The Sacred & Secular Rev. Gary

For this week's Sunday Spirituals installment, I'd like to wrap up my 3-part retrospective of the Rev. Gary Davis' pivotal Prestige releases with his concluding pair from the short-lived label. Prestige, through its Bluesville and Folklore imprints, would release 5 albums by the legendary "Harlem Street Singer" through its short, 4-year existence, capitalizing on the folk-blues revival and making Rev. Gary one of that era's bonafide stars.

I have always found Davis' Prestige albums a point of fascination. As the flashpoint for what became Davis' commercial success, these LP's would seem a curiosity as they are, for all practical purposes, spiritual albums consumed by a secular audience. Few recording artists would ever manage such a cross-over. With Davis, of course, it would always be more than his message. Rev. Gary's playing was always something singular, something that would always be something approaching the transcendent. Burgeoning musicians and folkies alike have consistently been drawn to Davis' intricate guitar work, deceptively-complex ragtime stylings and raspy, world-wearied vocals that consistently leapt to the joyous.

The first three of Davis' Prestige releases, totaling 34 songs, were all spirituals, whether stirring originals such as Death Don't Have No Mercy or reworked hymns (e.g. I'll Fly Away). The third album, Say No To The Devil, was released in 1961, right on the heels of A Little More Faith. Cashing in on what was then the height of his popularity, Say No to the Devil had the effect of usurping much of A Little More Faith's spotlight. But this ain't a competition. All 3 of Davis' first Prestige albums are universally strong, without a "filler track" in the mix, blending the Rev. Gary's uncompromising Word with some of the most influential and dazzling fretwork then waxed. We see this virtuosity in no uncertain terms throughout Say No to the Devil, with Davis even bringing a 12-string into the show for the sublime Lost Boy In the Wilderness and Time Is Drawing Near. He further treats us to his own harmonica work on tunes like Hold On To God's Unchanging Hand. The folkie crowd and the more-secular public may have been drawn in by his uncommon dexterity, but through these releases especially, Gary was giving praise to his God and spreading His Word in his own singular way.



Rev. Gary Davis
Say No To the Devil
OBC 1991

1. Say No to the Devil
2. Time is Drawing Near
3. Hold Onto God's Unchanging Hand
4. Bad Company Brought Me here
5. I Decided to Go Down
6. Lord, I Looked Down the Road
7. Little Bitty Baby
8. No One Can Do Me Like Jesus
9. Lost Boy in the Wilderness
10. Tryin' to Get to Heaven in Due Time


Link


Prestige would release no new Rev. Gary Davis material for nearly two years, following So No to the Devil. The Bluesville imprint itself seems to have fallen by the wayside by the time Prestige issued The Guitar and Banjo of Rev. Gary Davis in 1964. The cynic in me almost believes that the label had begun to shy from Davis' spiritual presentations in favor (or belief) that the folk-blues market was being drawn more to his musicianship than his message. I personally believe that the 2 albums that had been released in the interim (Great Britain's 77 label issued a set of his 1957 Smithsonian recordings and Prestige themselves repackaged Harlem Street Singer as Pure Religion!) suffered commercially by comparison and may well have helped to "drag" the formula. When they released The Guitar and Banjo... in 1964, they focused exclusively on Rev. Gary's playing, presenting a wholly-instrumental outing that introduces secular inclusions (Maple Leaf Rag, Coon Hunt, Candy Man, etc.) for the first time on its label.

When Davis was a younger man, he slipped and fell on the ice, breaking his left wrist. The bones were not set properly and Davis would have to hold his guitar's (or banjo's) neck in a peculiar fashion. It has been suggested that this was partly responsible for Davis' idiosyncratic--and singular--style. Whether or not this is the case, Davis' playing became a thing of flowing beauty, which is given exclusive focus on this, one of his most-underrated releases.


Rev. Gary Davis
The Guitar and Banjo of Reverend Gary Davis
OBC 2001

1. Maple Leaf Rag
2. Slow Drag (Cincinnati Flow Rag)
3. The Boy Was Kissing the Girl (& Playing Guitar at the Same Time)
4. Candy Man
5. United States March (Soldier's Drill)
6. Devil's Dream
7. The Coon Hunt
8. Mister James (Walkin Dog Blues)
9. Please Baby
10. Fast Fox Trot
11. Can't Be Satisfied

Link


Peace, Mudcatz