Blind Gary Davis: Harlem Street Singer (2 bonus tracks) [BLUES JOINT]

Why you'll love it

This edition adds 2 bonus tracks to the complete album. It holds two of Davis's most famous recordings, "Samson And Delilah" and "Death Don't Have No Mercy," both later taken up by rock bands.

This edition

• 2 bonus tracks

About the album

Few guitarists have had as many famous pupils as the Reverend Gary Davis. Born in Laurens, South Carolina, in 1896 and blind from infancy, he learned his trade in the Piedmont blues scene of Durham, North Carolina, became a minister, and by the 1940s was preaching and playing on the streets of Harlem.

Kenneth S. Goldstein produced this session, and it captures Davis in full voice, half sermon, half shout, over fingerpicking so intricate it sounds like two guitarists. "Samson And Delilah" rolls with joy, "Twelve Gates To The City" swings like a revival meeting, "Death Don't Have No Mercy" is stark and powerful, and "I Belong To The Band" and "Lord, I Feel Just Like Goin' On" are pure uplift. His guitar work moves from ragtime bounce to solemn hymn without missing a beat, and his voice rings like a church bell. You can hear every street corner he ever played in it.

The 60s folk revival brought him a new audience, and his students included Stefan Grossman, Dave Van Ronk and the Grateful Dead's Bob Weir. His lessons, by all accounts, did not come with a light show.

Also at Kops: more Reverend Gary Davis on vinyl · browse Blues

Tracklist

Listen

On Blues Joint (cat# 8021), a reissue of the 1960 album.