Andrew "Smokey" Hogg (January 27, 1914 – May 1, 1960) was an American post-war

Texas blues Texas blues is blues music from Texas. As a regional style, its original form was characterized by jazz and swing influences. Later examples are often closer to blues rock and Southern rock. History Texas blues began to appear in the early 1900s ...

and

country blues Country blues (also folk blues, rural blues, backwoods blues, or downhome blues) is one of the earliest forms of blues music. The mainly solo vocal with acoustic fingerstyle guitar accompaniment developed in the rural Southern United States in t ...

musician.

Life and career

Hogg was born near Westconnie,

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

, and grew up on a farm. He was taught to play the guitar by his father, Frank Hogg. While still in his teens he teamed up with the slide guitarist and vocalist B. K. Turner, also known as

Black Ace Black Ace was the most frequently used stage name of the American Texas blues musician born Babe Kyro Lemon Turner (December 21, 1905 – November 7, 1972), who was also known as B. K. Turner, Black Ace Turner, Babe Turner and Buck Turner. ...

, and the pair travelled together, playing a circuit of turpentine and logging camps, country dance halls and juke joints around

Kilgore Kilgore may refer to: Fictional characters * Kilgore Trout, a recurring character in the novels of Kurt Vonnegut * Lt. Colonel Bill Kilgore, a character in the Francis Ford Coppola movie ''Apocalypse Now'' * Teddybear Kilgore (AKA Kilgour), a cha ...

Tyler Tyler may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tyler (name), an English name; with lists of people with the surname or given name * Tyler, the Creator (born 1991), American rap artist and producer * John Tyler, 10th president of the United ...

, Greenville and Palestine, in

East Texas East Texas is a broadly defined cultural, geographic, and ecological region in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Texas that comprises most of 41 counties. It is primarily divided into Northeast and Southeast Texas. Most of the region cons ...

. In 1937, Decca Records brought Hogg and Black Ace to Chicago to record. Hogg's first record, "Family Trouble Blues" backed with "Kind Hearted Blues", was released under the name of Andrew Hogg. It was an isolated occurrence — he did not make it back into a recording studio for over a decade. By the early 1940s, Hogg was married and making a good living busking around the

Deep Ellum Deep Ellum is an American neighborhood composed largely of arts and entertainment venues near downtown in East Dallas, Texas. The name is based on a corruption of the area's principal thoroughfare, Elm Street. Older alternative uses include D ...

area of

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

, Texas. Hogg was drafted in the mid-1940s. After a brief spell with the U.S. military, he continued working in the Dallas area, where he was becoming well known. In 1947 he came to the attention of Herbert T. Rippa Sr., the head of the Dallas-based record label Bluebonnet Records, who recorded several sides with him and leased the masters to Modern Records. The first release on Modern was the

Big Bill Broonzy Big Bill Broonzy (born Lee Conley Bradley; June 26, 1903 – August 14, 1958) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. His career began in the 1920s, when he played country music to mostly African American audiences. In the 1930s ...

song " Too Many Drivers". It sold well enough that Modern brought Hogg to Los Angeles to cut more sides with their team of studio

musicians A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who w ...

. These songs included his two biggest hits, "Long Tall Mama" in 1949 and another Broonzy tune, " Little School Girl." In January 1950, "Little School Girl" reached number 5 on the ''Billboard'' Retail R&B chart and number 9 on the Most Played Juke Box R&B chart. His two-part "Penitentiary Blues" (1952) was a remake of the prison song "Ain't No More Cane on the Brazos". Hogg's style was influenced by Broonzy,

Peetie Wheatstraw William Bunch (December 21, 1902 – December 21, 1941), known as Peetie Wheatstraw, was an American musician, an influential figure among 1930s blues singers. Early life and career William Bunch was the son of James Bunch and Mary (Burns) Bunc ...

and Black Ace. His playing tended to be rhythmically inconsistent; author and critic

Peter Guralnick Peter Guralnick (born December 15, 1943, in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American music critic, author, and screenwriter. He specializes in the history of early rock and roll and has written on Elvis Presley, Sam Phillips, and Sam Cooke. Caree ...

observed that “there is never any beat as such to Smokey Hogg’s music, though a pulse can sometimes be detected”. His music was popular with record buyers in the South during the late 1940s and early 1950s, and he continued to work and record until the end of the 1950s. He died in

McKinney, Texas McKinney is a city in and the county seat of Collin County, Texas. It is Collin County's third-largest city, after Plano and Frisco. A suburb of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, McKinney is about north of Dallas. The U.S. Census Bureau lis ...

in 1960 of a haemorrhaging ulcer, at the age of 46.

Relatives and others

Hogg was reputed to be a cousin of

Lightnin' Hopkins Samuel John "Lightnin" Hopkins (March 15, 1912 – January 30, 1982) was an American country blues singer, songwriter, guitarist and occasional pianist from Centerville, Texas. In 2010, ''Rolling Stone'' magazine ranked him No. 71 on its list ...

and to be distantly related to Alger "Texas" Alexander, but both claims are ambiguous. Hogg's cousin John Hogg was also a blues musician; he recorded for

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it i ...

in 1951. He is not to be confused with Willie "Smokey" Hogg, a musician based in New York City in the 1960s.

References

External links

Illustrated Smokey Hogg discography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hogg, Smokey American street performers American country singer-songwriters American blues guitarists American male guitarists Electric blues musicians Texas blues musicians 1914 births 1960 deaths Imperial Records artists Modern Records artists Specialty Records artists Federal Records artists Meteor Records artists Combo Records artists Recorded In Hollywood artists 20th-century American singers 20th-century American guitarists Singer-songwriters from Texas Guitarists from Texas Country musicians from Texas 20th-century American male musicians American male singer-songwriters

Life and career

Relatives and others

See also

References

External links