Buddy Woods

Oscar “Friend” Woods was a Louisiana road musician referred to as “The Lone Wolf” along with a pioneer within the design of lap metal, bottleneck blues slip acoustic guitar; some experts believe he might happen to be the primary drive behind the creation of the whole genre. Woods was created in the region around Natchitoches, LA, and his unidentified birth date is normally variously shown as having been from 1892 to 1900. About 1925 he’s known to possess re-settled in Shreveport, LA, functioning being a musician and “street-rustler.” It is stated that Woods created his bottleneck glide method of playing blues electric guitar after viewing a touring Hawaiian troupe of musical entertainers in the first ’20s. Shortly after arriving in Shreveport, Woods started an extended association with guitarist Ed Schaffer, and jointly they performed because the Shreveport House Wreckers, frequently appearing on the Blue Goose Grocery store and Marketplace, a notorious Shreveport establishment reported to be an after-hours speakeasy. Woods and Schaffer produced their initial two recordings because the Shreveport House Wreckers for Victor in Memphis on, may 31, 1930. For somebody whose deal with was “The Lone Wolf,” Woods was extraordinarily lucky with regards to the amount of saving dates he could secure regarding the other artists. Out of this initial session until his last, a field saving for the Collection of Congress produced on Oct 8, 1940, Woods was mixed up in making of a minimum of 35 sides. ON, MAY 27 and 28, 1931, Ed Schaffer is at Charlotte, NC, documenting six sides going by white nation artist (and potential Governor of Louisiana) Jimmie Davis alongside New Orleans-based jazz guitarist Ed “Snoozer” Quinn. Almost a year afterwards in Dallas, TX (on Feb 8, 1932) Davis produced four sides using the Shreveport House Wreckers as accompanists, and the house Wreckers produced another couple of sides independently, issued this time around on Victor as by “Eddie and Oscar.” These edges are of essential sociological importance because they are the very first known Southern-made information of nation blues created by a “combined competition” group. Obviously, Victor didn’t walk out their method to publicize this element upon the original release of the sides, which happened during the most severe year in the annals from the record marketplace. However, some older timers recalled the association between Jimmie Davis as well as the Shreveport House Wreckers didn’t simply end in the documenting studio room door — incredibly, in addition they toured collectively. Oscar “Friend” Woods didn’t record once again until produced a vacation to New Orleans to create some solo information for Decca on March 21, 1936. Among these recordings was of Woods’ personal tune, “Lone Wolf Blues,” and another his 1st documenting of “Don’t Offer It, Don’t Provide It Away.” These do therefore well in the competition record marketplace that Jimmie Davis got a renewed fascination with the Shreveport House Wreckers. By enough time Woods came back to record producing in a program setup by Davis in San Antonio on Oct 30-31, 1937, the lowly two-man House Wreckers had extended right into a six- or seven-piece string music group known as the Wampus Pet cats. The Wampus Pet cats also included a lady vocalist by the name of Kitty Grey, guitarist Joe Harris, and mandolinist Child Western. The Wampus Pet cats produced an additional program in Dallas on Dec 4, 1938, which Kitty Grey does not show up, but unidentified trumpet and saxophone players are therein put into the combine. After Oscar “Pal” Woods trim his last five options for the Library of Congress in 1940, he vanished from public see until his loss of life in 1956. On a single time as Woods, Wampus Felines alumni Joe Harris and Child West also documented 11 parts for the Collection of Congress being a duo. As regarding Woods, these were hardly ever heard from once again. Ed Schaffer is normally a lot more obscure than his compatriots, and could have died actually prior to the San Antonio classes using the Wampus Pet cats, as he’s as yet not known to have already been present on that event. Based on entries in Shreveport town directories, Woods remained within the Shreveport region in his last years, playing dances and operating like a road musician. The influence of Oscar “Pal” Woods over the advancement of bottleneck glide playing was essential; one musician he had taken under his wing around 1930 was Tx indigenous Babe Kyro Lemon Turner, who afterwards assumed the name Dark Ace. During his life time, Woods was best-known for “Lone Wolf Blues,” but today probably the most frequently anthologized cut where he was included may be the Wampus Felines’ edition of “Don’t Sell It,-Don’t Provide It Apart.” Also, bluesman Robert Johnson paid the Shreveport House Wreckers an offhand tribute by raising one verse virtually verbatim away from their 1932 “Traveling Crow Blues” and deploying it because the concluding verse in his very own “Appreciate in Vain.”