Dock Boggs - Technique and Repertoire

Technique and Repertoire

While Dock Boggs was familiar with the clawhammer, or "frailing" style, he typically played in a style known as "up-picking," which involves picking upwards on the first two strings and playing one of the other three strings with the thumb. He played several songs in a lower D-modal tuning. Dock's technique, which Seeger considered "a style possessed by no other recorded player," was adapted to fit previously unaccompanied mountain ballads.

Dock learned a number of traditional mountain songs from his siblings, namely "Sugar Baby," which he learned from his brother John, "Danville Girl," which he learned from his brother Roscoe, and "Little Omie Wise," which he learned from his sisters. Lee Hansucker, Dock's brother-in-law, taught him various religious songs, including "Oh, Death," "Little Black Train," "Prodigal Son," and "Calvary." Along with "Turkey in the Straw" and "John Henry", Dock learned songs such as "Banjo Clog" and "Down South Blues" from African-American blues musicians. The song "Wise County Jail"— written by Dock in 1928— was inspired by an incident in which Dock had to flee to Kentucky after attacking a lawman who tried to break up a party at which Dock was playing.