The Rev. Gary Davis

[srick]

An earlier thread about Roy Book Binder got me back into listening to some basics of Reverend Gary Davis' style.

I watched my copy of "Harlem Street Singer" again and discovered a whole bunch of supplemental material that I had missed the first time around (Homespun).

I am only beginning to realize how many modern fingerstyle players the "Rev." influenced and how many times I have heard his riffs without recognizing them.

Gotta love the internet.

Rick

[Earl49]

"Sally Where'd You Get That Liquor From?" was something I heard played by a co-worker more than 30 years ago. I simply HAD to learn how to do that, and started on my whole finger style journey. It is still on my instrumental play list, along with many other songs in the country blues / Piedmont / ragtime styles. I enjoy Roy Book Binder's story telling about him too. I need to look and see if there is a copy of "Harlem Street Singer" on my shelf.

Rev. Gary surely did influence a lot of players back in the day, and I've studied the materials from Stefan Grossman's Guitar Workshop and Homespun, and others. A friend (now deceased) even took some lessons from him in NYC back in the early 60's.

[srick]

It would be so interesting to find out the list of kids who took lessons in that little house, wouldn't it? In the interview, Roy Book Binder says that he thanked the Reverend for introducing him to almost every friend he ever had.

[Toby Walker]

Davis was a major influence in my own playing. I only came to realize his playing through listening and reading interviews of the folks who were directly influenced by him, such as Jorma Kaukonen, Stefan Grossman and Roy Book Binder.

I continue to 'steal' all kinds of ideas from Davis's playing.

[Kerbie]

The man could play! Yeah, I can see some of the Reverend in Toby.

Rolly Brown is another guy who was very much influenced by Davis. He even got to spend some time with him before studying him note-for-note.

[Jim Owen]

Lots of folk whence I came played Davis' "Candyman." I love that tune. And I felt like a guitarist when I got it to bounce like he played it--thumb and index style.

Prior to moving to NYC, The Reverend Davis played on the streets of Durham, NC. The blues scene in Durham was happening then. I reckon it's rebounding there, now.

[Mr. Jelly]

You'll have to forgive me as this subject is dear to my heart. There is a book called "Red River Blues" by Bruce Bastin that is a very deeply researched book about the blues tradition in the southeast. It basically starts at the beginning of time and follows the history, the tradition and the people to a point around the mid sixties. There is no other book like it on the southeast style of picking, that I know of. It kind of leaves off at the point of Rev. Gary Davis and a stable full of students learning from him that carried on the tradition, that has taught us all. People like Ernie Hawkins, Stefan Grossman, Roy Bookbinder, Jorma Kaukonen, Woody Mann and Dave Van Ronk. I'm sure I'm forgetting some. I understand there is a documentary about Gary Davis and his students part of the tradition. I feel that there is a direct line of American musical history and tradition here that is still as valid and robust as it every has been. I don't feel that country rag blues finger picking is appreciated for it's place in American music and as the unique guitar style that it is. Without Rev. Gary Davis being who he was and where he was at a point in time to come together with these students like Stefan Grossman, who did a lot of work to carry it on, it could of easily got lost forever. So in a way country rag blues is a by product of the music of the sixties. So at the cost of being overly dramatic I'd like to point out that as the kids of the sixties searched out and learned from the old blues men like Rev. Davis we are now at the point in time where they are old and leaving this world. We should appreciate where we are in space and time.

[devellis]

I had the pleasure of attending a lecture and concert in Chapel Hill on Gary Davis' music that had Elijah Wald, Jorma Kaukanen, Ernie Hawkins, and Stefan Grossman as the participants. Collectively, these guys had a lot of interesting insights into Davis and his influence. A few weeks later, I got to attend a workshop in Durham that Roy Book Binder was offering. I was interested in Davis before these events but they really fueled that interest.

I don't think that Jorma or Van Ronk actually took lessons with Davis but both were certainly influenced by him and Dave hung out with him a lot in the 60's. During the panel discussion, I think it was Stefan Grossman who pointed out that the vast majority of Davis' students were young Jewish kids, Ernie Hawkins being the exception. Ernie then pointed out that he was actually half Jewish. Their pursuit of Davis' music was all part of a New York phenomenon that had a lot of young people -- many of them Jewish for some reason -- pursuing all sorts of roots music in and around Greenwich Village. Folkies, bluegrassers, blues guys, all gathered at Washington Square Park (until they got booted out), exchanging and developing much of the music that guitarists are still playing today.

As young teens in the early 60's my buddies and I used to go into Harvard Square and listen to the music coming out of the Club 47, until we got chased away by annoyed patrons who didn't like our faces pressed against the windows they were on the other side of. We were too young and too broke to actually get into the club but we got to hear snippets of some of the same folks who had gotten their start in the Village, as Boston/Cambridge was on the same circuit as the Village venues.

Davis is certainly one of the main influences on my playing, such as it is. Like Toby, I came to Davis through his disciples, like Book Binder and Hawkins whose learning materials I have used to help me struggle through those tricky Davis tunes. Unlike Toby, I didn't have nearly the success in mastering a significant portion of their repertoires but I cherish what I have learned.

One of the few players of his time that Davis acknowledged as highly skilled was Blind Blake. And I hear a fair bit of Blake in Davis' playing. The participants in the lecture I mentioned, as I recall, assumed that Davis lifted some stuff from Blake but nobody knows if they actually ever crossed paths. Blake certainly passed through places (like Durham) where Davis also spent time but there's no proof of actual meetings.

In addition to Davis and Blake, a third player who often gets mentioned in discussions of Piedmont rag-style blues is Blind Boy Fuller. He and Davis did cross paths. Both played outside the tobacco factories in Durham for change, at lunch hour, or at shift ends. Fuller apparently learned a lot from Davis.

So, we have these three monumental figures of Piedmont blues who seem to have influenced each other (if not mutually in every case). And we know about them largely thanks to some obsessed kids who sought them out and, in Davis' case, discovered one of them in their own city. Venturing out to Davis' house in the Bronx, especially toting a guitar case, took some bravery for these young kids. I'm certainly glad that they mustered that courage and have handed us the legacy that they did.

[walknbass]

I may be mistaken but me thinks John Hammond may have studied
under the Rev Gary Davis too.

[6L6]

Can't say for sure about Jorma, but Dave Van Ronk definitely DID take lessons from Rev. Davis. He wrote about that experience in his book, "The Mayor of Macdougal Street".

That book, BTW, is a great read!

[Silly Moustache]

I do believe that Rory (Aurora) Block (Sunshine Kate) and Woody Mann both sat at the feet of the Rev.

[devellis]

Originally Posted by 6L6

Can't say for sure about Jorma, but Dave Van Ronk definitely DID take lessons from Rev. Davis. He wrote about that experience in his book, "The Mayor of Macdougal Street".

That book, BTW, is a great read!

Look again. On p. 134: "I never took formal lessons from Gary, but I went over to his house a couple of times and I worked with him as often as I could, and whenever he was playing, I would just sit there and watch his fingers. We used to to hang around for hours and we would talk and I would ask him how to play one thing or another."

Eijah Wald (who finished the book after Van Ronk's death and who had worked extensively with him on it prior to that) mentioned that Van Ronk was often believed to have taken lessons from Davis but hadn't. I can understand why you might have thought otherwise, as many people do. If Wald hadn't made a point of mentioning it, I well could have reached the same conclusion.

[Mark E]

I'm a huge fan of Rev. Gary Davis. When I first started "attempting" to play some of his songs, I was watching Ernie Hawkins & Woody Mann dvds. They both mentioned "Harlem Street Singer", as a good place to start. So I picked up that cd, and now have worn it out listening to RGD. Great stuff. He has left his mark on a great number of guitarists. I'm glad that so many have been willing to pass on the knowledge of how to play his music.

[6L6]

"Look again. On p. 134: "I never took formal lessons from Gary, but I went over to his house a couple of times and I worked with him as often as I could, and whenever he was playing, I would just sit there and watch his fingers. We used to to hang around for hours and we would talk and I would ask him how to play one thing or another."

Well, to me that is taking lessons.

[eshrager]

I seem to remember David Bromberg talking about taking lessons from Rev Gary Davis while attending college.