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

Having a Little Faith

There are times that A Little More Faith almost feels like a middle child, not catching quite the esteem of its older sibling nor the notice of the younger. Davis' 1961 sophomore release for Prestige/Bluesville, following the seminal and well-received Harlem Street Singer by less than a year, was the fledgling label's hopes that lightning would strike twice. It did--and would again, just months later when Davis' third Bluesville LP, Say No To the Devil was released. Bruce Eders, surveying Davis' work in his AllMusic reviews has by turns called A Little More Faith "magnificent," "priceless," and "triumphant." High praise indeed for an album that was all about praise.

As with its predecessor, A Little More Faith offers an even dozen spirituals. In modest contrast to Harlem Street Singer, this album's material strikes one as being more "traditional" in its readings, if only just so. As before, Rev. Gary blends mostly original songs with more standard church tunes, such as I'll Fly Away. He takes one aback almost immediately with his take on You Got to Move. For one more familiar with the near-foreboding tones of Mississippi Fred McDowell's version, this strikes one as purely upbeat and fun--for certainly Rev. Gary was having a ball (listen to him through the last minute of this song and he's doing more than getting into it, he's grinning ear to ear.) We find this running throughout this album, Gary enjoying himself and giving full praise to his Lord. We also find in another oft-covered spiritual blues, Motherless Children, some of Davis' more deeply emotive and affecting performances, reeling in his fluid playing and pushing his vocals forward, achieving something singularly bone-deep and heartfelt.

There is almost a more positive spirit at work here overall, exemplified through his readings of There's a Bright Side, I'm Glad I'm in that Number, and When I Die I'll Live Again. Like so much of Rev. Gary's work, it's infectious music that draws us in, draws in our smiles, and gets our toes to tapping. His guitar work is consistently a thing of beauty, perhaps more understated than his performances on Harlem Street Singer, but deceptively intricate and inventive.

The Reverend Gary Davis would record four albums for the Prestige label and they would release five, three on its Bluesville imprint and two more on Prestige-Folklore before they folded, late in '64. Of the two on the Folklore imprint, the first was a re-release of Harlem Street Singer, retitled Pure Religion!, the second a wholly-instrumental and delightful affair titled The Guitar and Banjo of Reverend Gary Davis. His three albums on the Bluesville imprint were composed entirely of spirituals. For this, arguably the most pivotal period of his career, Davis was enthusiastically received by a secular world on the strength of dazzling musicianship, raw, genuine emotion and infectious joy.

Peace, Mudcatz


Rev. Gary Davis
A Little More Faith
Prestige/Bluesville 1999

1. You Got To Move
2. Crucifixion
3. I'm Glad I'm In That Number
4. There's a Table Sitting in Heaven
5. Motherless Children
6. There's a Bright Side Somewhere
7. I'll Be Alright Someday
8. You Better Mind
9. A Little More Faith
10. I'll Fly Away
11. God's Gonna Separate
12. When I Die I'll Live Again

Link

Rev. Gary's New Beginning

When Jazz label Prestige began its Bluesville subsidiary in 1960, what would become the folk and blues boom was only then getting ramped up. Through the four short years of its existence, Bluesville released a near-staggering amount of quality blues, helping the fuel the revival as well as providing us, from the distant hilltop of these later years, with many of the idiom's essential recordings. In its first year alone, the Bluesville imprint would turn loose albums by Willie Dixon, Roosevelt Sykes, Lonnie Johnson, and a pair from Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee. At the end of their first year, they introduced the Rev. Gary Davis to much of the world.

Davis had, of course, recorded for ARC in the '30's and the Smithsonian in the '50's. By the end of that decade, he was already a fixture in New York City, playing on its streets and, entering the 1960's, its coffee houses.

When Prestige/Bluesville released Harlem Street Singer, it would almost seem a gutsy move in hindsight, pitching an album of spirituals at a secular and an as-yet-still-unproven folk market. One would think that, were it just about anyone other than the Rev. Gary Davis, and especially this album, things might have worked out differently. As it went, it turned out very well indeed. Davis would stick around Bluesville, releasing two more critical albums, and his career moved, finally, into its most successful stage.

In late August, 1960, at a recording studio in New Jersey, Davis cut 20 songs in just 3 hours. Twelve of these would become Harlem Street Singer. Davis would open his repertoire back up a bit fairly quickly, incorporating secular material into his live sets, and then his albums. For this, his debut, Davis recorded exclusively spirituals. Spirituals that were designed to shake a man deep, music--and a man--that blended sanctified music, the blues, and trend-setting ragtime guitar into something seamless and singular. Davis' music still defies convenient labeling because he was able to bring them all to the fore simultaneously.

One could scarcely hope for a stronger opening than Davis' well-traveled Samson and Delilah, giving us what could easily qualify as its best rendition. What follows is a showcase dose of what made the man such a seminal figure. Whether riffing on ragtime or playfully playing call and response with his guitar, Davis' fingerwork throughout this album is just gorgeous. Frenetic one moment, introspective the next, this is the sort of disc, and Rev. Gary the sort of player, that requires repeated spins to catch the nuances.

Often as not, with Davis' rough-hewn, life-worn voice and blues holler inflections, most of his spirituals ended up sounding like blues. Davis wasn't on any sales pitch, he was just singing it like he felt it. Like he believed. When his voice got to booming, as it does through I Belong to the Band, Hallelujah, Great Change Since I Been Born and Twelve Gates to the City, Gary's giving it his all, straining for, wringing out that last note.

Harlem Street Singer would be the Rev. Gary's introduction to a broader audience that was finally primed to hear him. They found in his music, and the man, something decidedly genuine. Even joyous.

Peace, Mudcatz




Rev. Gary Davis
Harlem Street Singer
Prestige/Bluesville 1993

1. Samson and Delilah
2. Let Us Get Together
3. I Belong to the Band, Hallelujah!
4. Pure Religion
5. Great Change Since I Been Born
6. Death Don't Have No Mercy
7. Twelve Gates to the City
8. Goin' to Sit Down by the Banks of the River
9. Tryin' To Get Home
10. Lo, I Be With You Always
11. I Am the Light of the World
12. I Feel Just like Goin' On

Link

At Home With Gary Davis

Probably no other style of American music has benefited from "home" or "field" recordings as has the blues. The work of folklorists like John Lomax and George Mitchell effectively helped to shape what we've now come to see as classic blues recording, leaving their work as revered and crucial as anything produced for commercial release. Of course, most did eventually find their way to such release--and we've become so much the richer for it. The folks who trundled their heavy recording equipment into shotgun shacks and up and down Appalachian hillsides were folklorists and researchers, academics rather than record producers. Their vision was to document roots music in the very places it had been nurtured since time began...and to get in down on record before Time buried it beneath its sands.

This was very much John Cohen's intent when he sat down in the Rev. Gary Davis' New York home in 1953. Davis had recorded a number of stunning sides for the Victor label in the mid-late '30's, then not a note for more than a decade. Exhilarating and as intricate as Davis' guitar work was, mainstream record labels were far more interested in secular music for a popular market. While never strictly a gospel man, Rev. Gary had been moving away from secular material even through the years he recorded for Victor. Davis could be uncompromising in one respect for which we have always benefited: he played what he damn well felt like playing.

What Cohen recorded there in Davis' apartment is just a wonder of gospel and blues recording. Given its vintage (& owing greatly to Smithsonian Folkways' digital clean-up), the sound quality alone could have you thinking this could have been recorded yesterday. The immediacy of Davis' delivery has not slipped one bit in the nearly-60 years since taped was rolled. He is accompanied on some of these numbers by his wife, Ann Davis, and Kinny Pebbles. Davis' ragtime guitar work is a thing of beauty here, living up every bit to his reputation as one of the most influential musicians of the last century. What further helps to make these recordings such a find is that Davis would not record the majority of these tunes again. This is their only time in the sun.

Rev. Gary's holding a meeting here...


Rev. Gary Davis
If I Had My Way: Early Recordings
Smithsonian Folkways, 1993
(Recorded New York City, 1953)

1. If I Had My Way
2. If the Lord Be For You
3. Twelves Gates of the City
4. You Got To Move
5. We Area Heavenly Father's Children
6. A Friend Like Lonely Jesus
7. Get Right Church
8. Marine Band
9. Shine on Me
10. There's Destruction on This Land
11. He Stole Away
12. The Uncloudy Day
13. Say No to the Devil
14. I Belong To the Band
15. Give Me a Heart To Love
16. He Never Has Left Me Alone
17. Got On My Traveling Shoes
18. Civil War Parade


Link


For those of you who've been digging this "Sunday Spirituals" run I've been doing, and judging from the number of downloads those posts have been generating, quite a few of you are, and who'd like to get even more adventurous, you ought to check out the post that Record Fiend put up a couple days back. Too mint for words...

Record Fiend's 10 Years of Black Country Religion Post



Peace, Mudcatz

Rev. Gary Schools Manchester UK '64

On-going computer issues have held things up for me here of late, though those will be all good in a few more days. So, broadcasting from the lifeboat as it were, I've been digging on some goodies still on my old hard drive.

I'm thinking sometimes it pays to poke about in the archives...

Rev. Gary Davis managed to deliver one of his finest live outings on this, Document's 2007 release, Rev. Gary Davis, Manchester Free Trade Hall, 1964. Aside from its great sound quality (given its vintage), Davis serves up a spot-on set of mostly standards. He's joined on a couple tracks (Sun Going Down and Coon Hunt) by none other than Sonny Terry.

As Rev. Gary releases go, this is about as close to essential as it gets...


Rev. Gary Davis
Manchester Free Trade Hall, 1964
DOCD 32-20-14

01 - You Got To Move
02 - If I Had My Way
03 - The Sun Is Going Down
04 - I’m A Soldier
05 - I Got A Little Mama, Sweet As She Can Be
06 - Sally, Please Come Back To Me
07 - Cocaine Blues
08 - Cincinnati Flow Rag
09 - Children of Zion
10 - Coon Hunt (Terry Instrumental)
11 - Maple Leaf Rag

Link


Peace, Mudcatz

Rev. Gary's Holding a Meeting

Rained out again, but indoors is good living too. Low fire in the stove to drive off the damp. My lady's baking pies. The cabin smells like warm cinnamon and sounds like the Rev. Gary Davis.

Hey, it's Sunday and folks have been telling me for years that I could use some churchin' up...


Rev. Gary Davis
7/8/67
Friends' Center
Seattle, WA

Intro
Old Time Religion
Let Us Get Together
I'm Gonna Sit Down on the Banks of the River
Davis Speaks, I
Feel Like My Time Ain't Long
Davis Speaks, II
Teaching the Audience
Come Down to See Me Sometime
Davis Speaks III
She's Just Funny That Way
Make Believe Stunt
Cincinnati Flow Rag

(from 7/7/67):

Davis Speaks IV
I Heard the Angels Singing
Samson and Delilah


Link

Peace, Mudcatz