Topic: Buddy Moss's Guitar Playing--Queries and Tips

[Johnm]

Hi Scott,
You're right--it is difficult to assign the instrumental roles for the duets on "Buddy Moss, Vol. 1".  It's true, also, that Curley Weaver played slide on other recordings, and that if it was Buddy playing the slide parts on his earliest recordings, it would be a sound and technique he pretty much jettisoned on his later recordings.  I made the identification of Buddy being the slide player in Vestapol (and all the slide parts are in Vestapol) on the basis of two things, really:
   1) The time, touch and phrasing of the slide player really sounds like Buddy, with lots of triplets, brush strokes from the thumb and index finger, and an over-all muscular sound that goes along with all of his later non-slide playing.
   2) The accompanying guitarist plays a lot of long, sort of serpentine runs, and shows a great deal of finesse in working in a back-up capacity.  This is a sound I very much associate with Curley Weaver's work seconding Fred McMullen and Blind Willie McTell.  And while Buddy did do some recordings seconding another guitarist, as in some of his work with Josh White, where Josh was playing lead in Vestapol, none of Buddy's work as an accompanist that I've heard has that Curley Weaver "long-run" sound.
For sure, the most mysterious aspect of the division of labor as I've proposed it would be Buddy's precocious mastery of slide playing on those early sides and his abandonment of the slide technique later on.  It's the main reason I assigned the players' roles with question marks on those Weeniepedia entries.
All best,
Johnm 

[ScottN]

Hi John,

Thanks as usual for the insightful analysis.  The available recordings can probably only give a distorted view of what some of these amazing players could do.  Its like the minimal output of drop D (New Lovin only?), if he hadn't recorded NL we might never have known his virtuosity in that tuning which is considerable.  I'm having trouble placing any songs in D standard...with all his ability and licks out of D,G, and A positions it seems odd that he didn't play out of this key...well he probably did, maybe just didn't record.

Thanks again for the insights,
Scott

[uncle bud]

Re. the possibility of jettisoning any slide playing. Perhaps it's worth noting that he jettisoned harmonica playing pretty much as well, after the recordings with Georgia Cotton Pickers and the Georgia Browns, didn't he?

[Johnm]

You make a good point, Scott--not a single tune in D position, standard tuning.  You make a good one with regard to the end of Buddy's harmonica playing, too, uncle bud.  It occurs to me that Buddy's giving up of playing slide may have been a directive from the people recording him.  Those early duets with him playing slide are expertly performed, but are very, very close to each other musically, so that particular ensemble sound was mined heavily.  It could be that the record company said, "That's great, but do you have something else?"  Anything, however well it may be done, can become tedious through sheer force of repetition, viz. slow blues by Lonnie Johnson or the many Robert Petway tunes in G after "Bertha Lee".
All best,
Johnm

[ScottN]

Hi Uncle Bud - not sure that he completely jettisoned harmonica playing as it shows up again in pretty good form in 1966/67 Atlanta Blues Legend (along with Jeff Espina on harmonica on some tracks as well) in addition to the Berea College recordings in the 1970s (specifically in I Wonder Do My Baby Ever Think Of Me).  I don't believe there is any harmonica on the George Mitchell tracks.  Re: slide though I don't think there is any on any of the three later sources in addition to nothing in his earlier works after those very early on with Weaver.

That being said though, I've been listening to a lot of Weaver today and I think John is right about it likely being Moss playing slide.  Sticking with John's observation that the early Moss songs are very similar, when I was relistening to them there are a lot of common licks / phrases which might indicate that Buddy was very good at a limited bag of tricks at that point in time (or at least playing slide in Vestapol) whereas Weaver had a larger tool kit in slide in addition to a different "touch."

[ScottN]

Another question that has been burning in my overactive imagination today about this is whether it would have been common to teach a new person to play in open turnings early on with slide being a natural extension...Buddy was a gifted singer and already a standout harmonica player when he picks up the guitar from Weaver and Hicks so he probably already has amazing ears to go with the genius he seems to have for learning the guitar that manifests later...maybe it really shouldn't be a stretch to think he would be that good at slide that early on.

Still begs the question why slide seems to disappear though...oh to be able to ask the source directly...well then again, maybe not...I don't really want to get shot at or anything ;-)

[uncle bud]

Hi Uncle Bud - not sure that he completely jettisoned harmonica playing as it shows up again in pretty good form in 1966/67 Atlanta Blues Legend (along with Jim Espina on harmonica on some tracks as well) in addition to the Berea College recordings in the 1970s (specifically in I Wonder Do My Baby Ever Think Of Me).  I don't believe there is any harmonica on the George Mitchell tracks.  Re: slide though I don't think there is any on any of the three later sources in addition to nothing in his earlier works after those very early on with Weaver.

Thanks for the correction, Scott. After I posted I was listening to Buddy, and I Wonder Do My Baby Ever Think of Me came around in iTunes. Playing in a rack no less. I hadn't realized that some of the harp on Atlanta Blues Legend was Buddy.

[Rivers]

...Buddy was a gifted singer and already a standout harmonica player when he picks up the guitar from Weaver and Hicks so he probably already has amazing ears to go with the genius he seems to have for learning the guitar that manifests later...maybe it really shouldn't be a stretch to think he would be that good at slide that early on.

Particularly it shouldn't be a stretch when you consider his early access to such influences. Taking nothing away from Buddy Moss, that must have been inspiring enough for a young and naturally gifted player to make music his life's work I reckon. What a great shame he seemed to feel he wasn't appreciated in his lifetime. He sure is appreciated today by all of us.

[ScottN]

Hi Uncle Bud - in the Atlanta Blues Legend 18 track cd I have I believe it is Jeff Espina on tracks 2, 3, and 7 and Buddy on tracks 8 and 9 for harmonica work.  On Buddy's tracks I don't believe he is playing guitar as the guitar work is primarily strumming and doesn't sound like anything else Buddy did.  The liner notes credit another guitarist "JJ" on tracks 8, 9, 13, 14, 17, and 18.  JJ is believed to be John Jackson.

Tracks 8 - 18 were recorded June 10, 1966 at a concert for the Folklore Society of Greater Washington.  Tracks 1 - 7 were recorded in the same year at a different performance.

Thanks,
           Scott

[ScottN]

Thanks to Sharyn Mitchell and Harry Rice, Berea College Digital now has VIDEO footage of Buddy Moss playing 7 songs recorded at the 10-29-77 Celebration of Traditional Music:

St. James Infirmary
Please Send Me Someone To Love
Madam
Love, Oh Love
I'll Do Anything For You
Don't Never Love A Woman
Chesterfield

Enjoy this and the roughly 200 videos they have added in the past month

[jopoke]

Is anyone else having any luck viewing the Buddy Moss videos?  I get and error connecting to database message when I click on the video link.  The Audio files work fine, but can't get the videos to work.

http://cdm16020.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15131coll4/id/5398/rec/4

Thanks, Joe

[Johnm]

Hi Joe,
Try the link in this post:  http://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=9654.msg81979#msg81979 .  I just tried it and it got me to the right place.  Once you get there, go to page 11, that's where Buddy's tunes are.
All best,
Johnm

[jopoke]

Thanks John.  I found the videos, but can't get them to play.  The audio files posted for Buddy play, but not the videos.  I tried from a mac and a pc with no luck.  Maybe I need to update my browsers.

Take it easy, Joe

[ScottN]

Just came across a photo posted by our own Oddenda (Peter B Lowry) on his blog of Buddy Moss wearing a plastic thumb pick and metal fingerpick on his index finger. The photo appears to be from the National Folk Festival based on the name tag. Interesting in that other photos and videos of Buddy show him playing without picks.

https://peterblowry.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/buddy.jpg

Just for fun, here is an image of Buddy and Grandapa Jones from Berea College in 1978

http://tomeblen.bloginky.com/files/2013/12/131120Eblen-Berea0004.jpg

Thanks,
           Scott

[Johnm]

Hi all,
I merged three threads all dealing with Buddy Moss' playing into one single-source thread on him.  Only the first post in the merged thread has a different title--all the other posts retain the titles of the parent threads in which they originated.
All best,
Johnm