Gary Davis

Bob-Dubery

Anybody else here ever listen to the good Reverend?

I've had the Harlem Street Singer disc playing in the car. I'm quite taken by it. Great feel, great groove, heavily syncopated at times (where'd that beat go?). The multi-part playing is impressive when he really gets it going.

According to the liner notes he's one of these annoying people who use just a thumb and one finger. The notes also talk about the actual session. Rev. Gary didn't take many breaks, got most of the tracks down in one take and laid down 20 songs in a 3 hour session.

I know that he was hugely influential, though not as venerated as Robert Johnson. Davis was actually older than Johnson by 14 of 15 years, and so it may be that he kept some fairly old musical traditions alive by dint of his performances and the lessons that he gave in New York in the 50s and 60s.

Can I get a witness?

guitarboy2828

Never heard him, but sounds like I need to! Keen to check him out! ?

singemonkey

Hallelujah.

Well actually I've not listened to him much. Knew him of course through Keif's brilliant Prodigal Son on Beggar's Banquet. Seen him in a couple of youtube clips from Pete Seeger's '60s folk tv show. I could stand to hear more. Wanna hit us up with some links?

Bob-Dubery

Ja well I don't know a whole lot more. I got this CD a couple of years ago and haven't listened to it much. After a recent clean out I decided that I needed to pay more attention to some of the CDs on my shelf. So this is one of them, and I resolved to give it a few spins and see if it starts sinking in this time. It has.

I was rather hoping that somebody out there in GFSA land would come up with an essay, or at least a few paragraphs on why the Rev. Gary is essential, marvellous etc etc. I wasn't expecting to have to make the running ?

I know that he was a big influence on several better known players - notably Bob Weir, Jorma Kaukonen (who went to Davis for lessons) and Stefan Grossman.

Bob-Dubery

I've been looking at some timelines of "the blues". These are uncertain at best since the development of music in southern negro communities is not well documented. Best guesses are that something recognisable as the blues started to develop in the late 19th century. W.C Handy is often remembered as "the father" of the blues, but he can't have been because, as he himself has said, he heard somebody else playing it.

Handy was born in 1873 and had his encounter with the blues in 1902 or 1903.

Davis was born in 1896, so he's roughly contemporaneous with Blind Lemon Jefferson, Mississippi John Hurt and Lonnie Johnson.

Bob-Dubery

There's a web site dedicated to the memory and legacy of the Reverend Gary Davis
http://reverendgarydavis.com/

This has some sound samples available (real audio)

Jack-Flash-Jr

Ah.... the good Reverend... Hallelujah indeed...