52 weeks of blues

Buddy Moss is a relatively unknown but prodigiously talented early Piedmont musician. He was also a deeply troubled man. He had the potential to be the best in the world, and for a time was the biggest selling bluesman in existence, but he was his own worst enemy and a combination of insecurity, distrustfulness and outright meanness resulted in him never attaining the success or recognition his talents deserved. Although he was a great – probably the greatest – influence on the second generation of Piedmont players after Blind Blake, he is largely unknown now days.
He was born as Eugene Moss in Jewel, Georgia, on January 26th (probably in the year 1914 but other sources have indicated dates as early as 1906), one of 12 children to a share cropping family. At the age of 4 his family moved to the city of Augusta to seek work. Buddy was a natural musician and started playing the harmonica at an early age. He received no musical tuition on that instruments – he had a natural talent and a good ear and learnt just by trying to imitate the sounds other musicians were making.
In 1928 Buddy Moss left Augusta and made his way down to Atlanta, a bustling city with a great music scene. Atlanta was heavily segregated, and the black area of town had a harsh reputation for crime, and violence. The blues were quickly becoming the predominant musical form in the city and players were coming from all over the state to try their luck. Busking on the streets, Buddy quickly met like-minded musicians, and became firm friends with Curley Weaver, Blind Willie McTell and Robert “Barbecue Bob” Hicks. Weaver, McTell and Hicks were also Georgian natives who had migrated a few years previously to Atlanta. All three had been recorded, their records were reasonably successful and they were at the forefront of the Atlanta blues sound that was poised to heavily influence the national scene.
At the time, the biggest name in race music was Blind Blake. Blake was a phenomenally gifted guitarist – he possessed the best right hand technique of anyone to ever play blues on a guitar – and he was massively influential in moving the guitar from a ragtime instrument to a blues instrument. The ‘next generation’ played a less intricate but still highly complex finger picking style that is undoubtedly Blake’s influence, but the lyrics and melodies were a bit simpler and more expressive, coming from the experiences of living as black men in the racist south.
The teen aged Moss played the harmonica on the street and at parties, especially with Barbeque Bob, and started learning guitar from him. He made a big impression and in December 1930, at the age of (most likely) 16, he was recorded for the first time playing harmonica in a band featuring Weaver playing rhythm and singing and Barbeque Bob playing slide. The band went by the name of “The Georgia Cotton Pickers” and they recorded 4 tracks, released on two 78s.
Barbecue Bob died in 1931, but by 1933 Piedmont blues was sweeping the nation and, after only 3 years, Buddy’s skill on the guitar was so developed that he replaced Bob in his partnership with Weaver. Buddy’s voice had also developed into a strong instrument and he was more than capable performing solo. In January the American Record Corporation were looking for Piedmont artists and invited Buddy, Weaver and another Georgian bluesman named Fred McMullen to New York to record. Over 3 days Buddy recorded on 15 tracks, including 10 tracks released on 5 78s under his own name. Of the other tracks he backed Curley Weaver on one, and 4 others were released under the name “The Georgia Browns” featuring singer Ruth Willis, who had performed previously with Willie McTell.
Buddy’s solo records were very successful, and in September of the same year he was back in New York with Weaver and Blind Willie McTell, recording another 12 tracks released under his name and several behind Weaver and McTell. A sign of his growing popularity was that his on the sides were he was accompanied by Weaver, they were released as “Buddy Moss and partner” – 8 months earlier he didn’t even get a mention backing Weaver. He returned to Atlanta where he now shared top billing with Weaver and McTell as the city’s best bluesmen. In April of that year, Blind Blake was hospitalised in a very bad way and never fully recovered – a year later and he was dead and the position of best bluesman in the country was wide open.
Buddy’s recorded from the September 1933 sessions easily outsold McTell’s and Weavers, and he alone was invited back to New York for more recordings in August 1934. He was being paid $5 per song (plus royalties) at a time when the Great Depression has severely reduced the sales of race record and was killing the careers of other artists. He recorded 18 solo tracks, including “Someday Baby”, and these were all very successful. His guitar style was getting better and better, lyrical melodies and solos with interestingly complex bass runs that would be a major influence on Blind Boy Fuller and Lightnin’ Hopkins. Well known in the south, one of his tracks “Oh Lawdy Mama” became a hit nation-wide. His records were selling everywhere, and were selling more than anyone else.
He was one of the best bluesmen in the country – he was 20-ish and had only been playing guitar for 5 years. In 1935 his per record fee doubled to $10 and he was back in New York recording with another young bluesman with the potential to replace Blind Blake as the best, Josh White. Seven 78’s came from these sessions under Buddy’s name, some solo and some accompanied by White. In addition, Buddy accompanied White on several spiritual numbers released as “Joshua White – The Singing Christian”. Buddy’s most successful song was recorded in these sessions – “Going To Your Funeral In A Vee Eight Ford”. If not the best bluesman in the country, he was certainly the most popular and commercial successful. Already with a reputation as a sometimes petty and aggressive young man, Buddy’s personality was about to interrupt his success in a big way.
In late 1935 he shot his girlfriend 3 times and killed her. Although there is little information about the incident, it’s been reported that during an argument about an alleged infidelity on her part, Buddy pulled out his gun, shot her twice, then once more to make sure. He was quickly arrested and found guilty of murder, and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
In 1936 Josh White put his hand through a glass window and the wound developed gangrene – he was unable to play guitar for several years. With the two leading successors for Blind Blake’s role as the most influential blues guitarist, opportunities open up for other artists. In 1935 JB Long, a store owner and talent scout, found a blind man by the name of Fullerton Allen busking in Durham, North Carolina. Seeing talent in him, Long quickly arranged a recording session and renamed the guitarist and singer “Blind Boy Fuller”.
Fuller became the number 1 blues player of his generation and has left an influence and legacy that not many others have achieved. However, he died unexpectedly in 1941 and Long, ever the opportunist wasted no time in trying to finding a replacement. As wall as recoding Fuller’s god friend Brownie McGhee as “Blind Boy Fuller #2”. Long remembered the success he had selling Buddy Moss records back in his department store days, and tracked him down to a Georgia Prison.
Buddy has a surprising reputation for good behaviour; he entertained the inmates and staff with his music and Long thought a little bribery could secure his release. He bribed the parole board, but soon after the board was dismissed for an unrelated case of bribery. Undeterred, as soon as a new board was convened, Long bribed them and after 6 years Buddy Moss was released into Long’s care with one condition – he was banned from the entire state of Georgia for 10 years.
Long settled Buddy in his house in the city of Elon College, North Carolina and introduced him the Brownie McGhee and the harmonica player Sonny Terry, Long’s leading musicians. A recording session was arranged in October, 1941, where Buddy cut 6 tracks, including some accompanied by McGhee on piano and Terry on harmonica. Buddy has lost none of his skill, and his 6 years of hard time had added a subtly to his playing. The Trio worked very well together and once again Buddy was poised to become a really big name in the blues scene.
Just 45 days after these sessions, the attack on Pearl Harbour on December 7 1941 saw the US enter the Second World War and a government priority order regarding the material used to produce phonograph records saw all but the most successful artists’ career’s ending. Buddy worked as a farm labourer, an elevator mechanic and a truck driver. After the war, the “stay out of Georgia” edict prevented a ‘rediscovery’ of Buddy when Regal records went through Georgia and recorded some of his old partners, including Curley Weaver.
Buddy stayed with the Long’s until the 10 years was up, and drifted back to Atlanta, just another forgotten bluesman. In 1964 with the blues revival in full swing, he saw that Josh White was playing near his house and became re-acquainted with his old recording partner after the show. A concert was organised for Buddy in 1966, which was recorded, and due to his increasingly angry and mean personality, further shows were few and far between.
His last record were recordings taken from a series of live shows in 1978, but Buddy then drifted out of music and his personality grew increasingly abrasive. A white researcher tracked him down not long afterwards, Buddy invited him to his house but within half an hour had produced a gun and was yelling about the evils of the white man. The researcher fled.
Buddy Moss, one of the leading players of his day and leaving a legacy for short of where it should be, died on October 19, 1984.

“Someday Baby” has its roots in older songs – Sleepy John Estes recorded a song with the same title, and Buddy’s song leans on the guitar of Lonnie Johnson and vocal styles of Texas Alexander. It is played in standard tuning, in the key of F so tune your guitar up half a step or use a capo on the first fret.
It’s a quick change 12 bar, using the IV chord in bar 2, and the melodies are based around the major scale. Buddy had great touch and timing – he really was a wonderful guitar player – and his runs are all very smooth and somewhat restrained. In bar 10, instead of using the IV chord, he goes straight back the the I but plays a riff similar to the main riff used throughout.
In the A sections, he really has great control over the high E string and the bass ‘thumb’ played with the thumb. Just concentrate on playing as smooth and consistently as you can.

E                                A                                          E
Babe, I used to have money, but now I ain't got none
A                                                                             E
Babe, I used to have money, but now I ain't got none
B7                               E
Still, I'm confidential, someday I'll have some

Solo
My money comes, and it ain't gonna be no year.  I know the mens that be owning this stuff will sure be here

Now, be easy on me, woman, I ain't got a lousy dime
Be easy on me, woman, I ain't got a lousy dime
You've got yours now, someday I'll have mine

Solo

Mmmm, please, baby, listen to what I got to say
Please hear me, baby, listen to what I got to say
I'm down now, woman, I'm gonna rise someday

Buddy starts with some fluid riffing using the E major scale; move up to a lovely measure in A based on an E shaped barre chord on the fifth fret, and intersperses riff using the blues scale. His playing is very smooth and somewhat restrained. He uses this basic structure during the progression.

Buddy noodles around similar ideas in the Verses, though in the second repetition he stays on E in bar 2 instead of going into the ‘quick change’. In the last repetition he uses the A shape on the 5th fret for bar 10, and ends the song on an E7 chord beat 1 of bar 12.

Buddy drops a bar in the opening E section.

Buddy adds a bar to the opening E section.