There has been some traffic on the Boggs list in recent days on Dock Boggs. The following review of Dock from my file on him should be of interest to Boggs researchers: The following write-up on Dock was taken from "Encyclopedia of Popular Muze Ltd., 1989-1998" and provided by Diane Boggs Mullens, a grand niece: Moran Lee Boggs, better known as "Dock," born February 7, 1898 in Norton, Virginia: died February 7, 1971. Married Sarah Stidham. Dock was known for his unusual banjo style which he learned from a black musician in Virginia. The technique involved a lower tuning of the banjo, which some have called 'graveyard-tuned.' His voice is described even in his youth as gravelly, and his vocals are haunting and crude. His music was described as weird, eerie modalities and deep lonesome vocals - country blues- are only the half of it; the despairing ballads he collected and sang are unfettered gems. Despite his keen interest in music, his devoutly religious wife frowned on him showing any real interest in music, so he continued playing as a hobby after his early recordings. He recorded briefly for Brunswick Records in 1927. He spent more than 40 years as a coal miner and turned again to music once he had retired. At the same time there was growing demand for him to play at festivals and clubs. Dock was discovered by Mike Seeger on a field-collecting expedition, at a time when Boggs had not played the banjo for over 30 years. He recorded mainly traditional and sentimental songs such as "Pretty Polly" and "Loving Nancy." Between 1963 and 1966 Dock recorded two albums for Folkways and one for Asch. Dock's music has maintained a following in those studying early roots of blues/country music: his complete early recordings of 1927-1929 were digitized to CD format and re-released in 1998 on the Revenant label. There are 21 one cuts on this and along with Dock are Hub Mahaffey on guitar, Hayes Shepherd on banjo and vocals and Bill Shepherd on fiddle and vocals. Dock did some songwriting as well. From what I have garnered from the music label information available, his music re-emerged at the beginning of the folk music revival in America in 1952 through the release of the Anthology of American Folk Music which contained one of his recorded numbers. One reviewer, Greil Marcus, described Dock as a singer/banjo player who sounded as if his bones were coming through his skin every time he opened his mouth. He was also said to be obsessed with death, turning most of his tunes into a meditation on mortality. His harsh nasal whine [Jack Wright: I hate and resent his music being described that way. He did not whine.] and rattle and percussion banjo picking drives each song through the end of the night into something even blacker. Musically, there was no tenderness in him. He made his work of old-time blues and country blues stand out of time and place. In another review by Tom Jurek, he finds it inexplicable that blues histories leave out Dock Boggs, who was first and foremost a seminal and influential bluesman - in his subject matter, manner of singing, and in his playing style which predated Bill Monroe's bluegrass stylings and Leadbelly's folk-blues. Dock performed at colleges and folk festivals across the country and played at Asheville and Newport Folk Festivals, in Boston, in Carnegie Hall in New York City and the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Dock and Sarah did not have children. However, they raised his daughter born of an illegitimate relationship. 7 February 2001. E-mail from Jack Wright. Jack was the organizer of the Dock Boggs Festival held at Clinch Valley College, now University of Virginia at Wise, in Wise, Virginia. Jack served in the First Air Cavalry Division in Vietnam, 1966-67. After his discharge he attended Clinch Valley College under the GI Bill and graduated from the Union Institute. He is an assistant professor at Ohio University School of Film, Athens, Ohio. He was a founding member of Appalshop in Whitesburg, Kentucky. He founded June Appal Records in 1973, a division of Appalshop, as a way to preserve the work of older musicians and offer contemporary Appalachian artists the opportunity to record. He built the original June Appal recording studio and engineered more than 50 albums before moving to Ohio in 1985. He was also active in film, radio and TV production as well as acting during his 12 years at "the Shop." He appeared as an old-time musician in the 1980 Universal Film "Coal Miner's Daughter" and as a coalminer in the 1983 production "Kentucky Women" with Ned Beatty. During the late 1970's and early 1980's, Jack was the lead singer in the Payroll Boys, a group of acoustic musicians who used traditional bluegrass instrumentation to explore blues, folk, swing and other types of acoustic music. He was the featured performer at the 1997 Wise Fall Fling. February 7 is the birthday of Dock Boggs, the legendary early recording artist from Needmore, VA. He would have been 103. Dock also died on February 7, 1971, 30 years ago. Jack writes: "According to G.C. Kincer, his dad, Garnard Kincer, kept Dock Boggs' banjo for many years when Dock was forced into early musical retirement. It was about 1931. Dock traveled to Neon, Kentucky, and put his banjo into ‘hock’ with Kincer for $40. Dock hadn't been married long. It seemed that his wife, Sarah, didn't like his music or the folks it attracted. So, Dock asked his old friend to keep the instrument for awhile until he could change her mind. The banjo was a beauty, a 1928 arch-top Gibson Mastertone. It stayed gone much longer than planned. "Dock retired from the coal mines in the early '60s, and just a few months before he was re-discovered by Mike Seeger, he made a phone call to the Kincer house, and talked to the old man. Garnard had kept and played the banjo for more than thirty years. He'd put the old Mastertone to good use. The instrument had become part of the family. He frailed it when he sang to his children as they grew up. "When Dock asked if he might get his banjo back, Garnard related that it would be okay. That had been the original agreement. Dock was fully prepared to pay quite a bit of interest when he made the trip. When Dock showed up on Garnard's porch they sat and did some re-acquainting. They hadn't seen each other since the trade. They swapped some tunes and some stories. When it came time for Boggs to be going back home, Garnard told him that he needed to be paid for the time he had kept the banjo. "G.C. said that Garnard insisted that a deal was a deal, and not a penny less, nor a penny more was the way they had shook on the transaction....$40. Dock was thankful, to say the least, and overjoyed to get his banjo back. His second musical career was about to begin. "The Kincer children cried when the old banjo went out the door. To them, it was a friend of the family. They knew there would be no more music. "When Dock passed on, he wanted the banjo to go to his good friend Mike Seeger. A year later, Mike picked up the old Mastertone from Sarah. It can still be heard on occasion at a concert and on several of Mike's recordings. "The only known film footage of Dock Boggs playing and singing is now on video. Dock performs three songs with his banjo. (Shady Grove: Old Time Music from North Carolina, Kentucky, and Virginia Vestapol 13071) The filming took place while Dock was in Rhode Island for the 1966 Newport Folk Festival. Musicologist Alan Lomax filmed Dock at a nearby studio. "Dock's signature song was ‘Country Blues.’ He also wrote and recorded a tribute to the Wise County Jail inspired by a run-in with a local constable. "‘The cops around Norton are a dirty old crew.... Your pockets they'll pick, your clothes they'll sell for 25 cents, they'll send you to hell Hard Times in the Wise County jail, hard times, I know.’ "And now playing in a theater near you is a popular Coen Brothers' movie, ‘Oh Brother, Where Art Though.’ The soundtrack features Ralph Stanley singing a version of one of Dock's most mournful and chilling tunes, ‘Oh Death.’ Dock didn't write the song but his recording defined it and now it is being reborn into the minds of a new generation. "Happy Birthday Dock, and we thank you for the present. Your ‘old master’ tone is still ringing." Jack Brummett, Austin, TX