Buddy Moss

There is some disagreement about the year of his birth, some sources indicating 1906 and many others of more recent vintage claiming 1914.

He began teaching himself the harmonica at a very early age, and he played at local parties around Augusta, where the family moved when he was four and remained for the next 10 years.

Eugene "Buddy" Moss (January 16, 1914 – October 19, 1984) was an American blues musician.

By 1928, he was busking around the streets of Atlanta.

Weaver and Barbecue Bob secured his first recording date when he was 16, as a member of their group the Georgia Cotton Pickers, on December 7, 1930 at the Campbell Hotel in Atlanta, cutting four songs for Columbia: "I'm on My Way Down Home," "Diddle-Da-Diddle," "She Looks So Good," and "She's Comin' Back Some Cold Rainy Day."

The group that day consisted of Barbecue Bob and Weaver on guitars and Moss on harmonica.

Moss did not record anything more for the next three years.

He frequently played with Barbecue Bob until Bob's death of pneumonia on October 21, 1931.

Moss found a new partner and associate in Blind Willie McTell, performing with him at parties around Atlanta.

He is one of two influential Piedmont blues guitarists to record in the period between Blind Blake's final sessions in 1932 and Blind Boy Fuller's debut in 1935 (the other being Josh White).

A younger contemporary of Blind Willie McTell, Curley Weaver and Barbecue Bob, Moss was part of a coterie of Atlanta bluesmen.

By 1933, Moss had taught himself the guitar.

In January 1933, he made his debut as a recording artist in his own right for the American Record Company (ARC) in New York City, accompanied by Fred McMullen and Curley Weaver, cutting three songs, "Bye Bye Mama," "Daddy Don't Care," and "Red River Blues."

Another eight songs followed over the next three days, and all 11 were released, more than were released for McMullen or Weaver from those same sessions.

The debut sessions also featured Moss returning to the harmonica, as a member of the Georgia Browns – which comprised Moss, Weaver, McMullen and the singer Ruth Willis – for six songs done at the same sessions.

Moss's records were released simultaneously on various budget labels associated with ARC and were so successful that, in mid-September 1933, he returned New York City along with Weaver and McTell.

Moss recorded another dozen songs for the company, this time accompanied by Weaver; he also accompanied Weaver and McTell on their numbers.

In mid-1934, this time as a solo guitarist and singer, he recorded more tracks.

At this point, Moss's records were outselling those of Weaver and McTell and were widely heard in the southern and border states.

His "Oh Lordy Mama" from these sessions became well known as "Hey Lawdy Mama", a song interpreted by various artists.

AllMusic noted that "This body of recordings also best represents the bridge that Moss provided between Blind Blake and Blind Boy Fuller – his solo version of "Some Lonesome Day" and also "Dough Rollin' Papa," from 1934, advanced ideas in playing and singing that Fuller picked up and adapted to his own style, while the lingering influence of Blake can be heard in "Insane Blues"."

Moss's career was halted in 1935 by a six-year jail term and then by the Second World War, but he lived long enough to be rediscovered in the 1960s, when he revealed that his talent had been preserved through the years.

He was reputed to have been cantankerous and mistrusting of others.

In later years, Moss credited his friend and bandmate Barbecue Bob with being a major influence on his playing.

Scholars also contend that Blind Blake was a major force in his development, as both share certain mannerisms and inflections.

It has also been suggested by Alan Balfour and others that Moss may have been an influence on Blind Boy Fuller, although they never met and Moss's recording career ended before Fuller's began – Moss's first recordings display some inflections and nuances that Fuller did not put down on record until some years later.

Moss was one of 12 children born to a sharecropper in Jewell, Georgia, in Warren County, midway between Atlanta and Augusta.

By August 1935, Moss's fee per song fee doubled, from $5 to $10.

He continued to perform with McTell and Weaver, before going back to recording with a new partner, Josh White.

They recorded 15 songs the same month, but personal and legal disasters hit his growing reputation.

In 1936, Moss was arrested and tried for the shooting murder of his wife and was convicted and sentenced to prison.

After the death of Fuller in 1941, his manager, J. B. Long, made efforts to secure Moss' release as a replacement for Fuller.

By the combination of Moss' own good behavior as a prisoner and the entreaties of two outside sponsors (Long and Columbia Records) willing to ensure his compliance with parole, Moss was released from prison.

While working at Elon College for Long under the parole agreement, Moss met a group of other blues musicians under Long's management, including Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee.

In October 1941, Moss, Terry and McGhee went to New York City to record for Okeh Records/Columbia, creating 13 numbers by Moss featuring his two new colleagues.

He was among the few of his era whose careers were reinvigorated by the blues revival of the 1960s and 1970s.

He began as a musical disciple of Blake.

"Nobody was my influence," he told Robert Springer of his harmonica playing, in a 1975 interview.

"I just kept hearing people, so I listen and I listen, and listen, and it finally come to me."

By the time he arrived in Atlanta, he was noticed by both Curley Weaver and Robert "Barbecue Bob" Hicks, who began working with the younger Moss.