American singer-songwriter
Eugene "Buddy" Moss
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![Moss in 1941](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8c/BuddyMossGreeneCountyConvictCampCropped.jpg/200px-BuddyMossGreeneCountyConvictCampCropped.jpg) Moss in 1941
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Birth name
| Eugene Moss
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Also known as
| Buddy Moss
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Born
| (
1914-01-16
)
January 16, 1914
Jewell, Georgia
, U.S.
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Died
| October 19, 1984
(1984-10-19)
(aged 70)
Atlanta
, Georgia, U.S.
|
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Genres
| Piedmont blues
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Occupation(s)
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Instrument(s)
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Years active
| 1930?1976
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Labels
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Musical artist
Eugene "Buddy" Moss
(January 16, 1914 ? October 19, 1984) was an American
blues
musician. He is one of two influential
Piedmont blues
guitarists to record in the period between
Blind Blake
's final sessions in 1932 and
Blind Boy Fuller
's debut in 1935 (the other being
Josh White
).
[1]
A younger contemporary of
Blind Willie McTell
,
Curley Weaver
and
Barbecue Bob
, Moss was part of a coterie of
Atlanta
bluesmen. He was among the few of his era whose careers were reinvigorated by the blues revival of the 1960s and 1970s.
[1]
He began as a musical disciple of Blake. Moss's career was halted in 1935 by a six-year jail term and then by the
Second World War
, but he lived long enough to be rediscovered in the 1960s, when he revealed that his talent had been preserved through the years. He was reputed to have been cantankerous and mistrusting of others.
[2]
In later years, Moss credited his friend and bandmate Barbecue Bob with being a major influence on his playing. Scholars also contend that Blind Blake was a major force in his development, as both share certain mannerisms and inflections. It has also been suggested by Alan Balfour and others that Moss may have been an influence on Blind Boy Fuller, although they never met and Moss's recording career ended before Fuller's began ? Moss's first recordings display some inflections and nuances that Fuller did not put down on record until some years later.
[1]
Biography
[
edit
]
Early life
[
edit
]
Moss was one of 12 children born to a sharecropper in
Jewell, Georgia
, in
Warren County
, midway between
Atlanta
and
Augusta
.
[1]
There is some disagreement about the year of his birth, some sources indicating 1906 and many others of more recent vintage claiming 1914. He began teaching himself the harmonica at a very early age, and he played at local parties around
Augusta
, where the family moved when he was four and remained for the next 10 years. By 1928, he was busking around the streets of
Atlanta
. "Nobody was my influence," he told Robert Springer of his harmonica playing, in a 1975 interview. "I just kept hearing people, so I listen and I listen, and listen, and it finally come to me."
[1]
Early musical career
[
edit
]
By the time he arrived in
Atlanta
, he was noticed by both
Curley Weaver
and
Robert "Barbecue Bob" Hicks
, who began working with the younger Moss. Weaver and Barbecue Bob secured his first recording date when he was 16, as a member of their group the
Georgia Cotton Pickers
, on December 7, 1930 at the Campbell Hotel in Atlanta, cutting four songs for
Columbia
: "I'm on My Way Down Home," "Diddle-Da-Diddle," "She Looks So Good," and "She's Comin' Back Some Cold Rainy Day." The group that day consisted of Barbecue Bob and Weaver on guitars and Moss on harmonica.
[3]
Moss did not record anything more for the next three years.
[1]
By 1933, Moss had taught himself the guitar. He frequently played with Barbecue Bob until Bob's death of
pneumonia
on October 21, 1931. Moss found a new partner and associate in
Blind Willie McTell
, performing with him at parties around Atlanta.
[1]
In January 1933, he made his debut as a recording artist in his own right for the
American Record Corporation
(ARC) in New York City,
[4]
accompanied by
Fred McMullen
and Curley Weaver, cutting three songs, "Bye Bye Mama," "Daddy Don't Care," and "Red River Blues." Another eight songs followed over the next three days, and all 11 were released, more than were released for McMullen or Weaver from those same sessions.
[1]
The debut sessions also featured Moss returning to the harmonica, as a member of the
Georgia Browns
? which comprised Moss, Weaver, McMullen and the singer
Ruth Willis
? for six songs done at the same sessions. Moss's records were released simultaneously on various budget labels associated with ARC and were so successful that, in mid-September 1933, he returned New York City along with Weaver and McTell. Moss recorded another dozen songs for the company, this time accompanied by Weaver; he also accompanied Weaver and McTell on their numbers.
[1]
In mid-1934, this time as a solo guitarist and singer, he recorded more tracks. At this point, Moss's records were outselling those of Weaver and McTell and were widely heard in the
southern
and
border states
.
[1]
His "Oh Lordy Mama" from these sessions became well known as "
Hey Lawdy Mama
", a song interpreted by various artists.
[5]
AllMusic
noted that "This body of recordings also best represents the bridge that Moss provided between
Blind Blake
and
Blind Boy Fuller
? his solo version of "Some Lonesome Day" and also "Dough Rollin' Papa," from 1934, advanced ideas in playing and singing that Fuller picked up and adapted to his own style, while the lingering influence of Blake can be heard in "Insane Blues"."
[1]
By August 1935, Moss's fee per song fee doubled, from $5 to $10. He continued to perform with McTell and Weaver, before going back to recording with a new partner,
Josh White
. They recorded 15 songs the same month, but personal and legal disasters hit his growing reputation.
[6]
Prison and parole
[
edit
]
In 1936, Moss was arrested and
tried
for the shooting murder of his wife and was convicted and
sentenced
to prison.
[3]
After the death of Fuller in 1941, his manager, J. B. Long, made efforts to secure Moss' release as a replacement for Fuller. By the combination of Moss' own good behavior as a prisoner and the entreaties of two outside sponsors (Long and Columbia Records) willing to ensure his compliance with parole, Moss was released from prison. While working at
Elon College
for Long under the
parole agreement
, Moss met a group of other blues musicians under Long's management, including
Sonny Terry
and
Brownie McGhee
.
[1]
Effects of World War II
[
edit
]
In October 1941, Moss, Terry and McGhee went to New York City to record for
Okeh Records
/
Columbia
, creating 13 numbers by Moss featuring his two new colleagues.
[6]
Only three of the songs were ever released, and then events conspired to cut short Moss's recording comeback. With the entry of the United States into
World War II
, the government began
rationing
shellac
, which was used in making
78-rpm records
, in 1942; barely enough was allocated to the
recording industry
to keep it functioning, and
record companies
were forced to curtail recordings by all but the most commercially viable artists. Also in 1942, the
musicians' union
placed a ban on recording by its members. Furthermore, the popularity of acoustic country blues began to wane, further reducing record companies' interest in recording it.
[1]
Later career
[
edit
]
Moss continued performing in the area around
Richmond, Virginia
, and
Durham, North Carolina
, during the mid-1940s.
[6]
He performed again with Weaver in Atlanta during the early 1950s, but music was no longer able to maintain a living. He went to work on a tobacco farm, drove trucks, and worked as an
elevator operator
, among other jobs, over the next 20-odd years.
[1]
Despite being referred to as one of the most influential bluesmen of the 1930s,
[3]
he was overlooked by the blues revival. This could be due to the fact that his recording career had been so short (from 1933 to 1935) and he had never recovered from the interruption in his work while he was in prison.
[6]
In 1964, Moss chanced to hear that his old partner Josh White was giving a concert at
Emory University
in Atlanta. Moss visited White backstage at the concert and Moss was persuaded to resume performing in a series of concerts before college audiences. He also had new recording sessions for the
Columbia label
in
Nashville
, but none of the material was issued during his lifetime.
[1]
A concert in Washington, D.C., on June 10, 1966, was recorded, and portions of it were later released by
Biograph Records
. Moss performed at the
Newport Folk Festival
in 1969 and appeared at
Electric Circus
, in New York, in the same year. During the 1970s, he performed at the
John Henry Memorial Concert
in
West Virginia
for two consecutive years. He also performed at the Atlanta Blues Festival and the Atlanta Grass Roots Music Festival in 1976, and later at the National Folk Festival, held at Wolf Trap Farm Park in
Vienna, Virginia
.
[1]
Death and legacy
[
edit
]
Moss died in Atlanta on October 19, 1984, once again largely forgotten by the public.
[6]
In the years since, his music has been available from
Biograph Records
, which reissued the 1966 performance, and from
Document Records
, which has released virtually every side that he released between 1930 and 1941. As a result, his reputation has once again grown, although he is still not nearly as well known among blues enthusiasts as McTell or Fuller.
[1]
Discography
[
edit
]
Album
[
edit
]
- Atlanta Blues Legend
(
Biograph
, 1967) re-released in 1970 as
Rediscovery
Compilations
[
edit
]
- Georgia Blues Volume Two
(
Kokomo
, 1968)
- Georgia Blues 1930?1935
(
Travelin' Man
, 1983)
- Red River Blues: 1933?1941
(
Travelin' Man
, 1984)
- Buddy Moss 1933?1935
(
Document
, 1988)
- Buddy Moss 1930?1941
(
Travelin' Man
, 1990)
- Complete Recorded Works Vol. 1; 1933
(
Document
, 1992)
- Complete Recorded Works Vol. 2; 1933?1934
(
Document
, 1992)
- Complete Recorded Works Vol. 3; 1935?1941
(
Document
, 1992)
- Buddy Moss: The Essential
(
Document
, 2002)
[7]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
n
o
p
q
"Buddy Moss - Biography & History"
.
AllMusic
. Retrieved
May 23,
2019
.
- ^
"BUDDY MOSS"
.
All About Blues Music
. January 16, 2013
. Retrieved
November 13,
2019
.
- ^
a
b
c
Pace, Doyle (March 28, 2018).
"Buddy Moss"
.
Kansas City Blues Society
.
Archived
from the original on November 13, 2019
. Retrieved
November 13,
2019
.
- ^
Russell, Tony (1997).
The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray
. Dubai: Carlton Books. p. 12.
ISBN
1-85868-255-X
.
- ^
A different "Hey! Lawdy Mama ? France Blues" was recorded in 1927 by Papa (or Little) Harvey Hull and Long Cleve Reed as the Down Home Boys.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Colin Larkin
, ed. (1995).
The Guinness Who's Who of Blues
(Second ed.).
Guinness Publishing
. p. 274.
ISBN
0-85112-673-1
.
- ^
"Buddy Moss | Album Discography"
.
AllMusic
. Retrieved
March 9,
2021
.
External links
[
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]
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