Guy Davis – Call Down Thunder
Linda Ray
Posted On July 1, 1997
Don Walser likes to tell how Jimmie Rodgers learned to play guitar from an old man pickin’ blues in the railyard where he worked. The link between blues and early country music is evident in songs such as Ernest Tubb’s “You Nearly Lose Your Mind” and Hank Williams’ “Long Gone Lonesome Blues”, to name two among hundreds, but country blues is largely absent from country music these days and, sadly, from much of contemporary blues as well. In the stale climate of reissues, the new blues of Guy Davis is a welcome freshet.
Davis’ approach is unapologetically archival. He writes and sings as if he lived a 75 years ago and, although 42, he has a 75-year-old voice to match. “Call Down Thunder” does credit to the range of subject matter and tempos found in old blues. “I Got the Power” and “See Me when You Can” reveal the foundation for today’s familiar Chicago style, but the rinky tink “Georgia Jelly Roll” and triple-clap-time “New Shoes” convey an infectious joyfulness that seems to have been shed on the blues’ trek north from the Delta and through the last half of the century.
Two tracks palpably evoke predecessors. “Gee the Mule” is a real-folk tale a la Big Bill Broonzy, wherein Davis transforms the prosaic task of learning to drive a mule into a warmly humorous sketch of each learner. “Long Train” makes a long lead of “It Hurts Me, Too” chord changes, so by the time he sings, it’s almost disappointing not to be able to compare Davis’ interpretation to Tampa Red’s, let alone Bonnie Raitt’s. Tasty Robert Johnson and Mance Lipscomb covers fit right in.
Davis’ 12-string provides rich, dense accompaniment, which he punctuates here and there with harmonica, washboard or a shimmering slide. Pete Seeger pitches in with banjo on the folk-blues-country melt of “Jelly Bone Jelly”. Drums, bass and keyboards round out the band.
Davis’ first record, Stomp Down Rider, won slots in the top-10 lists of Pulse and The Boston Globe and earned him a set at the 1996 Chicago Blues Festival. One can easily imagine a Grammy-winning blues artist one day driving Davis’ songs through a Marshall stack, accompanied by a horn section.
