Rev. Gary Davis
Say No to the Devil

Gary Davis began to lose his sight in the first weeks of life, very early he became interested in music and by the age of 7 he built his first guitar from a household pan and in addition learned banjo and harmonica. In the early '30s he converted to Christianity and was appointed a Baptist minister. He was mainly a street musician and preacher and during his lifetime did not record much, his first recordings date back to 1935 already under the name Reverend "Blind" Gary Davis and are significant recordings for the history of east coast blues, his music is influenced by ragtime, country, and gospel blues, with clear evangelical references.
With this "Say No To The Devil" however, we are in 1961, the record is recorded by the label Bluesville/Prestige, Davis plays the acoustic guitar (in 2 tracks he is on the 12-string) and he has an extremely high technical level and thanks to the skillful use of fingerpicking he manages to work on multiple registers concurrently creating a unique and powerful polyphonic style and probably remains the greatest virtuoso of all blues guitarists.
If his guitar is overwhelming, his vocality can be defined as authoritative to the point of bordering on arrogance, but at the same time, it has a distinct musicality and is rich with nuances. Already with the excellent "Time Is Drawing Near" (on the 12-string), many of the peculiarities I described above come to light.
Another piece I love is "I Decided To Go Down", here on the 6-string mostly plucked and lightly arpeggiated, and, as a contrast, his explosive vocality opposes, creating an atmosphere of high emotional intensity.
A beautiful track is also "Little Bitty Baby", especially towards the last 2 final minutes, it's incredible the rhythmic and harmonic interlocking between guitar and voice that Davis serves up, and it's chilling with what poetic mastery he resolves it, in my opinion, this would be more than enough to understand the technical, musical, and expressive quality that the reverend possesses.
In two tracks we find him on the harmonica and his great skills on this instrument should not be underestimated, of which he makes a very personal use even if tied to tradition, as can be heard in the splendid and sighing "Hold To God's Unchanging Hand" or in the restrained and almost intimate use in the gospel-like "No One Can Do Me Like Jesus" which is interrupted only by the peremptory singing in some brief moments.
I close by recalling the piece "Lost Boy In The Wilderness" in which Davis is once again on the 12-string, a practically instrumental track if it were not for some points where he inserts a laconic spoken word, and just this song would be enough to elevate the record to a masterpiece, but there is still much more that I leave to the potential listener to discover.