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OSCAR Buddy
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Buddy Woods was born in an area south of Shreveport, Louisiana, possibly in or near Natchitoches, sometime during the last decade of the 19th century. At some point he settled in Shreveport where he worked for tips as a musician in the local juke joints and on street corners. He was an accomplished guitarist and a pioneer of the lap steel, bottleneck blues slide guitar style. It has been reported that Woods developed this style after watching a group of touring musicians from Hawaii. During the 1920's he teamed up with another guitarist, Ed Schaffer, and they began performing as the Shreveport Home Wreckers. Their relationship was to last several years, touring and recording together. Woods had adopted the nickname 'The Lone Wolf' , and he was alone when he made his solo recordings of "Lone Wolf Blues" and "Don't Sell It, Don't Give It Away" for Decca in 1936. These were commercially very successful and led to Woods expanding the two man Home Wreckers into a six piece string band called The Wampus Cats (although this may not have included Schaffer). During his career Woods was a major influence on the development of the bottleneck slide playing style. One musician to whom Woods was to act as both mentor and inspiration was Babe Turner, who would later adopt the name "The Black Ace".
Woods made his last recordings in 1940 after which his popularity declined and he returned to the Shreveport club and party scene where he died in 1956. |