The scant discography of Walter "Buddy Boy" Hawkins reveals one of the most distinctive country-blues performers of the pre-war era, a gifted vocalist whose taste for slow, dirge-like songs was ideally suited to his intricate guitar work. Almost nothing is known about the singer; various attempts to determine his date and place of birth have resulted in countless chronological and geographical inconsistencies, although the consenus places him as a product of either Alabama or the northern Delta region. Between 1927 and 1929, Hawkins recorded a dozen tracks for Paramount, many of them portraits of trains and life on the railroad (another possible piece of the puzzle); in any case, these sessions are the only surviving document of his music, and his subsequent activities remain a mystery. ~ Jason Ankeny