Harlem Street Singer

Rev. Gary Davis

album cover

Zealousness, with a Shot of Blues

The voice on this recording belongs to a sixty-four-year-old man. Someone who, after a life of hard work, might have expected to be able to take life easy by this point. The Reverend Gary Davis (1896–1972) began performing professionally in the 1920s, and spent much of the '40s and '50s singing on Harlem street corners—in all kinds of weather, no doubt facing daily indifference. Though there's gruffness in Davis's voice, there's also great vigor, and a sense of mission. To hear him is to marvel at how someone who sang for so long under such less-than-perfect conditions was able to be persuasive—and at times utterly charming—well into his advancing years.

Davis grew up in Laurens, South Carolina, and taught himself guitar. By age twenty, he'd developed techniques that were eventually copied by many other so-called ragtime guitarists—Blind Lemon Jefferson and Blind Willie Johnson (see p. 400). Drawn to religion, Davis became an ordained minister in 1937, and that changed his repertoire: From then on he stayed away from secular blues and adapted gospel songs and spirituals with his own blues-tinged guitar touches.

His rediscovery during the '50s folk revival led to a stack of recordings. This one, made in three hours by the esteemed jazz engineer Rudy Van Gelder, features Davis solo. Whenever he reaches the end of his verses, he simply switches into a finger-picking style for spry guitar interludes. Among the lesser-known pieces tucked between gospel-blues standards is a wondrous expression of faith, "I Belong to the Band," and a song that sums up Davis's exemplary work ethic, "Lord, I Feel Just like Goin' On." He did that, for far longer than most would have. And we are richer for it.

Genre: Blues, Gospel
Released: 1960, Prestige/Bluesville
Key Tracks: "I Belong to the Band," "Twelve Gates to the City," "Lord, I Feel Just like Goin' On," "Tryin' to Get Home"
Catalog Choice: From Blues to Gospel; If I Had My Way (Early Home Recordings)
Next Stop: Blind Willie Johnson: Sweeter as the Years Go By
After That: Son House: The Original Delta Blues
Book Page: 207