Willie Hogg

"ATTENTION: SMOKEY HOGG IS NOT DEAD!!" At least that's what Victoria Spivey thought when she "rediscovered" him in Brooklyn, N.Y. and what Len Kunstadt thought when he penned the liner notes for the album. What they weren't aware of was that Andrew "Smokey" Hogg indeed died in 1960 and this "Smokey" wasn't him. Willie Hogg was born in Centerville, TX. on November 29, 1908. He learned guitar from his father Isaac at a young age and eventually ran away from home to join J.C. O'Brien's Georgia Minstrels and toured the country as a tent show act from 1921-28. It was O'Brien who dubbed Willie as "Smokey" since he had a love for smoked hamhocks. Willie claimed that he recorded for Black Swan in Brooklyn in 1928. and for Victor in Chicago in 1931. None of those recordings were ever verified by discographers, and Willie explained that his Victor titles were mistakingly issued under Peetie Wheatstraw's name. Willie spent the remainder of the 1930's through the 1950's playing around the country with him concentrated on the West Coast in the late 50's. He moved to Brooklyn in 1960. Willie may have been a cousin to Andrew and he certainly knew a lot about Andrew's career when he was interviewed, something else that made Spivey and Kunstadt think that they had Andrew. He also stated that he was a half-brother to Leroy Carr. Where a lot of this is fact and a lot of it are tall tales, Willie only had one documented session of four songs recorded for Spivey. He was 61 years old when these were made and the details of the rest of his life are unknown. He is accompanied here by Benny Jefferson, who even though he was born in North Carolina, was supposedly a nephew of the Texas bluesman Blind Lemon Jefferson.