Phil Aldridge
Blues Matters
August, 2005
Acoustic Sussex
Review
He's a musician, composer, actor,
director, and writer. But more than anything, as we heard this evening,
Guy Davis is an authentic and spell-binding bluesman, with an incredible
voice and a great sense of humour.
Entire review available at
Guy Davis Gig Review.
Martin
Acoustic Sussex
May, 2005
Rich
Warren's Midnight Special Favorites for 2004
First, an
explanatory note: I refrain from calling these "The Best of 2004"
because the following list is but one man's biased opinion. I have
culled these from the many good recordings that crossed my CD player
this year. I'm sure I forgot to include a few notable recordings.
All told, I estimate "The Midnight Special" received at least 600
new recordings, and I listened to about 400 new recordings, of
which about 200 made it into the WFMT library, and about 110
received airplay. I do not include reissues and most compilations
among these favorites. As the cut-off date is November 1, some of
the newest recordings will not be considered until next year.
It was really
hard to boil my favorites down to a mere 14 releases this year.
There was no insufficiency of great music. While I thought about
these choices long and hard for several weeks, if not most of the
year, had I made the list a day earlier or a day later it might have
been slightly different.
Among Rich's
favorites was Guy's Legacy:
Guy Davis has
been steadily improving at his craft since he arrived a few years
back. He has a natural understanding of his material and an
intellectual vision of it. You'll have to actually buy the CD to see
what his goal is with this recording, but there's a rather
interesting booklet and opening track to say the least. (We can't
play the opening track on the radio.) Besides top notch performances
of well chosen songs, mostly traditional and a few original, there's
a message with this CD that you will realize when you read his notes
and listen to it in its entirely.
If a good
friend visited from out-of-town with only an hour or two to spare,
and asked me to play my favorites from 2004, I would play the
following, in this case in no particular order. Actually, I have
purchased quantities of several of them to give to friends for the
holidays.
-Richard Warren, WFMT
December, 2004
Like the best early bluesmen, Guy Davis is, at
heart, a storyteller. A master at setting intimate,
richly nuanced tales to stomping acoustic blues backing, often with
folky accompaniment from mandolin, banjo, and accordion, he helped
revitalize the state of country blues in the 1990s with a string of
critically acclaimed albums for Red House Records.
-Blues Revue
May, 2000
"A singer and guitarist in the rural mould
of Robert Johnson and Mississippi John Hurt, he has got a voice like
Howlin' Wolf dipped in honey. He is also an enchanting storyteller,
able to deliver a shaggy-dog story while barking and simultaneously
making train noises on a harmonica - a reminder of a time when the
phrase "novelty song" didn't necessarily have music-lovers
running for the exits. He utilised ye olde food/sex metaphor in Home
Cooked Meal and made it sound dirtier than you would have thought
possible. He is fabulous."
-The Scotsman
May, 2000
"I disagree with Guy
Davis. Contrary to his third album's title, You Don't Know My
Mind, I feel
I do. He's smart and humane, deals with his political alienation, thinks highly of
sex and understands that blues authenticity depends on forthright spirit rather than
perfect reproduction of the classics."
- Charles M. Young
Playboy
August, 1998
"It's difficult to know where to
begin with the story of New York City bluesman Guy Davis. Accomplished and acclaimed
as a musician, composer, actor, director and writer, Davis somehow makes the term
multi-talented seem woefully inadequate."
- Jim Musser
Icon Magazine
February 13, 1997
"He has his own talent
for storytelling, a gift lacking in many of today's young blues artists. Davis draws
from the same well that fed Fats Waller, Willie Dixon and Muddy Waters.
- Jr
The Musician's Magazine for NY and NJ
January, 1997
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