November Monthly Program-GUY DAVIS

The Blues and BeyondTo celebrate the "Year of the Blues," we're proud to present Guy Davis--aperformer who captures a wide range of African American traditions andtransforms them into a magical exaltation of the Blues.Guy Davis is a consummate bluesman who came by his craft honestly, evenif he did grow up in the middle-class suburbs of New York. His parentsare Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, and they and their talented friendsexposed him to a broad range of music as a youngster. and lent him theircritical ears until his talents were honed to a perfect edge.Throughout his career, Guy Davis has dedicated himself to reviving thetraditions of acoustic blues and bringing them to as many ears aspossible through the material of the great blues masters, AfricanAmerican stories, and his own original songs, stories and performancepieces.He's a musician, composer, actor, director, and writer.Guy Davis is a one-man band, playing six and twelve string guitars,banjo, blues harp, and sometimes even washboard or didgeridoo. He taughthimself the guitar (never having the patience to take formal lessons)and learned by listening to and watching other musicians. One night on atrain from Boston to New York he picked up finger picking from anine-fingered guitar player.His influences are as varied as the days. Musically, he enjoyed suchgreat blues musicians as Blind Willie McTell (and his way of storytelling), Skip James, Manse Lipscomb, Mississippi John Hurt, ElizabethCotton, and Buddy Guy, among others. It was through Taj Mahal that hefound his way to the old time blues. He also loved such diversemusicians as Fats Waller and Harry Belafonte.His writing and storytelling have been influenced by Zora Neale Hurston,Garrison Keillor, and by Laura Davis (his one hundred and four year-oldgrandmother).It is Guy Davis that you'll see on an interactive video display at theDelta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, Mississippi, demonstrating andexplaining the various Blues guitar styles.He's a performer whose erudition and skillful fingerpicking will hookyou even if you don't think you like the blues, and who will givededicated blues lovers a new appreciation of what the new generation ofbluesmen can produce. "A singer and guitarist in the rural mould of Robert Johnson and Mississippi John Hurt, he has got a voice like Howlin' Wolf dipped in honey. He is also an enchanting storyteller, able to deliver a shaggy-dog story while barking and simultaneously making train noises on a harmonica - a reminder of a time when the phrase "novelty song" didn't necessarily have music-lovers running for the exits. He is fabulous."

-The Scotsman (May, 2000)