Noel Edwin Boggs
1917 ~ 1974One of the finest steel guitarists in country music's history, Noel Boggs incorporated jazz influences -- from his friend Charlie Christian -- into Western swing on his over 1,000 sideman credits.
Noel Edwin Boggs was born November 14, 1917 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He learned to play the steel guitar in junior high school, and worked for three radio stations in the Oklahoma City area while still in high school.
He returned to Oklahoma City and joined WKY radio as a performer, also recording at this time with Wiley and Gene also Jimmy Wakely during the late 30's. In 1941, he started his own band, and played in the Oklahoma City area for the next three years.In 1944 Boggs joined the king of Western swing bands, Bob Wills & the Texas Playboys. He succeeded the great Leon McAuliffe as Bob Wills’ steel guitar player and played for two years. Over the next decade he spent time as a regular with both Wills and Spade Cooley.
Boggs left in 1946 to join another Western swing giant, Spade Cooley. He played with Cooley's Dance Band until 1954, but suffered a heart attack just one year later. Noel Boggs appeared in a number of western movies and was a well known figure in the music scenes of Nevada. He couldn't play for three months, but formed the Noel Boggs Quintet in 1956.
Noel Boggs died on August 31, 1974, age 56, and is buried in Granada Hills, California.Noel Boggs was inducted into The Steel Guitar Hall of Fame in 1981.
He later formed his Noel Boggs Quintet (one member being fiddler Billy Armstrong). He continued to perform, although he never really recovered from the first heart attack. During his career he appeared in several films and worked on radio with singing cowboys Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Rex Allen and the Sons Of The Pioneers. It is estimated that he played on well over 2,000 recordings and, apart from appearances on Wills' recordings, he is featured on some Spade Cooley albums released on the Club of Spade label and with Jimmy Wakely. He often helped other musicians, especially fellow steel guitarist Speedy West, at a time when he was a youngster struggling to succeed in the music business. He made numerous tours including ones to Alaska and the Orient and he owned property on Redondo Beach, California. He was a practical joker, who once wired up six of Spade Cooley's musicians' chairs and put a live lobster in the piano where he concealed the ends of the wires. The lobster, in its efforts to escape, shorted out the wiring and the startled musicians failed to share Boggs" laughter. His strange sense of humour is further evinced by the story that he returned home from one tour in a hearse and every time the vehicle stopped, he would sit up in the coffin and look around. He also left instructions that he wanted only good steel guitar and not organ music at his funeral. His family solved that problem by playing some of his own recordings, when he was buried at Granada Hills, California. ...http://downloads.walmart.com/swap/ [Walmart music]
n 1946 he met Leo Fender while working with Spade Cooley at the Santa Monica Ballroom. He became the proud owner of Fender's first steel guitar and an important endorser and promoter of Fender's equipment. The friendship between Noel Boggs and Leo Fender was such that Leo Fender was the godfather of Noel's daughter Sandy. .. http://www.well.com/user/wellvis/boggs.html
Noel Boggs [06-26-07 bandwith exceeded - check site later
"Noel Boggs' guitar playing talent has brought him into every phase of ... Noel Boggs died on August 31, 1974 at the age of 56 and is buried in Granada ...www.texasplayboys.net/Biographies/boggs.htm
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Contributed by Marti Graham, June 2007. Information posted for educational purposes for viewers and researchers. The contributor is not related to nor researching any of the above.
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