20 Facts About Dock Boggs

Moran Lee "Dock" Boggs was an American old-time singer, songwriter, and banjo player.

Dock Boggs was rediscovered during the folk music revival of the 1960s and spent much of his later life playing at folk music festivals and recording for Folkways Records.

Dock Boggs was born in West Norton, Virginia, in 1898, the youngest of ten children.

Dock Boggs taught his children to sing, and several of Dock's siblings learned to play the banjo.

Dock Boggs recalled sneaking over to the African-American camps in Dorchester at night, where he first observed string bands playing at dances and parties.

Dock Boggs was enamoured of the bands' banjo players' preference for picking, having previously been exposed only to the "frailing" style of his siblings.

Around the time he began working in coal mines, Dock Boggs began playing music more often and more seriously.

Dock Boggs learned much of his technique during this period from his brother Roscoe and an itinerant musician named Homer Crawford, both of whom shared Dock's preference for picking.

Around late 1926 or early 1927, Dock Boggs tried out at one such audition, held by Brunswick Records at the Norton Hotel.

Dock Boggs recorded only eight sides for Brunswick as he deemed their payment sufficient for only that number.

Dock Boggs's records sold moderately well, and he returned to the mining areas of southwestern Virginia and eastern Kentucky, where he began to play at parties, gatherings, and mining camps.

Dock Boggs learned a large number of songs from listening to Hansucker's vast record collection.

Dock Boggs bought a new banjo and formed a band known as "Dock Boggs and His Cumberland Mountain Entertainers".

The constantly moving mining camps were fraught with excess and violence, and Dock Boggs was consistently engaging in drunken brawls that often left him or an opponent badly injured.

In 1929, Dock Boggs travelled to Chicago to record four sides for Lonesome Ace Records.

Dock Boggs was offered several other recording auditions over the next three years, but he could not raise enough money to cover his travel expenses.

Dock Boggs eventually pawned his banjo and gave up hopes of making a living playing music.

Seeger was delighted to learn that Dock Boggs had recently repurchased a banjo and had been practicing the instrument for several months before his arrival.

Dock Boggs persuaded Boggs to play at the American Folk Festival in Asheville, North Carolina, later that year.

Dock Boggs played several songs in a lower D-modal tuning.