Manchester Free Trade Hall 1964

Performer: Rev. Gary Davis
Producer: Gary Atkinson; Gary Atkinson (Compilation)
Distributor: Allegro Corporation (Dist

Notes: Personnel: Rev. Gary Davis (vocals, guitar, harmonica); Sonny Terry. Liner Note Author: Bob Groom. Recording information: Free Trade Hall, Manchester, England (05/08/1964). Photographer: Brian Cockburn Smith. Almost 40 years after his prime, the Reverend Gary Davis could still deliver a corker, as this live set from 1964 demonstrates. MANCHESTER FREE TRADE HALL 1964 is Davis at his best, employing a tortured, near demon-possessed holler as he rips through standards such as "You've Got To Move" and "Cocaine Blues." Davis's spry, ragtime guitar playing was always his calling card, and on this disc it is as nimble as ever. Only two years later, San Francisco psychedelic avatars like Jerry Garcia and Jorma Kaukonen would be regularly dipping into the Davis catalog. With performances this gripping, it is easy to see what captured those rock & rollers' imaginations. Reverend Gary Davis (1896-1972) cut his first records during the '30s, established his early mature style with a new spate of records in the mid-'40s, doggedly persevered and was roundly "rediscovered" by the folk and blues revivalists of the late '50s and early '60s. On May 8, 1964 the Rev, on tour with something called the Blues and Gospel Caravan, was recorded in live performance with his Gibson guitar at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester, England. In 2008 Document released a compact disc containing all of the music known to have been taped during that set. This is a revealing and wonderfully honest album of traditional songs, including "If I Had My Way," a ritual first recorded by Blind Willie Johnson decades earlier and lucratively covered by the Caucasian folk trio Peter, Paul & Mary. Also present at the Free Trade Hall was whoop-and-holler harmonica ace Sonny Terry, an expressive performer who exchanges words and blows up a duet with Davis on "The Sun is Going Down" and solos at length on "Coon Hunt." Davis alternately sang both sacred as well as bracingly worldly blues tunes, and also tapped into his own early roots with the "Cincinnati Flow Rag" and Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag," syncopated episodes that, along with everything else on this excellent album, link him directly to old time ragtime/blues guitar legends Henry Thomas, Blind Boy Fuller, and Blind Blake. ~ arwulf arwulf

Dirty Linen (pp.60-61) - "The guitar craftsmanship, as you would expect, is as expansive and complex as ever, while his vocals showed that he was in top form."

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