The Ultimate Guide to Reverend Gary Davis

Reverend Gary Davis stood on Harlem street corners through the 1940s and 1950s. His powerful voice rang out with gospel songs. His guitar work was unlike anything most passersby had ever heard. The blind street singer created a polyphonic sound using only his thumb and index finger. He played melody, harmony, and bass lines simultaneously. This Piedmont blues master would transform American roots music forever.

Born blind in rural South Carolina, Reverend Gary Davis became one of the most influential guitarists of the twentieth century. His impact extended far beyond his own recordings. He mentored a generation of folk revival musicians who shaped American rock and blues. Bob Dylan called him “one of the wizards of modern music.” Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead said Reverend Gary Davis had “a Bacchian sense of music which transcended any common notion of a bluesman.”

Davis never achieved the commercial success of many artists he influenced. However, his legacy as a teacher and innovator places him among the giants of American roots music.

Early Life and Blindness

Gary Davis was born on April 30, 1896, in Laurens County, South Carolina. His parents, John and Evelina Davis, farmed a remote piece of land. Davis later recalled the farm was “way down in the sticks; so far you couldn’t hear a train whistle blow unless it was on a cloudy day.”

Tragedy marked his early childhood. Eight children were born to his mother. Only Gary and one sibling survived to adulthood. At three weeks old, Davis developed severe eye infections. Doctors applied chemicals to treat the condition. The treatment caused ulcers to grow over his eyes. He lost his sight almost completely. He could distinguish light from darkness and discern shapes. However, he couldn’t recognize people by sight alone.

His mother struggled to care for him. His father placed young Gary in the care of his paternal grandmother. When Davis was ten years old, his father was killed in Birmingham, Alabama. Davis later said the Birmingham sheriff shot him. He never knew if justice was served.

His grandmother became his primary caregiver. She raised chickens and taught him the fundamentals of music. Davis found comfort in spirituals sung at the Center Raven Baptist Church in Gray Court, South Carolina. He also absorbed square-dance music and popular marches of the era.

Learning Guitar

Music became Davis’s refuge and passion. At age seven, he built his first guitar from a pie pan and a stick. His grandmother eventually gave him a real guitar. He practiced endlessly. “No one taught me to play,” Davis later said. “I worked it all out myself.”

He also learned banjo and harmonica. By his teenage years, Davis performed at local dances and picnics for both white and black audiences. He sang in church regularly. He developed a unique fingerpicking style that would become quintessential Piedmont blues.

In the 1910s and 1920s, Davis busked throughout South Carolina. He played with a local string band in Greenville, then a center of Piedmont blues. He performed with fine musicians including Willie Walker and Blind Simmie Dooley.

Reverend Gary Davis in Durham and Teaching Blind Boy Fuller

In the mid-1920s, Davis moved to Durham, North Carolina. Durham was a major center of black culture at the time. The city’s tobacco industry provided work. Street corners bustled with activity. Davis found a community of musicians and steady income from passersby.

During this period, Davis suffered an accident that would paradoxically enhance his musicianship. He slipped on snow and broke his left wrist. The wrist healed in an unusual position. Some speculated this allowed him to finger unusual chord patterns not possible with a normally set wrist. Davis later denied that he altered his playing because of the injury.

In Durham, Davis met a young guitarist named Fulton Allen, later known as Blind Boy Fuller. Reverend Gary Davis taught Fuller extensively, particularly how to play in the key of A. His influence on Fuller proved profound. Davis’s fast fingerpicked runs and powerful bass lines became hallmarks of Fuller’s style. Fuller would become the most influential bluesman in the southeastern states during the late 1930s and 1940s.

Davis also collaborated with other Piedmont blues artists including Bull City Red. He became a fixture on Durham’s streets. Fellow musicians remembered that Davis played mostly spiritual songs, though he could play secular blues when he chose.

Ordination and First Recordings

Davis’s spiritual awakening came in 1934. His mother, who had rejected him as a child, became ill with heart problems. During the months of her declining health, Davis reconciled with her. He learned to rely on faith to cope with her suffering and eventual death.

Davis was ordained as a Baptist minister in 1937 in Washington, North Carolina. Some records indicate he may have been ordained earlier, in 1933. Regardless of the exact date, his ordination marked a significant shift in his musical focus. He began expressing a strong preference for gospel music over secular blues.

In July 1935, before his ordination, store manager and talent scout J.B. Long brought Davis to New York. Long also managed Blind Boy Fuller. He arranged for Davis, Fuller, and Bull City Red to record for the American Record Company.

Between July 23 and July 26, Reverend Gary Davis recorded fifteen tracks. The first two were secular blues: “I’m Throwin’ Up My Hand” and “Cross and Evil Woman Blues.” The remaining thirteen were spiritual numbers including “I Am the Light of This World,” “Twelve Gates to the City,” and “I Saw the Light.”

Davis’s decision to record primarily gospel material didn’t help sales. The market hungered for secular blues. Davis received less payment than other performers. When Long asked him to record again in 1939, Davis refused. He felt the compensation wasn’t fair.

New York and the Harlem Street Singer

In 1940, the blues scene in Durham began to decline. Davis married Annie Bell Wright in December 1943. They moved to Raleigh briefly. In January 1944, they left North Carolina for New York.

They first lived in the Bronx, then moved to 169th Street in Harlem. Reverend Gary Davis would live in this Harlem apartment for the next eighteen years. He became a minister at the Missionary Baptist Connection Church. He supported himself by busking on Harlem street corners and teaching guitar.

Davis became known as the “Harlem Street Singer.” For a time, he stopped playing blues altogether. He focused on gospel and traditional songs. He made exceptions for what he called “gospel blues” – songs that used blues structures to convey spiritual messages.

Davis taught guitar lessons that often lasted all day and into the night. Students would arrive at his small apartment seeking instruction. They received not only guitar lessons but also preaching, food, and companionship. Davis viewed his teaching as a ministry.

During the 1940s and 1950s, Davis made recordings for various labels including Stinson, Folkways, Prestige-Bluesville, and Riverside. These recordings preserved his virtuoso technique and powerful spiritual messages. However, widespread recognition eluded him during these years.

The Folk Revival and Reverend Gary Davis

The American folk music revival of the late 1950s and 1960s transformed Davis’s career. Young white folk and blues enthusiasts rediscovered traditional musicians. They sought authentic voices and genuine technique.

Reverend Gary Davis’s apartment in the Bronx became a pilgrimage site for aspiring guitarists. His students included Stefan Grossman, David Bromberg, Dave Van Ronk, Rory Block, Ernie Hawkins, Larry Campbell, and Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead. Jorma Kaukonen of Jefferson Airplane studied his style closely. Ry Cooder absorbed his techniques.

Bob Dylan covered several Davis songs including “Candy Man.” Dylan was close to Davis students Dave Van Ronk and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott. In 1961, Dylan told friends he wanted Reverend Gary Davis to officiate his wedding to Suze Rotolo.

Davis performed at the Newport Folk Festival in 1959, 1965, and 1968. He toured Europe in 1964 as part of the American Blues and Gospel Caravan alongside Muddy Waters, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. He appeared on Pete Seeger’s “Rainbow Quest” television program.

In 1962, folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary recorded Davis’s arrangement of “Samson and Delilah,” also known as “If I Had My Way.” The song was originally recorded by Blind Willie Johnson in 1927. Davis had popularized his own version. Though the song was in the public domain, publishers copyrighted it under Davis’s name for the Peter, Paul and Mary recording.

The resulting royalties changed Davis’s life. For the first time, he had financial security. He bought a house in Jamaica, Queens. He referred to it as “the house that Peter, Paul and Mary built.”

Reverend Gary Davis’s Masterful Piedmont Blues Technique

Reverend Gary Davis’s guitar playing represented the pinnacle of Piedmont blues fingerpicking. He created a polyphonic sound using only his thumb and index finger. His thumb maintained steady alternating bass lines. His index finger danced across the upper strings, picking out melody and harmony.

He explained his technique to student Stefan Grossman: “You’ve got three hands to play a guitar and only two for a piano. Well, your forefinger and your thumb — that’s the striking hand, and your left hand is the leading hand. Your left hand tells the right hand what strings to touch, what changes to make.”

Davis seamlessly blended ragtime piano patterns with gospel fervor and blues emotion. His playing incorporated elements of medicine show tunes, white ballads, military marches, and country instrumentals. He could play in any key, unlike many of his contemporaries.

His signature songs showcased this versatility. “Death Don’t Have No Mercy,” which he first recorded in 1960, demonstrated his ability to convey deep pathos. “Samson and Delilah” featured his ragtime-influenced picking. “Candy Man” displayed his playful side. “Twelve Gates to the City” rang with gospel conviction.

Dave Van Ronk, himself an influential folk musician, said Davis was “the most fantastic guitarist I’d ever seen.” Bob Weir noted that Davis “taught me, by example, to completely throw out my preconceptions of what can or can’t be done on the guitar.”

Later Years and Death

By the late 1960s, Davis had settled into a more retired life. He performed locally in New York and New Jersey. He no longer toured extensively. However, students continued to seek him out.

His home in Jamaica, Queens became a gathering place. He and Annie welcomed anyone willing to learn. Their hospitality transcended the racial tensions of the era. Most of Davis’s students were young white musicians. Davis treated them all with kindness and patience.

On May 5, 1972, Reverend Gary Davis was on his way to a performance in New Jersey. He suffered a heart attack. He died at William Kessler Memorial Hospital in Hammonton, New Jersey. He was seventy-six years old.

Davis is buried in plot 68 of Rockville Cemetery in Lynbrook, Long Island, New York. Many of his recordings were published posthumously.

The Enduring Legacy of Reverend Gary Davis

Reverend Gary Davis’s influence on American music cannot be overstated. His guitar style inspired countless musicians across multiple generations. The Grateful Dead covered “Samson and Delilah” on their album “Terrapin Station,” crediting Davis. They also recorded “Death Don’t Have No Mercy.”

Eric Von Schmidt credited Davis with three-quarters of his song “Baby, Let Me Follow You Down.” Bob Dylan covered this version on his debut Columbia Records album. The Rolling Stones credited Reverend Gary Davis (along with Mississippi Fred McDowell) for “You Gotta Move” on their 1971 album “Sticky Fingers.”

Recognition and Honors

Jorma Kaukonen of Jefferson Airplane called Davis “one of the greatest figures of 20th-century music.” Blues Hall of Fame singer Darrell Mansfield recorded several Davis songs. Artists including Taj Mahal, Keb’ Mo’, and John Sebastian of the Lovin’ Spoonful all drew inspiration from his work.

In 2019, Reverend Gary Davis received posthumous recognition alongside Blind Boy Fuller as a Main Honoree by the Sesquicentennial Honors Commission at the Durham 150 Closing Ceremony. The recognition celebrated their contributions to Piedmont blues.

Teaching Legacy and Lasting Impact

Davis’s greatest legacy may be as a teacher. Well over a hundred young guitarists showed up at his door during the 1960s and early 1970s. With very few exceptions, he welcomed them inside. He passed on not just guitar techniques but also a philosophy about music and life.

His recordings preserve a unique voice in American music. His guitar playing combined technical virtuosity with deep spiritual conviction. He bridged the worlds of blues, gospel, ragtime, and folk. He introduced a generation of folk music fans to gospel music who previously had no interest in the genre.

Reverend Gary Davis never achieved widespread fame during his lifetime. However, his fingerprints are all over the American folk and blues revival. His influence echoes through contemporary acoustic guitar playing. His songs continue to move and inspire listeners decades after his death.

Give a listen to what made Rev. Gary Davis Great