Dock Boggs: Pretty Polly (1966)

[markmorey]

I can't even believe I'm watching Dock Boggs sing and play.Thank you.

[evansgate]

love his humble "some people don't like the way I play but you can't expect everyone to like it". if only every musician had this perspective, Dock Boggs played in that style because he liked it, simple as that

[justforever]

I live how he considers himself a coal miner who also plays music. You just don't see that anymore. And the way he says "i never lost a finger" like he had unusual good fortune in that way says volumes about the work he was doing. Of course he may not be thinking specifically of amputation, just injuries that left the finger unusable for playing with, but it still speaks to the hard and dangerous nature of the work they were doing.

[emilbecker]

Doc boggs playing is so haunting and deep. My favourite style of picking there is

[davidthedustyhampton]

I'm so glad we live in a time we can see video of people who made records in the 20s such as Doc Boggs and Clarence Ashley, even though it wasn't until the folk revival of the 60s the fact that we have videos such as these is nothing short of a miracle of history

[artgalleryandcraftsbydeb]

My Grandmother was born in 1906, and raised in Leatherwood Kentucky. She used to sing Pretty Polly to us. This was in the early 60’s to '70s. I had looked for this song in that version for some time now. This just popped up on my feed. I know you are watching Grandma. Perhaps she knew this gentleman. I hope my grandma knows that I loved it when she sang this. She would strum on the banjo, although she was not a great player, but to us kids, we loved it. Her voice was great. I can still hear her sing this, so close to what he was doing here. God Bless.

[swagmundfreud]

This man is why I play the banjo today! Without his music I never would have picked it up. Thank you so much Dock for that!

[BlueGrassPeteF]

After listening to Dock's 78s for years, it is delightful to be able to see him! His music has been a big influence on me. Thanks to Alan Lomax for filming Dock, and to Mike Seeger for all his recording work with him,

[LomaxFilmCollection]

Apologies to everyone who interacted with the earlier upload; it was removed to make room for this superior version!

[thomsmith]

Absolutely mind blow to actually see him play this. Can’t believe I’ve never seen this footage before.

[gileslink]

Nice to see his hand positioning. Thanks. In my top three musicians of all time.

[Arze]

I been listening to doc boggs since I was never seen a video of him. Awesome. Thanks for uploading!!!

[TheFolkRevivalProject]

This song is over 300 years old, and probably describes true events that took place in England.

[Skinnyorangemusic]

After a life of hard work he played the most beautiful music

[marinevet]

A lot of his Boggs family kinfolk from Wise County VA. “His cousin lines” moved to Washington State to work in the logging industry between 1930s-1960s. The Bogg’s I have known, have similar Boggs family face features and all I have known have been kind and quiet spoken folks

[fuchsiasaville]

First time I've seen this. Serious song .Good though legendary.

[xwillnotbetelevisedx]

Thank you so very much for uploading this and all the other videos in this channel. This world would be very sad without the often overlooked work of Mr. Lomax.

[jeffmead]

there really ought to be a main stream documentary on the Alan Lomax Archive....after all they give us Simon Cowell and lots of other pish too

[wanderingsemantics]

thank you very much alan Dock is one of my favorites rip dock you are a legend thanks

[michaelgarrity]

I love hearing this old timey mountain sound music. I like his sound. The best ever rendition of Pretty Polly was the one recorded for the PBS special "Down From the Mountain Tour" show thst took place at The Ryman with Patty Lovelace and the late Dr. Raloh Stanley. Patty held that one note till sbe was almost out of breath. Thank goodness that was recoded for both an album and television.