Personalities | Rev. Gary Davis | Forties | Jazz & Blues

(Guitar, harmonica, banjo, vocals, 1896–1972)

Gary D. Davis was born in Laurens, South Carolina and was completely blind by the age of 30. He taught himself harmonica, banjo and guitar and played in string bands throughout the teens, going on to work the Carolinas as a street singer in the 1920s. Ordained as a Baptist minister, he performed mostly religious songs after 1937. Davis began recording regularly in the mid-1950s after a move to New York. His unique guitar playing shows traces of ragtime, blues and other early music. He stands with Blind Blake as the finest of Piedmont-area guitar stylists.

Styles & Forms | Forties | Jazz & Blues
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Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel

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