Harlem Street Singer (Remastered 2024) Reverend Gary Davis

• 1 Samson And Delilah (Remastered 2024) 04:04
• 2 Let Us Get Together Right Down Here (Remastered 2024) 03:10
• 3 I Belong To The Band (Remastered 2024) 02:55
• 4 Pure Religion (Remastered 2024) 02:58
• 5 Great Change Since I Been Born (Remastered 2024) 04:03
• 6 Death Don't Have No Mercy (Remastered 2024) 04:43
• 7 Twelve Gates To The City (Remastered 2024) 03:09
• 8 Goin' To Sit Down On The Banks Of The River (Remastered 2024) 02:56
• 9 Tryin' To Get Home (Remastered 2024) 03:47
• 10 Lo, I Be With You Always (Remastered 2024) 04:18
• 11 I Am The Light Of This World (Remastered 2024) 03:35
• 12 Lord, I Feel Just Like Goin' On (Remastered 2024) 03:30
• Total Runtime 43:08

Info for Harlem Street Singer (Remastered 2024)

The legendary Blind Gary Davis, also known as Reverend Gary Davis, was a powerful gospel and folk-blues singer and masterful acoustic guitarist. Using only his thumb and forefinger, he produced a polyphonic style and his virtuoso fingerpicking was a major influence on many other musicians, such as Blind Boy Fuller and Brownie McGhee.

During the 1950s and 1960s, Davis taught and performed in New York City and became a mentor to folk legends such as Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Dave Van Ronk and Bob Dylan, to name a few. Harlem Street Singer is one of his most iconic albums.

"Harlem Street Singer" is the 1960 album by Blind Gary Davis, originally released on Prestige Records' Bluesville imprint. The album features a combination of Davis-penned songs, including "Death Don't Have No Mercy," and standards such as "Samson and Delilah." All Music declared the album "a must-have for fans of country blues and gospel."

"Recorded during a three hour session on August 24, 1960, Gary Davis laid down 12 of his most impassioned spirituals for Harlem Street Singer. Starting off the session with a version of Blind Willie Johnson's "If I Had My Way I'd Tear That Building Down," here renamed "Samson and Delilah," Davis is in fine form. His vocals are as expressive as Ray Charles' while similar in richness to Richie Havens' work. Harlem Street Singer features his inspired country blues fingerpicking as well. Many moods color the selections, from the gentle "I Belong to the Band" to the mournful "Death Don't Have No Mercy," only to be followed by the joyous shouting of "Goin' to Sit Down on the Banks of the River." Overall, the collection is well worth the purchase and should be considered essential listening for fans of country blues or gospel." (Matt Fink, AMG)

Blind Gary Davis, guitar, vocals

Digitally remastered



Please Note: We offer this album in its native sampling rate of 96 kHz, 24-bit. The provided 192 kHz version was up-sampled and offers no audible value!

Reverend (Blind) Gary Davis
was born in Laurens County, S.C., south of Spartanburg, in the Piedmont section of the state. His parents were John and Evelina Davis, who had eight children, six of whom died as babies. A girlfriend killed Davis’ only surviving brother in 1930. Davis claimed to have been born partially blind by chemicals put in his eyes when he was a few weeks old. His grandmother raised Davis, raised chickens, and taught him music.

He began playing the harmonica, and his grandmother helped him make a guitar from a pie pan and a stick. Davis practiced endlessly after his mother gave him a real guitar and learned to play the banjo. His first musical exposure was the spirituals sung in church, square-dance music and popular marches. By the time Davis was ten, he was singing at the Center Raven Baptist Church in Gray Court, South Carolina, playing guitar, banjo, and harmonica for segregated country dances, house parties, and picnics.

By 1940, Davis had found his way to New York City, where he was ordained minister of Missionary Baptist Connection Church. Here, his recording career began in earnest. Starting in the late 1950s, as folk music became popular on campuses and in coffee houses, Davis was "discovered" by a largely educated, middle-class audience. They were at first more interested in his hot guitar licks and blues-holler singing style than in his specific religious message. The Reverend responded to this more secular audience with temporal songs like "Cocaine" and "Baby Let Me Follow You Down" yet also performed gospel compositions like "Samson and Delilah" and "Death Don't Have No Mercy").

Davis always considered his work to be essentially religious. When students traveled uptown to learn from him, Reverend Davis would extend his lesson with preaching, food, and companionship. He became an important mentor to the folk music revival and eventually performed at many festivals, including the Newport Folk Festival and Philadelphia Folk Festival.

By the 1960s, Davis was represented by Folklore Productions, and his songs were published as Chandos Music (ASCAP). They administer the Reverend Gary Davis's Estate. The estate's main beneficiary, the widow Annie Davis, lived for many years in the Reverend’s brick house in Queens, New York.

Davis was an icon of the mid-twentieth-century folk-music revival as one of the most innovative and influential blues guitarists. His legacy as a teacher and performer can be heard in the work of Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead, and many more. The Reverend Gary Davis died in Hammonton, New Jersey, on May 5, 1972.

This album contains no booklet.