New Members
Guy Davis
4-3-2022 (Ballroom)
When Guy Davis got a Grammy nomination for his last album, “Sonny & Brownie’s Last Train,” an homage to blues legends Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, he characteristically took it all in stride. “In my line of work, you don’t depend on winning anything,” he says. “I was telling my friends that if I won, I’d start being really obnoxious, so whatever’s good in me, they’d better get it before the Grammys, just in case! But I had a ball at the ceremony. I ran into my old buddy Eric Bibb, and we had a good laugh about us being up for the same award. But it wasn’t going to affect what I do.”
As it turned out, they both lost to an upstart combo called the Rolling Stones. And Guy Davis went back to work. Never an artist who fit any narrow definitions of the blues, Davis regularly finds new outlets for his warm singing and deft acoustic playing. Both are evident on his new album, “Be Ready When I Call You.” But this time it’s his songwriting that really comes forward. 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. At the same time he’s broadened his musical reach to include everything from modern electric blues to banjo shuffles, even a touch of rap on one number.
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. More recently he joined the Broadway production of “Finian’s Rainbow,” playing the part originally done in 1947 by Sonny Terry, an experience that helped inspire the acclaimed Terry/McGhee album.
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.”
OPENER: Kemp Harris - As a singer and songwriter, Kemp defies catorization. As a master weaver of American musical styles, he honed his powerful, intimate performance style in Cambridge’s coffeehouses, developing into a magnetic frontman who has shared stages with artists such as Koko Taylor, Gil Scott-Heron and Taj Mahal.
"He'll take your breath away." - Tom Ashbrook, Host of NPR's On Point
BUY TICKETSWhen Guy Davis got a Grammy nomination for his last album, “Sonny & Brownie’s Last Train,” an homage to blues legends Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, he characteristically took it all in stride. “In my line of work, you don’t depend on winning anything,” he says. “I was telling my friends that if I won, I’d start being really obnoxious, so whatever’s good in me, they’d better get it before the Grammys, just in case! But I had a ball at the ceremony. I ran into my old buddy Eric Bibb, and we had a good laugh about us being up for the same award. But it wasn’t going to affect what I do.”
As it turned out, they both lost to an upstart combo called the Rolling Stones. And Guy Davis went back to work. Never an artist who fit any narrow definitions of the blues, Davis regularly finds new outlets for his warm singing and deft acoustic playing. Both are evident on his new album, “Be Ready When I Call You.” But this time it’s his songwriting that really comes forward. 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. At the same time he’s broadened his musical reach to include everything from modern electric blues to banjo shuffles, even a touch of rap on one number.
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. More recently he joined the Broadway production of “Finian’s Rainbow,” playing the part originally done in 1947 by Sonny Terry, an experience that helped inspire the acclaimed Terry/McGhee album.
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.”
OPENER: Kemp Harris - As a singer and songwriter, Kemp defies catorization. As a master weaver of American musical styles, he honed his powerful, intimate performance style in Cambridge’s coffeehouses, developing into a magnetic frontman who has shared stages with artists such as Koko Taylor, Gil Scott-Heron and Taj Mahal.
"He'll take your breath away." - Tom Ashbrook, Host of NPR's On Point
* Guy Davis (Bull Run Restaurant)
Date and Time
Sunday Apr 3, 2022
