Conference napalm::guitar

    In an interview years ago, Jerry Garcia named the Rev. Gary Davis
    as one of his biggest influences. I've heard his name mentioned
    by many as an influence as well. 
    
    There may be more info in the after_hours (blues) conference.
    
    Mark

    
    This isn't the guy who used to be a wrestler is it?  I heard a song
    with Mike M. the other day, and this guy slayed me!!  Whata riot!
    

I saw him play in Baltimore sometime around 1968 ... he was a serious drinker
at the time, and my primary recollection of him was seeing him sitting in a
folding chair before going on, with a bottle of whiskey in one hand. I don't 
recall his playing from that day, though I really enjoy him when I hear a
recording (e.g. recently Dick Pleasants included his version of "If I Had My
Way", which he wrote, on his PBS folk program. Much grittier and more
interesting than the PP&M cover.

If you like listening to authentic blues guitar picking, you won't go wrong
with a Rev. Gary Davis recording.

    Professional wrestler?!?!  Shirley you jest!
    
    Mark

Maybe he's thinking about Huddie Ledbetter (aka Leadbelly). I don't know if he
was ever a wrestler, but he was closer in build to what you'd expect a wrestler
to look like than Gary Davis (who I recall as being fairly slight in build). 

(Besides ... a blind wrestler? Not a good formula for success...)

    
    Apparently he was Stephan Grossman's teacher.  There are
    a couple clips of him on Stephan's instructional
    video "How to Play Country Blues Guitar, Vol. 3".  
    Really amazing.
    
    Dave    
    

    Umm, nope - this guy was a pro-wrestler turned singer/songwriter.
    The Rev. Something-Something - a real story teller.  
    
    Also, I was mistaken:  it wasn't Mike M I heard the tune with; it
    was my realtor.  :-)  Guy was FUNNY tho!
    jc

Since Rev. Gary Davis was born in 1896 and was blind, I doubt if he was the 
person you had in mind.

Jim

    I heard Rev. Gary Davis back in '76 on the radio and I was hooked. He
    plays country blues guitar. I learned his playing style from the 
    Stefan Grossman's workshop book "Rev. Gary Davis" along with a
    cassette of all the music in the book. I can post the address for
    getting the book and cassette if you like. 
    As I got into other players styles, such as Blind Lemmon Jefferson,
    Blind Blake, Mance Lipscomb ,etc, I discovered that Rev. Gary Davis
    tunes were the most difficult (as a whole) to play. So I would
    recommend you look at starting off learning other artists first, 
    then go to Rev. Gary Davis. It takes a hell of a lot of practice
    and patience (in my experience) to play this stlye proficiently.
    A book that I enjoyed a lot was 5 blues greats. Blind Blake is
    in this book and he is a very entertaining and an excellent
    guitar player and a good singer. Ragtime Blues is also good.
    There's a whole whack of books from the Grossman catalogue that
    will get you going.  
    
    One of his songs (I think it was Candyman, not sure) was recorded
    by a popular 60's group and he retired from the royalties in 
    some warm climate such as Barbados. He died a few years later.
    The amazing thing about Rev. Gary Davis is that he would never
    play a tune the same way twice and it would sound good most 
    of the time. I also remember reading that he fractured his
    wrist and it wasn't reset properly and that's why he could
    do a bunch of almost physically impossible chord formations.
    Doing some of the tunes from his book were real tendon 
    stretcher's for the thumb. He definitely was NOT a wrestler!
    
    see ya later
    

    Candyman was covered by the Grateful Dead. In fact, it was played
    at nearly EVERY Dead Show I ever attended. Great tune!
    
    Mark

    
    	"Who can make a rainbow,"
    

    RE: .11
    
    NOT!
    

    I don't recall Sammy Davis Jr. ever singing the lyrics:
    
    "Hand me my ole shotgun boy, I'll blow you straight to Hell"
    
    

re: .10

>    Candyman was covered by the Grateful Dead. In fact, it was played
>    at nearly EVERY Dead Show I ever attended. Great tune!
    
I don't think that's the same song.  The Dead one (originally on American
Beauty) is credited to Garcia/Hunter.  

-Hal

    Oh  !
    
    Never Mind  

re: .15

>    Oh  !
>    
>    Never Mind  

The Dead's "Candyman" *is* a great song, though!  American Beauty and its
predecessor, Workingman's Dead, are my favorite Dead albums.  I liked the
Dead best during their country-rock period.

Could anyone provide some lyrics or some sort of description of the Rev. Gary
Davis "Candyman"?  I have this nagging feeling that I have indeed heard it,
but I just can't place it at the moment.

-Hal

    
    
    For a photo, see
    
    http://www.cyborganic.com:80/People/eyeneer/America/Genre/blue.html
    
    or 
    
    http://ils.unc.edu:80/garvc/blues4.html
    
    or
    
    http://www.math.ufl.edu:80/~jaz/discog.txt
    
    which reveals that the Hot Tuna recorded several Gary Davis tunes
    including Candy Man
    
    or 
    
    http://www.uccs.edu:80/~ddodd/candy.html#candyman
    
    which contains the lyrics from the Mississippi John Hurt version of
    Candy Man Blues (not sure if this is the same one Gary Davis sang,
    but it seems possible):
    
         "Well all you ladies gather 'round
         That good sweet candy man's in town
         It's the candy man
         It's the candy man 
    
         He likes a stick of candy just nine inch long
         He sells as fast a hog can chew his corn
         It's the candy man... 
    
         All heard what sister Johnson said
         She always takes a candy stick to bed 
    
         Don't stand close to the candy man
         He'll leave a big candy stick in your hand 
    
         He sold some candy to sister Bad
         The very next day she took all he had 
    
         If you try his candy, good friend of mine,
         You sure will want it for a long long time 
    
         His stick candy don't melt away
         It just gets better, so the ladies say" (The Blues Line, p. 229.) 
    
    
    

    Didn't he write "Cocaine" (the one recorded by Jackson Brown on
    Running on Empty, not the J.J. Cale song recorded by Clapton)?
    
    	You take Sally,
    	I'll take Sue.
    	There ain't no difference
        Between the too,
    	Cocaine... runnin' 'round my brain

Yes, Davis wrote "Cocaine" as sung by Jackson Browne.
No, the "Candyman" that Davis wrote is not the song sung by the Dead, however,
	Davis did write "Death Don't Have No Mercy" which I think the Dead
	did record.

Jim

    
    JJ Cale  wrote Cocaine.  Now there's a great unknown!

    
    "Cocaine"  and  "Cocaine Blues"  are two different songs.
    
    Cocaine as performed by Eric Clapton was written (and performed)
    by J.J. Cale.
    
    Cocaine Blues, as performed by Jackson Browne may have been
    written by Rev. Davis... not sure.
    
    Speaking of great unknowns - I have a copy of Cocaine Blues by
    Dave Van Ronk,  who from what I understand mentored Bob Dylan
    before he became popular.
    
    /Steve

    Van Ronk, one of my boyhood idols, was also a student of Rev. Davis,
    and although I haven't listened to him in years, I can hear his raspy
    voice singing " Come here baby, come here quick..."
    
    Danny W.

    "... this ol' cocaine 'bout to make me sick..."
    
    Van Ronk is _still_ one of my idols.  Ain't nobody can sing the
    blues quite like him. I saw him at Cafe Lena in Saratoga Springs
    in the late 1960's...  helluva show.
    
    Interestingly, recording companies always seemed to categorize
    him as a folksinger, but he considered himself a jazz singer of
    sorts.  Whatever the label, there is definitely a strong blues
    influence in his music.
    
    If I were an acoustic player (which I'm not), Van Ronk is who I'd
    want to sound like.
    
    I think Josh White was also one of his influences.
    
    /Steve

    Other Rev. Gary notes:
    
    Homespun tapes has a video out called "Blues By The Book" featuring Roy
    Book Binder.  Roy, a pretty funky character himself, had been Rev. Gary
    Davis' driver when he was a kid, and took lessons from the Rev.  My
    guess is that it was a barter deal.  On his video, Book Binder teaches
    "Candyman", and another of Davis' songs, "Hesitation Blues".  He says
    Rev. Gary had literally hundreds of verses to it, many of which are not
    suitable for public consumption.  My favorite line is:
    
        A nickel is a nickel
        A dime is a dime
        Got a house full of children
        And not one of them is mine
    
    Rev. Gary Davis also wrote a great song called "Oh Glory", which Peter
    Ostroushko did on his "Down the Streets of my Old Neighborhood" album.
    I learned it from a red-hot fingerstyle player down in Albuquerque
    named Bob Goldstein, who took lessons from the Reverend.
    
    Other tunes by him: "If I Had My Way", noted here in a previous reply.
    Davis wrote it, Peter Paul and Mary changed it enough to beat the
    copyright deal, made a bunch of money on it, and Davis never saw a
    dime, as is to be expected.  "Cincinnati Slow Drag", which John James
    teaches on Homespun tapes' "Fingerstyle Ragtime Guitar".
    
    I agree with previous replies; he's done some of the most interesting,
    fun fingerstyle blues anywhere.  He never did the same lick twice. 
    Definitely worth checking out.
    
    Charlie

There's a singer/songwriter/blues picker named George Gritzbach who does
a lot of Rev Gary Davis covers and originals of the same style.  I think
he's from the Cape (Cod).  He put out an album around 1978/79 on which he 
writes about Davis and his influence on the cover notes.  The album's called
"Had Your Gritz Today?" It's a good album, clever lyrics, excellent acoustic
blues.  I think it was produced by Kicking Mule or Rounder.

-SB

    Davis also played a Gibson J200, which is an ususual choice for a
    fingerpicker, made more unusual considering that Gibsons were not in
    favor with the folk/blues crowd at the time.
    
    Danny W.

    He also would occasionally perform on 5-string banjo, or guitjo 
    (a six-string banjo tuned like a guitar).
    
    Jim.

    Hesitation Blues is a great tune. I've been playing this tune for
    years, after hearing it on a Hot Tuna album. 
    
    "If the lake was filled with Whiskey, and I was a duck, you know I'd
    swim to the bottom, and I'd never come up,
    
    Mark

    Well, a nickel is a nickel,
    A dime is a dime,
    I need a new gal,
    She wore white,
    Tell me, how long do I have to wait.
    Can I get you now?  Lord, must I hesitate?
    
    As was said, not all of the lyrics to this song are PC.
    
    Jim