{"id":3991,"date":"2018-09-22T01:00:44","date_gmt":"2018-09-22T05:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/?p=3991"},"modified":"2018-09-21T23:25:46","modified_gmt":"2018-09-22T03:25:46","slug":"gary-davis-medley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/gary-davis-medley\/","title":{"rendered":"Gary Davis Medley"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Gary Davis Gospel Medley\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kOdOempCEWk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I can&#8217;t remember when I first heard Rev. Gary Davis, but he was one of my guitar heroes long before I could even think about playing his music. I loved the power and virtuosity of his playing, the soulful\u00a0 excitement of his singing, the dynamics, the dynamism&#8230; So by my high school years I had assiduously hunted down all the extant LPs &#8212; as well as taping a library copy of the out-<img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4003 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Rev-Gary-Davis-Pure-Religion.jpg?resize=289%2C291&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"289\" height=\"291\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Rev-Gary-Davis-Pure-Religion.jpg?w=300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Rev-Gary-Davis-Pure-Religion.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Rev-Gary-Davis-Pure-Religion.jpg?resize=298%2C300&amp;ssl=1 298w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 289px) 100vw, 289px\" \/>of-print <em>American Street Songs <\/em>LP from the 1950s that he shared with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/hes-jailhouse-now\/\">Pink Anderson<\/a>, which still may be my all-time favorite.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, as a Dave Van Ronk fan and eventually Dave&#8217;s student, I learned <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/candyman\/\">Candyman<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/cocaine-blues\/\">Cocaine Blues<\/a>, but mostly I worshipped Davis from afar. Part of the problem was that his greatest performances were of Evangelical Christian music, and much as I loved them, I had no interest in singing those lyrics. The other problem was that even if I&#8217;d wanted to sing them, I couldn&#8217;t make the guitar parts sound right. After studying with Dave I worked out a couple of Davis&#8217;s ragtime instrumentals, and even began performing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/cincinnati-flow-rag\/\">Cincinnati Flow Rag<\/a>, but it was only after I got back from Africa that I took serious crack at the gospel arrangements.<\/p>\n<p>That trip had convinced me that if I wanted to understand how someone played I needed to try to replicate their tool kit &#8212; which in Davis&#8217;s case meant wearing fingerpicks and trying to play with just thumb and index finger. The fingerpicks were a first hurdle, because they always felt clumsy, but they definitely got me closer to his sound. As for that thumb-and-index style, it took ages to get the hang of it, and I never figured out the roll Davis used in his ragtime showpieces until I met Ernie Hawkins &#8212; about whom more in a <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-4004\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Rev-Gary-Davis-Little-More-Faith.jpg?resize=275%2C274&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"275\" height=\"274\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Rev-Gary-Davis-Little-More-Faith.jpg?w=275&amp;ssl=1 275w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Rev-Gary-Davis-Little-More-Faith.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 275px) 100vw, 275px\" \/>future post &#8212; but it fundamentally reshaped my understanding of early blues guitar.<\/p>\n<p>As far as I can tell, the overwhelming majority of early players used only those two fingers. There were exceptions, including John Hurt, Josh White, and Blind Blake, but they were outliers: from Blind Lemon Jefferson to the Mississippi Delta masters, Gary Davis to Merle Travis, thumb-and-index seems to have been the rule. To some extent, that was just a matter of custom, but it also was a matter of power &#8212; those are the two strongest fingers, which mattered in the days before amplification &#8212; and an even attack: when you use the index finger for all your treble notes, they all have the same attack. (Charlie Christian got a similar effect by playing only down-strokes with his flatpick.)<\/p>\n<p>So anyway, I went through an extended Gary Davis period and learned a dozen of his gospel arrangements, though the only one I performed regularly was &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/samson-and-delilah\/\">Samson and Delilah<\/a>,&#8221; which felt like a story rather than a religious exhortation. As for the rest, I sang them as part of the learning process, but mostly just for my own amusement, and that&#8217;s still where they fit in my repertoire. I particularly kept playing instrumental versions of these two, &#8220;A Little More Faith&#8221; and &#8220;I Belong to the Band,&#8221; because they work nicely as an instrumental medley &#8212; but more for fun than performance, and as an exercise. They&#8217;re a great way to practice that thumb-and-index style, to work on relaxing and freeing up the thumb to play brushes and accent some of the melody notes &#8212; I particularly like the power it gives to the bend in the F chord on the verse of &#8220;I Belong to the Band.&#8221; As for using fingerpicks, I eventually decided I preferred the feel of bare fingers, but I doubt I could have got here without them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I can&#8217;t remember when I first heard Rev. Gary Davis, but he was one of my guitar heroes long before I could even think about playing his music. I loved the power and virtuosity of his playing, the soulful\u00a0 excitement of his singing, the dynamics, the dynamism&#8230; So by my high school years I had &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/gary-davis-medley\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Gary Davis Medley<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - 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The second section is a loose paraphrase of John Philip Sousa's \"Washington Post March\"; I don't recognize the first section; if someone else does, please let me know and I'll\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Guitar-and-Banjo-of-Rev-Gary-Davis-e1485619938217.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4129,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/boy-was-kissing\/","url_meta":{"origin":3991,"position":1},"title":"The Boy Was Kissing the Girl (Gary Davis)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"November 24, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I first heard this on a unique instrumental album, The Guitar and Banjo of Reverend Gary Davis, which was also my source for \"Cincinnati Flow Rag\" and various other guitar showpieces. As explained in earlier posts, I shied away from most of Davis's material because I was not interested in\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Harlem.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1151,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/candyman\/","url_meta":{"origin":3991,"position":2},"title":"Candyman (Rev. Gary Davis\/Dave Van Ronk)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"May 23, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"A classic from Rev. Gary Davis, and then Dave Van Ronk, Jack Elliott, and the rest of us... with commentary on guitar technique and lyrical confusion","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Dave van ronk8","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Dave-van-ronk8.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2408,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/cincinnati-flow-rag\/","url_meta":{"origin":3991,"position":3},"title":"Cincinnati Flow Rag (Rev. Gary Davis)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"January 28, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I always loved Gary Davis's guitar playing, but was into blues and ragtime a long time before I got into gospel music -- so for many years my favorite of his albums was The Guitar & Banjo of Reverend Gary Davis.\u00a0 As far as I know, this is the only\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Guitar-and-Banjo-of-Rev-Gary-Davis-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5336,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/you-got-to-move\/","url_meta":{"origin":3991,"position":4},"title":"You Got to Move (Rev. Gary Davis)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"September 1, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Reverend Gary Davis has always been at the top of my list of guitar heroes and influences, along with Mississippi John Hurt, Dave Van Ronk, Joseph Spence, and Jean-Bosco Mwenda. I've gone through a couple of periods of immersion in his playing, but don't tend to perform my favorite arrangements,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Gary-Davis-LP1-e1725053629451.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5846,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/sit-down-on-the-banks\/","url_meta":{"origin":3991,"position":5},"title":"Goin&#8217; to Sit Down on the Banks of the River (Rev. Gary Davis)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"July 12, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"This is another classic from the Reverend Gary Davis, with some interpolations of lyrics from Shirley Caesar and the Caravans. I'm not a Christian, but I love both recordings, and would love to see more attention paid to Davis's connections with other Carolina gospel singers. He was, of course, one\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/R-2200687-1561035842-7024-e1752163624665.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3991"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3991\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4028,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3991\/revisions\/4028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}