Reverend Gary Davis (1896 - 1972)
The virtuoso minister
“Gary D. Davis, known as Reverend Gary Davis or Blind Gary Davis (so many blind guys back then), was a blues and gospel singer who was also proficient on the banjo, guitar and harmonica.”
One explanation for the many blind guitarists was because malnutrition and once they were blind they couldn’t go to work in the field, but they could make a living by playing the guitar.
That and moonshine.
Back to Davis.
“Davis' fingerpicking guitar style influenced many other artists. His students included Stefan Grossman, David Bromberg, Steve Katz, Bob Weir (The Grateful Dead), Woody Mann, Tom Winslow (and many more). He also influenced Bob Dylan, Jorma Kaukonen (Jefferson Airplane), and John Sebastian (Lovin' Spoonful).”
Davis was primarily a street musician and made relatively few recordings in his early career, but his virtuosic finger picking was an important influence on other regional musicians, most notably Blind Boy Fuller. Davis and Fuller were players of the “Piedmont” guitar style, which is similar to ragtime and stride piano. Other musicians in the Piedmont style were Blind Blake, Elizabeth Cotten and Etta Bakker.
“In the 1950s and 60s Davis taught and played concerts in New York City. He became a beloved mentor to folk and rock legends such as Dave Van Ronk, and Bob Dylan.
Unlike some of his contemporaries, Davis could play in any key. According to Allen Evans, who began studying with Davis when he was sixteen, he was one of the few blue guitar artists to explore minor keys, "creating works of deep pathos such as 'Death Don't Have No Mercy', 'Children of Zion', and 'I Heard the Angels Singing'."
Davis had exhibited an interest in music at an early age and built a guitar from a pie pan around the age of seven. He taught himself to play guitar, banjo, and harmonica and began playing local dances while still a child.
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.For a time he stopped playing the blues altogether in favor of gospel and old time songs, making an exception for "gospel blues" such as "Death Don't Have No Mercy," which he first recorded in 1960 (he is generally credited with writing it, though other versions exist from as early as 1926) and, for the first of several times in 1956, "Samson and Delilah," a song recorded in 1927 by Blind Willie Johnson, also called "If I Had My Way, I'd Tear the Building Down," using one or the other title each time. He also taught guitar — giving lessons that could last all day and into the night. As he became better known among folk aficionados he made recordings for Stinson, and later Folkways, Prestige-Bluesville, and Riverside, consenting little by little to revive some of his secular repertoire for the benefit of his white admirers.”
“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."
(You can read the full text with more information on: https://www.culturalequity.org/alan-lomax/friends/davis)
Here’s a short transcription of Rev. Gary Davis playing Candyman.
You can download the pdf below:
