Search - Rev Gary Davis :: At Newport

The best, most nuanced acoustic guitar playing you will ever

Vikram S. Valia | 02/17/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Blind Reverend Davis is the point where gospel and old acoustic blues meet. It's just him and a guitar. It's the most astounding acoustic guitar playing i've ever heard. This is simply an amazing recording of a peerless guitar player. The Grateful Dead guitarist, Bob Weir, took lessons from this guy. That's how good he is. "Rev. Davis taught me, by example, to completely throw out my preconceptions of what can or can't be done on the guitar," is what he said about the experience.

"Gary Davis took you out of playing baby guitar and made you play it like a grown man." -Taj Mahal

"He was the most fantastic guitarist I'd ever seen." -Dave Van Ronk

Those are pretty respectable people saying great things about this man and its true. The vocal delivery and message is wonderful as well, this is quite simply, the best acoustic blues album i will ever own, Robert Johnson, Blind Willie Mctell, and Leadbelly included.











"

Once Again On A Master Blues Player

Alfred Johnson | boston, ma | 12/01/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I have mentioned many of the old time black male country blues singers in this space, for example, Son House, Bukka White and Skip James. I have also mentioned the close connection between this rural music, the routine of life on the farm (mainly the Mississippi Delta plantations or sharecropping) and simple religious expression in their works. The blues singer under review meets all of those criteria and more. The Reverend Gary Davis, although not as well known in the country blues pantheon, has had many of his songs covered by the denizens of the folk revival of the 1960's and some rock groups, like The Grateful Dead, looking for a connection with their roots. Thus, by one of the ironies of fate his tradition lives on in popular music. I would also mention here that his work was prominently displayed in one of the Masters Of The Blues documentaries that I have reviewed in this space. That placement is insurance that that the Reverend's musical virtuosity is of the highest order. As an instrumentalist he steals the show in that film. Enough said.



Stick out songs here are the much-covered (by the legendary Dave Van Ronk, among others) "Samson and Delilah", "Twelve Sticks", "Twelve Keys To The City" and the gospelly "I Have Done All My Singing For The Lord"

"