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Reverend Gary Davis
Davis in the 1960s
Background information
Birth name	Gary D. Davis
Also known as	Blind Gary Davis
Born	(1896-04-30)April 30, 1896 Laurens, South Carolina, U.S.
Died	May 5, 1972(1972-05-05) (aged 76) Hammonton, New Jersey, U.S.
Genres	Gospel blues Piedmont blues country blues folk blues
Instruments	Guitar vocals banjo
Years active	1930s–1970s

Gary D. Davis (April 30, 1896 – May 5, 1972), known as Reverend Gary Davis and Blind Gary Davis, was a blues and gospel singer who was also proficient on the banjo, guitar and harmonica. Born in Laurens, South Carolina and blind since infancy, Davis first performed professionally in the Piedmont blues scene of Durham, North Carolina in the 1930s, then converted to Christianity and became a minister. After moving to New York in the 1940s, Davis experienced a career rebirth as part of the American folk music revival that peaked during the 1960s. Davis' most notable recordings include "Samson and Delilah" and "Death Don't Have No Mercy".

Davis' fingerpicking guitar style influenced many other artists. His students included Stefan Grossman, David Bromberg, Steve Katz, Roy Book Binder, Larry Johnson, Alex Shoumatoff, Nick Katzman, Dave Van Ronk, Rory Block, Ernie Hawkins, Larry Campbell, Bob Weir, Woody Mann, and Tom Winslow. He also influenced Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead, Wizz Jones, Jorma Kaukonen, Keb' Mo', Ollabelle, Resurrection Band, and John Sebastian (of the Lovin' Spoonful).

Biography

Davis was born in Laurens, South Carolina in the Piedmont region, on a farm that was, by his recollection, "way down in the sticks; so far you couldn't hear a train whistle blow unless it was on a cloudy day."

Of the eight children his mother bore, he was one of two who survived to adulthood. He became blind as an infant. He'd recall his grandmother telling him he got "sore eyes" when he was three-weeks old, and the doctors put something in his eyes that "cause ulcers to grow" over the eyes and he ended up blind.

He recalled being poorly treated by his mother and that his father placed him in the care of his paternal grandmother. Davis reported that when he was 10 years old, his father was killed in Birmingham, Alabama. He later said he'd been told his father was shot by the Birmingham sheriff. His mother re-married and gave birth to a boy.

He sang for the first time at Gray Court's Baptist church in South Carolina. He took to the guitar and assumed a unique multi-voice style produced solely with his thumb and index finger, playing gospel, ragtime, and blues tunes along with traditional and original tunes in four-part harmony.

In the mid-1920s, Davis moved to Durham, North Carolina, a major center of black culture at the time. There he taught Blind Boy Fuller and collaborated with a number of other artists in the Piedmont blues scene, including Bull City Red. In 1935, J. B. Long, a store manager with a reputation for supporting local artists, introduced Davis, Fuller, and Red to the American Record Company. The recording sessions (available on his Complete Early Recordings) marked the beginning of Davis's career. He became a Christian, and ordained as a Baptist minister in Washington, North Carolina, in 1933. Following his conversion and after his ordination, Davis began to prefer inspirational gospel music.

In the 1940s, the blues scene in Durham began to decline, and Davis moved to New York. In 1951, he recorded an oral history for the folklorist Elizabeth Lyttleton Harold (the wife of Alan Lomax). who transcribed their conversations in a typescript more than 300 pages long.

The folk revival of the 1960s invigorated Davis's career, and he performed at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. Eleven songs from those performances were released on the 1967 album At Newport. In March 1969, Davis' former student and driver, John Townley, who had since established Apostolic Recording Studio, persuaded Davis to his first recording studio session in five years. The resulting album, O, Glory – The Apostolic Studio Sessions would be Davis' final studio album, released posthumously in 1973.

Peter, Paul and Mary recorded Davis' version of "Samson and Delilah", also known as "If I Had My Way", a song by Blind Willie Johnson, which Davis had popularized. Although the song was in the public domain, it was copyrighted as having been written by Gary Davis at the time of the recording by Peter, Paul and Mary. The resulting royalties allowed Davis to buy a house and live comfortably for the rest of his life, and Davis referred to the house as "the house that Peter, Paul and Mary built." The Grateful Dead covered "Samson and Delilah" on their album Terrapin Station and credited it to Davis. They covered Davis' song "Death Don't Have No Mercy". Eric Von Schmidt credited Davis with three-quarters of Schmidt's "Baby, Let Me Follow You Down", which Bob Dylan covered on his debut album for Columbia Records. The Blues Hall of Fame singer and harmonica player Darrell Mansfield has recorded several of Davis's songs. The Rolling Stones credited Davis and Mississippi Fred McDowell for "You Gotta Move" on their 1971 album Sticky Fingers.

Davis died of a heart attack in May 1972 in Hammonton, New Jersey. He is buried in plot 68 of Rockville Cemetery in Lynbrook, New York.

Discography

Many of Davis' recordings were published posthumously.

Personal life

In 1937, Davis married Annie Bell Wright, who was as religious and spiritual as Davis, and in 1944, they moved to Mamaroneck, New York, where Annie worked as a housekeeper. Later that year they moved to the East Bronx on 169th street. He became a minister of the Missionary Baptist Connection Church and acquired the nickname "Harlem Street Singer." They moved to Jamaica, Queens in 1968.

On May 5, 1972, while on the way to a concert in Newtonville, New Jersey, he had a heart attack and died. He is buried at the Rockville Cemetery in Lynbrook, New York. His widow, Annie Bell Wright-Davis, died in 1997.

Recognition

While he was alive, Davis' music was recognized by musicians of the era as exceptional. Bob Dylan called him "one of the wizards of modern music," while Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead said Davis had "a Bacchian sense of music which transcended any common notion of a bluesman." Jorma Kaukonen of the Jefferson Airplane suggested Davis is "one of the greatest figures of 20th-century music."

He was posthumously recognized alongside Blind Boy Fuller as Main Honorees by the Sesquicentennial Honors Commission at the Durham 150 Closing Ceremony in Durham, North Carolina, on November 2, 2019. The recognition was bestowed for their contributions to the Piedmont blues.

See also

• "Cocaine Blues"
• Gospel blues

References

1. Eagle, Bob; LeBlanc, Eric S. (2013). Blues: A Regional Experience. Santa Barbara, California: Praeger. ISBN 978-0313344237.
2. ^ Harold, Ellen; Stone, Peter (April 30, 2005). "Reverend Gary Davis". ACE. The Association for Cultural Equity. Retrieved March 27, 2024.
3. Eder, Bruce (n.d.). "Rev. Gary Davis: Biography & History". AllMusic. Retrieved February 16, 2021.
4. Grossman, Stefan (1974). Rev. Gary Davis Blues Guitar. Oak Publications. ISBN 9781783234592.
5. ^ Russell, Tony (1997). The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray. Dubai: Carlton Books. p. 105. ISBN 1-85868-255-X.
6. "Reverend Gary Davis | Association for Cultural Equity". The Association for Cultural Equity. Retrieved July 18, 2020.
7. "Rev Gary Davis". Arbiterrecords.org. January 31, 2013. Retrieved November 18, 2016.
8. ^ W. K. McNeil, Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music, Routledge, Abingdon-on-Thames, 2013, p. 97
9. Smith, Chris (2003). Meet You at the Station: The Vintage Recordings (1935–1949) (Media notes). Reverend Gary Davis. Document Records. OCLC 489027245. Retrieved February 11, 2013.
10. Colin Larkin, ed. (1995). The Guinness Who's Who of Blues (2nd ed.). Guinness Publishing. ISBN 0-85112-673-1.
11. ^ Zack, Ian (2015). Say No to the Devil: The Life and Musical Genius of Rev. Gary Davis. Chicago, United States: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-23410-6.
12. "David Bromberg: "I Belong To The Band," and "Tryin To Get Home" plus an interview about Gary Davis". YouTube. July 17, 2020. Archived from the original on December 12, 2021. Retrieved March 6, 2021.
13. Doc Rock. "The 1970s". TheDeadRockStarsClub.com. Retrieved May 29, 2014.
14. "Riverside Records Discography Project". Jazzdisco.org. Retrieved November 28, 2010.
15. "Prestige Records Discography Project". Jazzdisco.org. Retrieved November 28, 2010.
16. Wirz, Stefan (December 2, 2010). "Prestige/Bluesville Discography". American Music. Retrieved December 4, 2010.
17. Wirz, Stefan (August 16, 2010). "77 Records Discography". American Music. Retrieved November 28, 2010.
18. Wirz, Stefan (August 2, 2010). "Kicking Mule". American Music. Retrieved November 28, 2010.
19. Davis, Gary; Tillig, Robert (2010). Oh, What a Beautiful City: A Tribute to Reverend Gary Davis. Pacific, Missouri: Mel Bay Publications. pp. 151–152. ISBN 978-0-7866-8258-4. Retrieved November 28, 2010.
20. Henderson, Alex (2003). "Reverend Gary Davis". In Vladimir Bogdanov (ed.). All Music Guide to the Blues: The Definitive Guide to the Blues (3rd ed.). Milwaukee: Hal Leonard. pp. 142–143. ISBN 0-87930-736-6. Retrieved November 28, 2010.
21. Coltman, Bob (2008). Paul Clayton and the Folksong Revival. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-6132-9. Retrieved November 28, 2010.
22. "The Field Recorders' Collective". Fieldrecorder.com. Archived from the original on January 17, 2011. Retrieved January 28, 2011.
23. Durham 150 (November 2, 2019). Durham 150 Closing Ceremony Program – via Archive.org.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

Further reading

• Mann, Woody (2003). The Art of Acoustic Blues Guitar: Ragtime and Gospel. Oak Publications.
• Reevy, Tony; Weaver, Caroline (July 2002). "Street Sessions, Piedmont Style". Our State.
• Stambler, Irwin; Stambler, Lyndon (2001). Folk and Blues, the Encyclopedia. New York: St. Martin's Press.
• Tilling, Robert (1992). Oh, What a Beautiful City! A Tribute to Rev. Gary Davis. Paul Mill Press. ISBN 9780786682584.
• von Schmidt, Eric (2008). "Remembering Reverend Gary Davis". Sing Out! 51(4)67–73.
• Zack, Ian (2015). Say No to the Devil: The Life and Musical Genius of Rev. Gary Davis. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226234106.

External links

• RevGaryDavis.com, a site devoted to Gary Davis.
• Harlem Street Singer, 2013 documentary film on the life and music of Reverend Gary Davis
• www.folkways.si.edu, Smithsonian Folkways recordings information.
• Reverend Gary Davis at Find a Grave
• Davis biography on AllMusic.com
• Biography of the Reverend Gary Davis from the Association of Cultural Equity
• The guitar students of Rev. Gary Davis with links to performances
• The Rev. Gary Davis performing on WNYC Radio, February 10, 1966.
• Liner notes from World Arbiter CD 2005

• 1896 births
• 1972 deaths
• 20th-century American composers
• African-American guitarists
• American blues guitarists
• American male guitarists
• American blues singers
• American street performers
• American gospel singers
• American harmonica players
• Blind musicians
• Country blues musicians
• East Coast blues musicians
• American fingerstyle guitarists
• Gospel blues musicians
• Guitarists from South Carolina
• Piedmont blues musicians
• People from Laurens, South Carolina
• Ragtime composers
• 20th-century American guitarists
• 20th-century African-American male singers
• 20th-century American male singers
• 20th-century American singers
• 20th-century Baptist ministers from the United States
• African-American banjoists
• American blind people
• American musicians with disabilities