Biography
Louisiana natives Joe Harris on guitar and Kid West on mandolin first gained notice for the eleven sides they cut on October 9, 1940, in Shreveport for the Library of Congress Folk Archives project, among them two takes of the elegant "Railroad Rag." Their uncommonly fluid style moved freely among blues, string band dance tunes, and rags. That same assured technique surfaces both on those Library of Congress recordings and on the string band numbers the pair had previously made in 1937 with Oscar "Buddy" Woods as the Wampus Cats. After the 1940 sessions, however, Harris and West disappear from the historical record, although both are believed to have remained in the Shreveport area.