Noel Edwin Boggs (November 13, 1917 – August 31, 1974) was an American musician who was a virtuoso on the Electric guitar steel guitar, widely regarded as a pioneer of the lap steel. A central figure in popularizing the genre of Western swing, he helped elevate the instrument from its roots in Hawaiian music to a prominent role in American popular music. During the 1940s and 1950s, Boggs performed and recorded with many of the genre’s most influential artists, including Bob Wills (1944–1945) and Spade Cooley dance band. His collaboration with Wills helped establish the role of the steel guitar in country music. He performed on more than 2,000 recordings, including several of Wills’ most enduring hits, such as “Roly Poly” and “Stay a Little Longer,” both of which became Western swing standards. Boggs was inducted into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame in 1981.
Early life
Born in Oklahoma City in 1917, Boggs began playing steel guitar in his youth and in 1935 was performing on three local radio stations while still in high school.
At that time, the electric pickup to amplify a guitar had just been invented (1934). Boggs began playing on a Rickenbacker lap steel, the first electrified string instrument of any type.
Just a month before high school graduation, he was invited to join
Hank Penny's Radio Cowboys in 1937 for a southeastern U.S. tour.
At that time, the electric lap steel guitar was a new musical device and Western swing became a vehicle for trying new things with the instrument.
It was used to create horn-like punches and provide single-note solos, and to join
fiddles and traditional guitars in three-part harmony.
After the Rickenbacker, Boggs played an
Epiphone double-neck steel guitar.
He was one of the first steel players to switch between guitar necks in mid-solo
in order to get different chord voicings.
Career
Boggs performed with
Jimmy Wakely during the late 1930s.
He befriended guitar manufacturer
Leo Fender in 1946
and became the owner the first product of Fender's new musical instrument company, a lap steel guitar (bearing the cursive "big F" Fender logo).
Musician Billy Strange said, "
Speedy West West, Noel Boggs,
Jimmy Bryant, and I—the four of us would go out there to and just play around as much as we could and help them with design, and tell them the things that we wanted to see put on the instrument."
Boggs' instrument of choice became the Fender Stringmaster for most of his career.
He became noted for his
Electric guitar steel guitar playing that popularized the instrument beyond its native Hawaiian music into other genres of American popular music, specifically
Western Swing.
Boggs befriended jazz guitarist Charlie Christian whose solos Boggs transcribed to create arrangements for three guitars on songs such as "
Flying Home" or "Good Enough to Keep".
Over his career, Boggs appeared on some 2000 recordings as a soloist
and performed with nearly every major artist in Western Swing including Bob Wills, Spade Cooley, Bill Boyd,
Tommy Duncan and Hank Penny.
Boggs was featured on Penny's 1946 hit instrumental "Steel Guitar Stomp" with electric guitar played by
Merle Travis. With Bob Wills, several hits featuring Boggs became standards, including "Roly Poly", "Texas Playboy Rag" and "Stay a Little Longer".
In the early years of steel guitar, the instrument was limited to basic chords: major, minor, an occasional sixth chord.
Boggs died August 31, 1974 (age 56) after suffering a massive stroke and heart attack.
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