Rev. Gary Davis plays as Meegan Ochs dances
(Meegan is the daughter of Alice and Phil Ochs)
Photo by Alice Ochs
Reverend Gary Davis was born 126 years ago today.
Davis was blues and gospel singer and guitarist, who was also proficient on the banjo and harmonica. His finger-picking guitar style influenced many other artists. His guitar students included Stefan Grossman, David Bromberg, Roy Book Binder, Barry Kornfeld, Larry Johnson, Woody Mann, Nick Katzman, Dave Van Ronk, Tom Winslow, Rory Block and Ernie Hawkins.
Davis has influenced Bob Dylan, Grateful Dead, Jackson Browne, Townes van Zandt, Dave Van Ronk, Wizz Jones, Jorma Kaukonen, Danny Kalb, Keb' Mo', Ollabelle, Godspeed You Black Emperor!, Resurrection Band and John Sebastian of The Lovin' Spoonful.
Davis was born in Laurens, South Carolina, and was the only one of eight children his mother bore who survived to adulthood. He became blind as an infant.
Davis reported that his father was killed in Birmingham, Alabama, when Davis was ten, and Davis later said that he had been told that his father had been shot by the Birmingham sheriff. He recalled being poorly treated by his mother and that before his death his father had placed him under the care of his paternal grandmother.
Davis told Stephan Grossman he was born on a farm. “Way down in the sticks, too. Way down in the country, so far you couldn't hear a train whistle blow unless it was on a cloudy day.” He took to the guitar and assumed a unique multi-voice style produced solely with his thumb and index finger, playing not only ragtime and blues tunes, but also traditional and original tunes in four-part harmony.
Davis was a street musician who played parties for both blacks and whites from an area that stretched from Laurens to Greenville, South Carolina. He went to a school for the blind in Spartanburg, S.C., near Greenville.
In the mid-1920s, Davis migrated to Durham, North Carolina, a major center for black culture at the time. There he collaborated with a number of other artists in the Piedmont blues scene including Blind Boy Fuller and 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 subsequent recording sessions marked the real beginning of Davis' career.
During his time in Durham, Davis converted to Christianity. In 1937, he was ordained as a Baptist minister. Following his conversion and especially his ordination, Davis began to express a preference for inspirational gospel music. In the 1940s, the blues scene in Durham began to decline and Davis migrated to New York.
In 1951, well before his “rediscovery,” Davis's oral history was recorded by Elizabeth Lyttleton Harold (the wife of Alan Lomax) who transcribed their conversations into a 300-plus page typescript.
The folk revival of the 1960s re-invigorated Davis' career, culminating in a performance at the Newport Folk Festival and the recording by Peter, Paul and Mary of "Samson and Delilah," also known as "If I Had My Way," originally a Blind Willie Johnson recording that Davis had popularized.
Blues Hall of Fame singer and harmonica player Darrell Mansfield has also recorded several of Rev. Davis song's. Bob Dylan covered Rev. Gary Davis, Dave Von Ronk and Eric Von Schmidt's song, "Baby Let me Follow You Down."
Davis died in May, 1972, from a heart attack in Hammonton, New Jersey. He is buried in plot 68 of Rockville Cemetery in Lynbrook, Long Island, New York.
Here, Davis performs “If I Had My Way”
Rev. Gary Davis, St. Albans, New York, 1961
Photo by Don Schlitten
Sylvia Tyson and Suze Rotolo
Photo by Frank Beacham
Suze Rotolo and Sylvia Tyson on the Rev. Gary Davis...
As I talked with Izzy Young about the Rev. Gary Davis in Washington Square Park in 2007, two women stood nearby listening.
When I finished, Suze Rotolo — perhaps best known as Bob Dylan’s 1960’s girlfriend from the cover of “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan” — said she also had a story about Rev. Gary Davis. I quickly turned on my audio recorder.
The follow-up voice is Sylvia Tyson, half of the popular folk duo, Ian and Sylvia, who also had something to say about Rev. Davis.