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Reverend Gary Davis

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Birth name
  
Gary Davis

Name
  
Reverend Davis

Years active
  
1930sā€“1970s


Instruments
  
Guitar, vocals

Also known as
  
Blind Gary Davis

Role
  
Singer

Reverend Gary Davis ACE Reverend Gary Davis

Born
  
April 30, 1896 Laurens, South Carolina, United States (
1896-04-30
)

Genres
  
Gospel blues. Piedmont blues, country blues, folk-blues

Died
  
May 5, 1972, Hammonton, New Jersey, United States

Movies
  
Black Roots, Conflict of Interest, Zen

Albums
  
Harlem Street Singer, Blues & Ragtime, Pure Religion & Bad Com, The Guitar and Banjo of Revere, The Complete Early Rec

Similar People
  
Blind Boy Fuller, Mississippi John Hurt, Sonny Terry, Pink Anderson, Mississippi Fred McDowell

Rev. Gary Davis performance - 25mins


Reverend Gary Davis, also Blind Gary Davis (born Gary D. Davis, April 30, 1896 ā€“ May 5, 1972), was a blues and gospel singer who was also proficient on the banjo, guitar and harmonica. His fingerpicking guitar style influenced many other artists. His students include Stefan Grossman, David Bromberg, Steve Katz, Roy Book Binder, Larry Johnson, Nick Katzman, Dave Van Ronk, Rory Block, Ernie Hawkins, Larry Campbell, Bob Weir, Woody Mann, and Tom Winslow. He influenced Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead, Wizz Jones, Jorma Kaukonen, Keb' Mo', Ollabelle, Resurrection Band, and John Sebastian (of the Lovin' Spoonful).

Contents

Reverend Gary Davis Every student who studied with the Rev Gary Davis The

Reverend gary davis i heard the angels singing


Biography

Reverend Gary Davis Reverend Gary Davis Birthday CC Rider

Davis was born in Laurens, South Carolina, in the Piedmont region. Of the eight children his mother bore, he was the only one who survived to adulthood. He became blind as an infant. 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 that he had been told that his father was shot by the Birmingham sheriff.

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He took to the guitar and assumed a unique multivoice 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.

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In the mid-1920s, Davis migrated 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 subsequent recording sessions (available on his Complete Early Recordings) marked the real beginning of Davis's career. During his time in Durham, he became a Christian; in 1937, he was ordained as a Baptist minister. Following his conversion and especially 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. He performed at the Newport Folk Festival. Peter, Paul and Mary recorded his version of "Samson and Delilah", also known as "If I Had My Way", a song by Blind Willie Johnson, which Davis had popularized. "Samson and Delilah" was also covered and credited to Davis by the Grateful Dead on the album Terrapin Station. Eric Von Schmidt credited Davis with three-quarters of Schmidt's "Baby, Let Me Follow You Down", covered by Bob Dylan 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.

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

Discography

Many of Davis' recordings were published posthumously.

References

Reverend Gary Davis Wikipedia