessential haunting and haunted banjo player and singer. When I first heard his music a decade ago I felt a shock of recognition that I've never experienced with ANY other musician, regardless of musical style. Perhaps growing up in the backwoods of Mississippi in the 1960s lent me a familiarity to his musical & personal power that may be missing from more "modern" sensibilities. Every fibre in my body has been shaped and haunted by intensely personal innerworkings created by listening to & singing old-time songs and hymns and I find that my emotions are exactly reflected in Dock's music.

Upon hearing him for the first time, I immediately became a Dock Disciple and have incorporated many of his songs into my own banjo & guitar repetoire. It's a long shot that folks with more modern sensibilites will be as overwhelmed by Dock's vision as I, but I can only hope & pray that there are people out there (particularly the younger folks) that will be as moved by the awesome power of Dock as I have been. Dock represents a wisdom and strength of character that is becoming increasingly rare in the country's population today.

Several years ago, when I sat down on his grave in Norton, Virginia and played several of his songs to him on the banjo, the sun was beaming as bright as it could be; when I finished half an hour later with his devastating song "Calvary", it was pouring rain....which seemed so very fitting. Dock's playing & singing reflect an overwhelming quality of "terrible beauty".

It's difficult for me to put into words exactly what Dock's legacy means to me but, if you're ready & willing to give yourself over to an unparalled example of the true strength of the American character and the power of an absolutely unique, touching and simple-yet-complex life, Dock's music will thrill you and haunt you as no other. His biography reads like a series of parables straight from the Old Testament and every moment of his life, from his birth to his death, can be heard in his music.

ESSENTIAL listening; now more than ever, this CD set should be issued to every American upon birth.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars harrowing beauty, March 1, 2000

By 

Hayden Childs (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dock Boggs: His Folkways Years 1963-1968 (Audio CD)

This album is rough, beautiful, chilling, warm (yes, both chilling & warm), spare and rich, terrifying and funny. Dock makes his banjo sound alternately like Judgment Day & payday. Necessary for fans of old-time music.