Dock Boggs, His Folkways Years, 1963-1968 (review)

Dock Boggs, His Folkways Years, 1963-1968 Smithsonian Folkways, 1998 cd 40108 Born in southwestern Virginia in 1898, Dock Boggs entered the coal mines at age twelve. Anxious to pursue a career in music, he made several recordings in the late 1920s, but the Depression submerged his hopes and body back in the mines. He pawned his banjo and would not take it up again for over twenty-five years. His early recordings resurfaced on Harry Smith's 1952 Anthology ofAmerican Folk Music and revived interest in his music; not long after, the folksinger Mike Seeger located the sixty-five year-old Boggs, who in his retirement had taken up the banjo again. The result was numerous appearances at folk festivals across the country and a slate of new recordings, including three albums for Folkways. These albums have been combined into a two-CD set with fifty performances ofthe beautifully spare sound ofBoggs's voice and banjo. The songs wash alternately between heaven and hell. Violence, alcohol, and gambling josde with salvation , golden streets, and angels. "Oh Deadi" is a moving and stark dialogue in which the victim pleads widi Death to stay his "icy hand," while "No Disappointment in Heaven" anticipates the "glory around the white throne." Through it all Boggs drives the music forward with his distinctive banjo picking and raw singing. A hefty booklet (though written in minuscule type) frames the material and provides information both about Boggs and the context of his music. This music cannot reside in die background. Boggs demands thoughtful attention and will repay repeated listening. I Can't Be Satisfied: Early American Women Blues Singers—Town & Country (vols. 1 and 2) Yazoo, 1998 cd 2026 and cd 2027, $12.95 each For a time in the 1920s women ruled recorded blues. These two releases from Yazoo bring together recordings from this period both rare and familiar, spanning urban and country styles. VoI114 Reviews ...