Guy Davis - The Legend Of Sugarbelly

Album: The Legend Of Sugarbelly
Size: 106,7 MB
Time: 45:39
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2024
Styles: Acoustic blues, country blues, roots
Art: Front

1. Sugarbelly (6:14)
2. Kokomo Alley (2:46)
3. Who's Gonna Love You Tonight (That's Alright) (2:54)
4. Early In The Morning (5:02)
5. In The Evening Time (3:37)
6. Little David Play On Your Harp (3:30)
7. Firefly (2:55)
8. Long Gone Riley Brown (4:22)
9. Come Gitchu Some (2:44)
10. Black Snake Moan (3:15)
11. Laura (2:46)
12. 12 Gates To The City (2:50)
13. Don't Know Where I'm Bound (2:39)

Guy Davis has been telling stories for a long time. In the 1980s he followed in the footsteps of his illustrious parents, actors Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis, appearing in movies and on TV. But for the last three decades, his focus has been music, on record and on stage, sometimes in original one-man shows. Drawing on his gifts for both theater and song, The Legend of Sugarbelly derives in part from the stage production The Legend of Sugarbelly and Other Tales My Father Told Me, in the process refreshing timeless country blues traditions.

Listening to Davis is a visceral experience — you can practically feel the heat pulsing from his earthy music. Blessed with a gentle growl of a voice, his sly rasp can be lascivious one moment and tender the next. The murder ballad “Sugarbelly” details the tragedy of a Texas prostitute who was killed by a jealous lover, but it doesn’t end with her earthly demise, recounting how a determined angel frees the woman from Satan’s grasp, transporting her to Heaven. Over the course of this six-minute epic, Davis’ understated crooning encompasses lust, sadness, and hard-earned joy, turning fantasy into a compelling saga. He brings the same emotional vitality to every song, from the hymn-like “Early in the Morning,” a calm contemplation of death, to the rowdy “Come Gitchu Some,” celebrating the risky pleasures of moonshine, to the wistful “Don’t Know Where I’m Bound.”

Wielding acoustic guitar, banjo, and harmonica with masterful command, Davis disproves the notion that performing country blues is a simple affair. While his restrained playing is marked by rare delicacy, a boundless spirit infuses these songs, which offer diverse delights throughout. For starters, note the delicious 12-string guitar on Blind Lemon Jefferson’s “Black Snake Moan,” or Davis’ entrancing clawhammer banjo on “Firefly,” or the gorgeous, saxophone-like harmonica of “Who’s Gonna Love You Tonight (That’s Alright).” Old-fashioned but fresh, familiar but fascinating, Guy Davis’ The Legend of Sugarbelly shows how a charismatic artist can cast a spell that’s impossible to resist. Jon Young, No Depression

Personnel: Guy Davis (vocals, acoustic guitar, banjo, harmonica); Mark Murphy (double bass); Christopher James (mandolin, banjo); Professor Louis Hurwitz (Hammond organ); Timothy Hill, David Bernz, Martial Davis, Kheeda Cruikshank, Madeline Grace (backing vocals).

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The Legend Of Sugarbelly gofile

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Guy Davis - Be Ready When I Call You

Size: 136.5 MB
Time: 58:16
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2021
Styles: Blues Folk
Art: Front

01. Badonkadonk Train (3:07)
02. Got Your Letter In My Pocket (4:48)
03. God's Gonna Make Things Over (4:48)
04. Be Ready When I Call You (5:12)
05. Flint River Blues (3:20)
06. Palestine, Oh Palestine (6:16)
07. I Got A Job In The City (4:58)
08. I've Looked Around (5:36)
09. Spoonful (It's Alright, It's Alright) (3:43)
10. 200 Days (5:51)
11. I Thought I Heard The Devil Call My Name (4:21)
12. Every Now And Then (3:07)
13. Welcome To My World (3:04)

The 13 track release marks a creative high watermark for Guy. For the first time in over a dozen-album career, he wrote nearly everything on the disc, Howlin' Wolf 's classic "Spoonful" being the sole exception. The first single/video from the record will be "God's Gonna' Make Things Over" which revisits a shameful corner in American history, the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 from May 31-June 1, 1921. It will be released on May 14. Guy describes the music on Be Ready When I Call You, "I call it Americana, but I slip a little world music in there too," he says. "When you're trying to create beautiful music, you don't think too much about categories." Guy Davis' previous release for the label was the 2017 Grammy-nominated record with Fabrizio Poggi, Sonny & Brownie's Last Train. Be Ready When I Call Youmarks the fourth record that Guy and M.C. Records have released together. The stories on this album range from tender to topical, with a little blues philosophy thrown in. The swampy title track revisits the Robert Johnson legend, about that mythical meeting with the Devil at the Crossroads. But Guy says the phrase also has a deeper meaning, about stepping up and delivering. "When you start going for something, you better be sure what you're doing," he explains. "If you went to the Crossroads, you signed that deal and you've got to be ready when you're called."Guy's parallel careers as a musician, an author, a music teacher, and a film, television, and Broadway actor mark Davis as a Renaissance man, yet the blues remain his first and greatest love. Growing up in a family of artists (his parents were Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis), he fell under the spell of Blind Willie McTell and Fats Waller at an early age. Guy's one-man play, The Adventures of Fishy Waters: In Bed With the Blues, premiered Off-Broadway in the '90s and has since been released as a double CD. He went on to star Off-Broadway as the legendary Robert Johnson in Robert Johnson: Trick The Devil, winning the Blues Foundation's "Keeping the Blues Alive" award. He followed the footsteps of another blues legend when he joined the Broadway production of Finian's Rainbow, playing the part originally done in 1947 by Sonny Terry. Though he's stayed busy writing and recording during the pandemic, he looks forward to playing live as soon as circumstances allow. "I love doing what I do and I'm aching to get back out there. Don't get me wrong, the computer screen is OK. But I want to get back in front of people."

Be Ready When I Call You MP3
Be Ready When I Call You FLAC

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Fabrizio Poggi & Chicken Mambo - Spirit & Freedom

File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Time: 71:35
Size: 166.2 MB
Styles: Electric/Acoustic blues
Released: 2010
Art: Front

1. I'm On My Way (feat. The Blind Boys of Alabama, Charlie Musselwhite) (5:36)
2. I Shall Be Released (5:46)
3. Stayed On Freedom (feat. Guy Davis, Augie Meyers) (5:42)
4. Halleluja (2:13)
5. In My Hour Of Darkness (feat. Mickey Raphael) (4:27)
6. I Heard The Angels Singin'(feat. Eric Bibb, Maud Hudson, Garth Hudson) (4:34)
7. They Killed Him (4:00)
8. Jesus Called Me In Heaven (feat. Brian Standefer) (4:39)
9. Spiritual (feat. Debbi Walton) (5:33)
10. My Peace Jesus Christ (feat. Debbi Walton) (3:07)
11. Mr. Bojangles (feat. Tish Hinojosa) (6:37)
12. We Shall Not Be Moved (3:33)
13. He Was A Friend Of Mine (feat. Kevin Welch, Ron Knuth, Mike Blakely) (4:09)
14. Heaven Stood Still (feat. Flaco Jimenez) (4:11)
15. Live Forever (feat. Billy Joe Shaver) (3:18)
16. Glory Glory Spirit & Freedom (feat. Guy Davis, Augie Meyers, Donnie Price) (4:02)

Many years ago a young man from Voghera, Italy, decided it was time to bring to life a dream that he had carried safely in his heart for most of his life. With that decision, his band Fabrizio Poggi & Chicken Mambo was born.

Fabrizio Poggi singer, Hohner Award harmonica player, traveller, musicologist, writer, journalist and amazing performer began to give birth, with music and words, to his musical inspiration: the blues and the amazing folk music of the Southern United States. From the delta blues of Mississippi to gospel and spirituals, to american folk ballads, his musical future was easily decided. Today that dream is not only still alive and well but is being loved by audiences in Italy, Europe and America.

A rather impressive roster on this 2010 gospel/folk album from Italian singer, Hohner Award harmonica player, traveller, musicologist, writer, journalist and performer Fabrizio Poggi.

Spirit & Freedom

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Guy Davis, Fabrizio Poggi - Sonny & Brownie's Last Train

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 46:06
Size: 105.5 MB
Styles: Acoustic blues
Year: 2017
Art: Front

[4:04] 1. Sonny & Brownie's Last Train
[4:50] 2. Louise, Louise
[2:57] 3. Hooray, Hooray, These Women Are Killing Me
[3:35] 4. Shortin' Bread
[4:52] 5. Baby Please Don't Go To New Orleans
[4:09] 6. Take This Hammer
[5:24] 7. Goin Down Slow
[3:00] 8. Freight Train
[4:14] 9. Evil Hearted Me
[2:28] 10. Step It Up And Go
[2:47] 11. Walk On
[3:40] 12. Midnight Special

Guy Davis and Fabrizio Poggi team up to deliver an aural love letter to two of their personal favorites, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee on this delightful collection album, dramatically reviving the memory of two of the greatest acoustic bluesmen and longest enduring musical partners the world has ever known.A master craftsman in the Piedmont style of blues harmonica, Terry was born in Georgia, grew up in the vicinity of Raleigh, N.C., and went blind as a teenager. He rose to prominence in 1938 when he was invited by John Hammond to participate in the legendary From Spirituals To Swing concert at Carnegie Hall, the two-day event that introduced the blues – along with Big Joe Turner, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Jimmy Rushing, Big Bill Broonzy and others – to white society for the first time. He was a Broadway star, too, appearing in 1947 in the long-running play, Finnian’s Rainbow. A native of Knoxville, Tenn., and stricken with polio at age four, McGhee was a powerful vocalist who rose to prominence with a picking style that was distinctly different than his contemporaries. He worked alongside his hero, Blind Boy Fuller, in the Rabbit Foot Minstrels. He and Terry met in 1939 and started working together after Fuller’s death two years later. They were an essential part of the folk revival of the ‘60s and worked together until 1975 – even though they hadn’t spoken to one another in decades over a dispute, the origin of which neither could remember.

Both Poggi — pronounced with a soft “g”, who produced Sonny & Brownie’s Last Train, in Milan, Italy, where he fronts the band Chicken Mambo, is a one of the world’s foremost practitioners of the Piedmont harp style, a technique in which Davis, an award-winning singer, guitarist, actor and storyteller, is also gifted. The pair have recorded frequently together and toured both sides of the Atlantic, delighting audiences wherever they appear. And Guy also revived Sonny’s Finnian role in three different runs on the New York stage.

“Brownie and Sonny were two musicians whose work will never surpassed, let alone improved on,” says Guy. While that might be true, this writer is old enough to have experienced those giants on multiple occasions in my youth and, more recently, been blessed with the good fortune of catching Davis and Poggi in concert, too. Even though they deliver much of the same material as their predecessors, they achieve a level of intimacy that Terry and McGhee never approached – possibly because of personal differences. And that warmth flows like a torrent from the digital imprint on this CD. ~Marty Gunther

Sonny & Brownie's Last Train" is a loving tribute by The Ambassador of the blues, Guy Davis and international harmonica star, Fabrizio Poggi. Recorded in Milan Italy, Guy and Fabrizio explore the the music of one the great blues duos in history. Besides many engaging covers like "Evil Hearted Me" and "Hooray, Hooray These Women is Killing Me" Guy penned an original composition for the release.

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VA - Dixiefrog: 30 Years, 30 Songs

Size: 285,4 MB
Time: 121:43
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2016
Styles: Blues, Rock, Folk
Art: Front

01 Eric Bibb - Silver Spoon (4:21)
02 Harrison Kennedy & Colin Linden - Walkin' Or Ridin' (3:18)
03 Big Daddy Wilson & Eric Bibb - Bullfrog (4:15)
04 Popa Chubby - I'm Feelin' Lucky (4:01)
05 The Delta Saints - From The Dirt (3:30)
06 Mighty Mo Rodgers - Unmarked Grave (2:13)
07 Guy Davis - Cool Drink Of Water (3:53)
08 Leyla McCalla - Heart Of Gold (2:59)
09 Neal Black - Gringo Bring Me Your Guns (4:46)
10 Eric Bibb & Jean-Jacques Milteau - Bourgeois Blues (Studio) (3:18)
11 Dom Flemons - Have I Stayed Away Too Long (3:13)
12 Eric Ter - The Fella (3:32)
13 Fred Chapellier - Gary's Gone (4:14)
14 Imperial Crowns - I Gotta Right (3:14)
15 Little Bob Blues Bastards - Only Liars (4:04)
16 Balkun Brothers - Been Drivin' (3:31)
17 The Delta Saints - Liar (2:55)
18 Popa Chubby - Stoop Down Baby (5:51)
19 Malted Milk - Hope She Believes In Me (4:30)
20 Fred Chapellier - A Silent Room (5:35)
21 Larry Garner - Broken Soldier (5:50)
22 Nico Wayne Toussaint - How Long To Heal (3:51)
23 Popa Chubby - Sweat (5:29)
24 Nico Duportal & The Rythm Dudes - I Will Unfriend You (2:45)
25 Yana Bibb - Bessie's Advice (3:43)
26 Tom Principato - The Rain Came Pourin' Down (7:42)
27 Neal Black - Saints Of New Orleans (5:06)
28 Leyla McCalla - Mesi Bondye (2:21)
29 Eric Bibb, North Country Far & Danny Thompson - Tossin' An' Turnin' (3:33)
30 Mathis Haug - We'll Get There By Dawn (3:54)

Dixiefrog: 30 Years, 30 Songs

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Various - Screamin' And Hollerin' The Blues

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 40:12
Size: 92.0 MB
Styles: Acoustic blues
Year: 2005
Art: Front

[3:27] 1. Alvin Youngblood Hart - Screamin' And Hollerin' The Blues
[3:09] 2. John Hammond, Jr. - Malted Milk
[3:25] 3. Duke Robillard - I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water
[3:01] 4. Corey Harris - C.C. Pill Blues
[2:55] 5. Anders Osborne - From Four Till Late
[2:02] 6. Toni Price - Junk Man
[3:47] 7. Guy Davis - Motherless Children
[3:23] 8. Paul Geremia - Toootie Blues
[3:01] 9. Otis Taylor - Stone Pony
[3:49] 10. Rishell & Raines - Bye Bye Blues
[3:21] 11. Debbie Davies - That Lonesome Rave
[4:45] 12. Eric Bibb - Goin' Down Slow

Screamin' and Hollerin' the Blues is a modern acoustic tribute to classic pre-war blues initially recorded by the likes of Robert Johnson, Charley Patton, and Blind Blake. While it would be impossible to top the original versions, these musicians have their hearts in the right place and contribute to the overall timeless quality of this music, making it enjoyable for blues purists and newcomers to the style. A dozen tracks by devotees of the pioneering style include Anders Osborne, Eric Bibb, John Hammond, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Corey Harris, Guy Davis, Paul Geremia, and Debbie Davis. ~Al Campbell

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Guy Davis - Kokomo Kidd

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 61:23
Size: 140.5 MB
Styles: Acoustic blues
Year: 2015
Art: Front

[4:09] 1. Kokomo Kidd (Feat. Ben Jaffe)
[5:54] 2. Wish I Hadn't Stayed Away So Long
[3:51] 3. Taking Just A Little Bit Of Time
[6:24] 4. She Just Wants To Be Loved
[4:04] 5. Like Sonny Did
[4:50] 6. Lay Lady Lay
[6:32] 7. Little Red Rooster (Feat. Charlie Musselwhite)
[2:57] 8. Maybe I'll Go
[5:54] 9. Blackberry Kisses
[4:05] 10. Have You Ever Loved A Womn (Feat. Fabrizio Poggi)
[3:53] 11. Cool Drink Of Water
[4:58] 12. Bumblee Blues
[3:47] 13. Wear Your Love Like Heaven

When Guy Davis plays the blues, he doesn’t want you to notice how much art is involved. “It takes work making a song that’s simple, and playful, and easy to do,” he says. “And I don’t want people to see that. I want to uplift and create something that causes delight. And I want some little eight-year-old kid in the front row to have big eyes and say, ‘Hey, I want to do that!’.”

Davis’ much-praised 1995 debut, Stomp Down the Rider on Red House Records, marked the arrival of a major talent, earning acclaim for his deft acoustic playing, his well-traveled voice and his literate, yet highly accessible songwriting. He’s barely rested since then, taking his music to television (the Conan O’Brien and David Letterman shows) and radio (A Prairie Home Companion, Mountain Stage, World Cafe, E-Town), as well as performing at theaters and festivals. And he’s played the four corners of the world, with a recent tour taking him from the Equator to the Arctic Circle. He played the Ukraine in summer of 2014, just a week or so before the statues of Lenin were torn down. He even played for the visiting Queen of Denmark when he performed at a children’s home in Greenland.

“I feel like I’ve only hit three corners of the world, with a lot more to go,” he says. “I seek to communicate no matter where I go. When I play in non-English speaking countries I play more of the classics—Robert Johnson, Blind Willie McTell. And I may tell fewer stories, but sometimes I can get away with it because the words sound like music.” Above all he’s looking to bring people together through music. “With the world falling apart it’s up to all of us to be ambassadors and to spread the music everywhere we can. There’s nowhere that I don’t want to play.”

His parallel careers– as a musician, an author, a music teacher and a film, television and Broadway actor—mark Davis as a Renaissance man, yet the blues remain his first and greatest love. Growing up in a family of artists (his parents were Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis), he fell under the spell of Blind Willie McTell and Fats Waller at an early age. Guy’s one-man play, The Adventures of Fishy Waters: In Bed With the Blues, premiered Off-Broadway in the ‘90s and has since been released as a double CD. He went on to star Off-Broadway as the legendary Robert Johnson in Robert Johnson: Trick The Devil, winning the Blues Foundation’s “Keeping the Blues Alive” award. He followed the footsteps of another blues legend when he joined the Broadway production of Finian’s Rainbow, playing the part originally done in 1947 by Sonny Terry. Along the way he cut nine acclaimed albums for the Red House label and three for his own label, Smokeydoke Records; and was nominated for nearly a dozen Blues Awards.

So it’s no wonder that Davis is reluctant to define himself simply as a bluesman. “To me, a bluesman is somebody who has to carry a knife or a gun and enter dangerous situations and sometimes fuel it with alcohol—That’s not who I am. I call myself a blues musician, and to me the blues is a broad title. I include some ragtime, I make a nod to New Orleans, and a nod to the fife and drum players. And I always include things that make you want to dance.”

All that and more can be heard on Kokomo Kidd, Guy’s twelfth studio album and his follow-up to the stripped-down, critically acclaimed 2013 release “Juba dance”, produced in Italy by Fabrizio Poggi. As always he combines modern with traditional blues, the somber and the celebratory. And for him it represents a jump into new territory. “It’s the first time I’ve produced myself,” he points out. “I stepped up to the plate, put the cash on the barrelhead and said ‘Let’s make this happen.’ What I‘m showing here is a side of me that’s deep inside. It’s needing air and light, and here it comes!”.

The most surprising of the album’s four cover tunes has to be “Wear Your Love Like Heaven,” the slightly trippy Donovan hit from 1967. “I loved that song back when I was a kid, and I wasn’t even sure why—It wasn’t especially rhythmic, more on the acoustic psychedelic side of things. Growing up as an African-American, for me it was always about James Brown, soul music. So it comes from a more courageous part of myself to show how much I love that song. Same with the Bob Dylan song, ‘Lay Lady Lay’– There was a time when I wouldn’t have had the self-confidence to do a song like that.”

Closer to home is “Little Red Rooster,” the Willie Dixon classic first recorded by Howlin’ Wolf. The song teams Davis with another old friend, harmonica ace Charlie Musselwhite. “I play the harp myself when I do that one live, but Charlie brings something special to it. In his blood he feels the harmonica and its sound, just as they did in the days of Little Walter and Howlin’ Wolf.”

Continuing his mission to spread the blues around the world, Guy has lately been doing more teaching. “I’ve had beginning and intermediate students, and I try to give them enough of the basics that they can go into a jam session, and create more licks out of the ones they know. And I try to give them a bit of my philosophy. To my mind you can treat these songs as recombinant DNA, you can own it and you can create something new with it. And I didn’t sign any papers, but I can claim an ownership to the blues.”

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VA - The Blues Tribute To The Grateful Dead

Size: 154,0 MB
Time: 65:46
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2001
Styles: Blues Rock
Art: Front

01. Michael Hill - Spoonful (4:39)
02. Guy Davis - Little Red Rooster (4:06)
03. Full House Blues Band - Hey Pocky Way (7:37)
04. Langhorne Slim - Turn On Your Love Lights (6:41)
05. Richie & The Pocket Rockets - Truckin' (4:28)
06. Amy Helm - It Hurts Me Too (3:36)
07. Anders Osborne - Big Boss Man (3:00)
08. Charles Butler - It Must Have Been The Roses (3:33)
09. Amy Helm - Next Time You See Me (3:29)
10. Richie & The Pocket Rockets - Black Peter (3:31)
11. Richie Castellano - Operator (4:11)
12. Langhorne Slim - Mama Tried (2:53)
13. Michael Hill - Casey Jones (4:40)
14. Langhorne Slim - Friend Of The Devil (2:38)
15. Richie & The Pocket Rockets - Touch Of Grey (3:25)
16. Langhorne Slim - Ripple (3:11)

Personnel: Guy Davis (vocals, guitar, harp, percussion); Anders Osborne (vocals, guitar, percussion); Michael Hill (vocals, guitar); Amy Helm (vocals); Matt Baxter (guitar, slide guitar); Charles Butler (guitar, dobro, banjo); Jim McElwaine (saxophone); Joe Ferry (percussion).

The Blues Tribute To The Grateful Dead

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Various - True Blues

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 51:18
Size: 117.4 MB
Styles: Electric blues
Year: 2013
Art: Front

[4:56] 1. Guy Davis - Hoochie Coochie Man
[4:17] 2. Alvin Youngblood Hart - Motherless Children Have A Hard Time
[2:56] 3. Corey Harris - Everybody Got To Change Sometime
[7:02] 4. Taj Mahal - Done Changed My Way Of Living
[3:01] 5. Guy Davis - Saturday Blues
[4:29] 6. Shemekia Copeland - Bring Your Fine Self Home
[4:23] 7. Phil Wiggins - Roberta
[2:39] 8. Corey Harris - C.C. Pill Blues
[0:58] 9. Phil Wiggins - Prayers And Praises
[4:29] 10. Alvin Youngblood Hart - Gallows Pole
[3:34] 11. Guy Davis - That's No Way To Get Along
[3:21] 12. Taj Mahal - Mailbox Blues
[5:07] 13. Shemekia Copeland - Ramblin' On My Mind

Guy Davis, Shemekia Copeland, Corey Harris, Alvin Youngblood Hart, and Taj Mahal join forces for True Blues, a collaboration of the best blues musicians currently playing today. Individually and as an ensemble they explore the genre's history from its roots to current day. For any fan of the blues, this super group outing is a must have.

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Guy Davis - Juba Dance

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 54:47
Size: 125.4 MB
Styles: Country blues
Year: 2013
Art: Front

[3:29] 1. Lost Again
[4:33] 2. My Eyes Keep Me In Trouble
[3:22] 3. Love Looks Good On You
[3:15] 4. Some Cold Rainy Day
[5:10] 5. See That My Grave Is Kept Clean
[4:01] 6. Dance Juba Dance
[4:30] 7. Black Coffee
[4:00] 8. Did You See My Baby
[4:45] 9. Satisfied
[4:13] 10. That's No Way To Get Along
[4:00] 11. Saturday's Blues
[5:29] 12. Prodigal Son
[3:55] 13. Statesboro Blues

Guy Davis is one of today's most prominent Blues artists. He’s a guitarist and banjo player, songwriter and actor. He has been nominated for nine ‘Handy Awards’ over the years, and has dedicated himself to reviving the traditions of acoustic blues. His new album (with special guests Blind Boys Of Alabama & Lea Gilmore) is magic … !

Blues guitarist Guy Davis seamlessly combines standards with his own original compositions as he breathes new life into the country blues idiom on Juba Dance, assisted by Fabrizio Poggi on harmonica. Named after a form of expression that originated in West Africa and involves foot-stomping and patting of the arms, legs, chest and cheeks, juba – also known as hambone — was brought to the New World via the slave trade and was a precursor to the blues. In many ways, it was used as an attempt to dance away one’s sorrows. With “Juba Dance,” Davis weaves both the beauty and pain of that experience into a rich, modern musical tapestry.

The son of celebrated actors and Civil Rights activists Ruby Dee and Ozzie Davis and an actor-director himself, Guy fell in love with the music by listening to his grandparents. He’s celebrated them throughout his career by weaving their experiences into his songs. Poggi, who co-produced this CD, is a native of Voghera, Italy, where he’s also journalist, and has performed frequently in the U.S. during the past 20 years, most notably with his band, Chicken Mambo.

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Guy Davis - Skunkmello

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 64:57
Size: 148.7 MB
Styles: Folk blues
Year: 2006
Art: Front

[3:16] 1. Natural Born Eas'man
[8:40] 2. Going Down Slow
[3:52] 3. The Chocolate Man
[5:09] 4. It Takes Love To Make A Home
[3:00] 5. Shaky Pudding
[4:22] 6. Po' Boy, Great Long Ways From Home
[8:18] 7. Blues In The Midnight Hour
[2:39] 8. Blackberry Ramble
[3:41] 9. Fonza Curry
[3:20] 10. Maggie Campbell Blues
[4:24] 11. Skunkmello's Dance Of The Chickens
[4:18] 12. Hooking Bull At The Landing
[5:06] 13. Shooting Star
[4:44] 14. Uncle Tom Is Dead

Guy Davis is a smart singer/arranger, having realized sometime back that the blues world encompassed more than electric Chicago bands and Delta-style soloists. On Skunkmello, he finds joy in moving from style to style, and even improvising by throwing several things into the mix to see what will happen. The collection kicks off with two covers, the first a rewritten version of "Natural Born Eastman" followed by a take on "Goin' Down Slow." The first moves at a brisk pace, fired by Davis' gruff vocal and backed by a spry acoustic mix, while the latter delves deeply into electric barroom blues. There's fancy claw-hammer banjo on "Shaky Pudding," and banjo blues on the lazy "Po' Boy, Great Long Ways from Home." To the average blues fan, this eclectic approach adds variety and keeps the collection intriguing from beginning to the end. Purists, on the other hand, may question Davis' loose approach, combining both new and traditional elements in his blues stew. It's easy to gain the impression that he wants it both ways: a sound and lyrics that evoke elements of the past (gruff vocals, songs about shaky pudding), but that is really no more than an approximation of it. Davis deserves points for moving beyond the typical blues recording, but Skunkmello remains too dependent on a clean version of traditional blues. Only "Uncle Tom Is Dead [Milk 'n' Cookies Remix]" moves beyond tradition to emerge as something that one might call progressive blues. ~Ronnie D. Lankford Jr.

Skunkmello

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