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Piedmont Blues artist,
Etta Baker |
Reverend
Blind Gary Davis
Reverend Gary Davis was a towering figure in at least two realms. As a finger-style guitarist he developed a complex yet swinging approach to picking that has influenced generations of players, including Jerry Garcia, Ry Cooder, Dave Van Ronk, Jorma Kaukonen and Stefan Grossman. And as a composer of religious and secular music he created a substantial body of work that has been recorded by, among others, Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne, Peter Paul & Mary and the Grateful Dead, not to mention Davis's own releases.
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Piedmont Blues artist,
Guitar Gabriel |
Guitar Gabriel
Gabriel, who was born Robert Lewis Jones, has been a part of that world before. He is familiar to many blues fans as Nyles Jones, the name under which he recorded a highly acclaimed LP, My South, My Blues, for the Gemini label in 1970. The album was reissued in 1988 on the French label, Jambalaya, as Nyles Jones, the Welfare Blues. Mike Leadbitter, writing in Blues Unlimited in 1970, called the single, Welfare Blues, the most important 45 released that year.
Richard "Big
Boy" Henry
Born in Beaufort, North Carolina in 1921,
Big Boy was the patriarch of the Carolina Blues.
Big Boy weaves timeless parables into this his CD, "Beaufort Blues". In "Old Bill" he points out the helplessness we all feel witnessing senseless sacrifice. In "John Henry" he rewrites an age old classic revealing this legend's intimate character. And in "Vellevina" he lets us know what true love is all about. Big Boy passes the torch in this album to his son Luther who makes his debut singing an original song, giving us a glimpse of how Big Boy might have sounded in his prime.
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