Guy Davis – Ossining Public Library – September 23, 2012
Davis is a treasure of blues/roots/Americana, with a deep authoritative voice, an incisive sense of humor, and enough attitude to put that sense to worthy use. He rotated through several instruments – a few guitars, banjo, harmonica, gave us a good historic (and always fully attributed) smattering of the history of acoustic blues, and bonus – included some Dylan. He was accompanied on most tunes by Professor Louie (who has got his own deep cred) on an assortment of keyboards. Most touching was the account, interspersed into a rendition of Mississippi John Hurt’s “Pay Day”, of his final visit to Odetta in the hospital shortly before her passing, where he was “not authorized” to be singing songs in the ICU. His vocal/harp tribute to Sonny Terry (the player most influential to my own development on that instrument) was spot on and brought back memories from my long ago. Opener act was the credible working-his-way-up Nik Rael.
Guy Davis
Professor Louie
Nik Rael