Guy Davis is an award winning blues musician who embraces the art of storytelling and theatricality. His recording career extends all the way from the late 1970s with the release of Dreams About Life (1978) to his most recent release in 2024 titled The Legend of Sugar Belly.

In his 1997 performance at Northwest Folklife (the recording of which is located below), Davis played a number of songs that showcases his deep understanding of blues musical craft and his love of telling a great story. From slick lyrical double entendres to songs about love and protection, Davis showcases intricate fingerpicking and slide guitar techniques alongside compelling vocal performances that will pull anyone into a deep feeling that only the blues can bring to the fore.

After playing his first song, "Georgia Jelly Roll," Guy Davis received a warm welcome of applause from the crowd gathered to hear him perform. "Well thank you, thank you very much. You make a person feel very at home," Davis said to them. "If there's one thing I like to be," he continued, "it is to feel at home a thousand miles from home."  Davis is used to spending months straight on the road and he very well may have been in the middle of a long stretch of travels during the time of this recording. According to Wesley Case of the Baltimore Sun magazine, Guy Davis' commitment to touring  is "an extension of his loyalty to the blues" in the way that he continues to share Blues philosophy to national and global audiences. Davis is an exemplary figure who has devoted his life to finding new meanings inside songs passed down through the generations. 

Near the end of his set, Davis begins to play a song called "The Road is Calling," which has a marked difference in sound as compared to the prior, more traditional acoustic blues songs in his performance, many of which were written by Blues folk heroes such as Robert Johnson, Big Bill Broonzy, and Blind Willie McTell. In this song, he pulled out his harmonica and accompanies himself on a more contemporary sounding guitar vamp, escaping the 12 bar blues song form that constituted the bulk of songs he played beforehand. This song speaks to the very feeling of being on the road and a type of magnetic pull it has on blues and folk musicians like Davis, a feeling that may even surpass the sadness of leaving loved ones. 

"If it's time for you to go, 

Don't you waste your time dreaming, 

The road is calling"

Guy Davis Live at the Northwest Folklife Festival (1997)

Track Listing:

1. Georgia Jelly Roll

2. Dust my Broom (written by Robert Johnson)

3. Good Liquor Gonna Carry You Down (written by Big Bill Broonzy)

4. Watch Over Me

5. Georgia Rag (written by Blind Willie McTell)

6. Silkworm Story (spoken word)

7. The Road is Calling

8. (Mule Song-name unknown)

The blues -- the longer it's been a part of my life, the deeper I get into it. There seems to be no end to the depths that you can find

Additional Resources

Work Cited

Case, W. (2015, Feb 06). Guy Davis gets busier with age: Guitarist/banjoist spends months on road, to headline Creative Alliance. The Baltimore Sun https://www.proquest.com/newsp...