Oscar "Buddy" Woods
| Oscar "Buddy" Woods | |
|---|---|
| Also known as | The Lone Wolf |
| Born | c. 1900 , United States |
| Died | December 14, 1955 (age about 55) Shreveport, Louisiana, United States |
| Genres | Texas blues |
| Occupation(s) | Guitarist, singer, songwriter |
| Instruments | Slide guitar, lap steel guitar, vocals |
| Years active | 1920s–1950s |
| Labels | Victor, Decca, Vocalion and Document (later re-issues) |
| Associated acts | Jimmie Davis, Ed Schaffer, Shreveport Home Wreckers, Wampus Cats, Kitty Gray |
Oscar "Buddy" Woods (born c. 1900–1903, died December 14, 1955) was an American Texas blues guitarist, singer and songwriter.
Woods, who was an early blues pioneer in lap steel, slide guitar playing, recorded thirty-five tracks between 1930 and 1940. He recorded solo and as part of a duo, the Shreveport Home Wreckers, and with a six- or seven-piece group, the Wampus Cats. Early in his career he backed Jimmie Davis on some of his recordings. Woods's best-known song was "Lone Wolf Blues", from which came his billing as "The Lone Wolf".
He was born around , United States, with the birth year variously listed as somewhere between 1892 and 1903. He relocated to Shreveport, Louisiana around 1925, where he started to work as a street musician and played for tips at juke joints. Various sources claim that he learned the rudiments of playing a bottleneck slide guitar after watching a Hawaiian music ensemble that toured in Louisiana in the early part of the 1920s. Woods teamed up with another guitar player, Ed Schaffer, and they performed as the Shreveport Home Wreckers at the Blue Goose Grocery and Market, which was a speakeasy in Shreveport. In May 1930, the duo recorded for Victor Records in Memphis, Tennessee.
In May 1932, the Shreveport Home Wreckers backed Jimmie Davis on four sides recorded in Dallas, Texas. They also recorded another two tracks of their own, released as a single, on which they were billed as Eddie and Oscar. The significance of this mixed-race recording session spilled over into a joint tour—a unique sociological situation at that time in the South.
Woods next recorded for Decca Records in March 1936 in New Orleans. The tracks included his best-known song, "Lone Wolf Blues," and the first take of "Don't Sell It, Don't Give It Away", which he wrote. The records sold well, and by the time Woods recorded again, in October 1937, the Shreveport Home Wreckers had added new members and became the Wampus Cats. They backed both Woods and Kitty Gray, a singer and pianist, on several tracks recorded in 1937 and 1938 for Vocalion Records.
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