Customer Reviews

Blues & Ragtime

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Rev. Gary Davis influenced many guitarists of different generations. This album is a fine sampling of his talents. The album is a mixture of songs and instrumentals on 6 string and 12 string guitar, plus one song with a banjo accompaniment. Some songs are performed before a live audience.

The outstanding track is "Cincinnati Flow Rag", surely one of the best recorded examples of ragtime blues guitar. It's full of invention and demonstrates Davis' stunning technique to the full. Anyone who plays the guitar should listen to this. There are other virtuoso guitar instrumental solos ""Walkin' Dog Blues", Twelve Sticks", "Buck Rag", and "C-Rag". "Buck Dance" and "Wall Hollow Blues" have some spoken vocals. "Whoopin' Blues" is an unusual instrumental - I think there are 2 guitars on this, but I could be underestimating the great man. "She's Funny That Way" is a song with banjo accompaniment.

The other tracks are songs with guitar backing. "Hesitation Blues" is a well covered song, but this version is somewhat spoiled by the over-load crowd noises that sometimes drown out Davis. It's also rather over-long at 11 minutes plus. "Whistlin' Blues" begins as a story, followed by a bottleneck guitar solo, using an unusual tuning. For guitarists, my copy of this album came with a tab book, with transcriptions of "Walkin' Dog Blues", "Buck Rag", "Cocaine Blues", "Hesitation Blues" and "Baby Let Me Lay It on You".

This is a fine album to hear how the guitar can be played by a master of the instrument. The sound quality is good, apart from over-loud audience noises in places, and tape hiss on a couple of tracks. 71 minutes playing time in all. It's worth buying for "Cincinnati Flow Rag" alone.

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As a guitar player I'm a huge fan of Reverand Gary Davis's unique guitar talents. However, I find most of the collections have emphasis on gospel and religious tunes, and for that reason most of his recordings are primarily of historical and instructional interest to me rather than actual "entertainment" value.

I bought this CD to get greater exposure to the Rev. playing ragtime. This very listenable CD truly is entertaining on a level where it can be enjoyed by guitarists as well as casual listeners. This is a great place to start for someone who wants to better understand all the excitement about Rev Davis as a guitarist - what a master virtuoso! Sounds almost like Scott Joplin music being played flawlessly on a guitar - with all of the good time feel!

Major Pleasant Surprise (for a guitar player) - The booklet that comes with the CD has tablature for 5 of the songs: "Walkin' Dog Blues", "Buck Rag", "Cocaine Blues", "Hesitation Blues" and "Baby Let Me Lay It on You" - so if your chops are up to it you can play along with the Rev!!!

A great well recorded collection of the Rev playing Ragime and Uptempo Blues at what sounds to me like various live shows. (Ok - at 11 minutes Hesitation Blues is a LITTLE long - but where else will you hear the Rev borrow and refine verses from Bo Carter's baudy masterpiece "All Around Man" and include those lyrics into one of his own performances??)The bonus inclusion of the tablature makes this CD a real treat!

this is a great cd.it shows rev.davis(one of the all-time great finger pickers)in a lot of different moods.a super,wide ranging selection of songs recorded from concerts to in his living room.in short you get the whole gamut.walking dog blues,she"s funny that way just some really great songs.if you like finger style blues give this one a try.

This CD was my intro to the reverend, and what a treat he is. Unfortunately, the crowd noise really detracts from the music on several cuts. He rates five stars, but the crowd gets a minus one.

If you are like me, you probably discovered RGD in a backwards sort of way. You probably enjoy the music of one of his students (like Woody Mann, Ernie Hawkins, Jorma Kaukonen, Bob Weir, et al) and want to taste a little from the source. This is a really nice collection of performances done late in the life of RGD, but they're still fresh and alive. I mean, here's this guy...late 60s, blind, picks guitar with only one finger and a thumb, and he belts out incredibly soulful, complex rags & bluesy tunes. This CD isn't overloaded with his more gospel side, which I think is a plus. As another reviewer said, you need to get this CD even if you only want to hear just the Reverend's rendition of Cincinnati Flow Rag. Incredible stuff. Hesitation Blues is a hoot, as this old early 20th century song gets done in a really humorous way (in contrast to Jorma's more straight-forward lyrical arrangement.} I wasn't bothered by the crown noise as much as others, because they're just laughing at the really funny stuff. When I'm 70, maybe I can get away with performing the song (poorly) in this way.

Anyhow...get it and enjoy.