Guy Davis – Chocolate To The Bone

Born in New York City in 1952 to noted actors/activists Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, Guy Davis has assembled an enviable resume in his own right as a stage, TV and film actor, musicologist, playwright and creator of earthy, in-the-tradition music. A lifelong devotee of vintage blues, Davis resides in the realm of such torch-carriers as Taj Mahal, Keb’ Mo’ and Corey Harris. His husky, resonant vocal rasp is mesmerizing, and he’s adept on acoustic and slide guitars, banjo, and harmonica.

Beginning with 1995’s Stomp Down Rider, Davis launched a recording career that has now included six soulful, visceral collections of old and new blues on Red House. While all are imbued with a somewhat theatrical (surprise) sepia overlay, that tendency has been sublimated with each successive disc to the point that what at first seemed like overt manipulation now just feels like time traveling.

Six of the fourteen cuts on Chocolate To The Bone are originals, and they more than hold their own amid evergreens by Sleepy John Estes, Willie Dixon, John Lee Hooker, Charles Brown, Ishman Bracey and Blind Lemon Jefferson, plus age-old traditional fare such as “Shortnin’ Bread” and “Step It Up And Go”. Davis’ own formidable chops receive copacetic support throughout from do-it-all T-Bone Wolk, bassist Mark Murphy, guitarist Nerak Roth Patterson, drummer Gary Burke and tuba-meister Howard Johnson.