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Reverend Gary Davis
Gary D. Davis (April 30, 1896 – May 5, 1972), known as Reverend Gary Davis and Blind Gary Davis, was a blues and gospel singer who was also proficient on the banjo, guitar and harmonica. Born in Laurens, South Carolina and blind since infancy, Davis first performed professionally in the Piedmont blues scene of Durham, North Carolina in the 1930s, then converted to Christianity and became a minister. After moving to New York in the 1940s, Davis experienced a career rebirth as part of the American folk music revival that peaked during the 1960s. Davis' most notable recordings include " Samson and Delilah" and " Death Don't Have No Mercy". Davis' fingerpicking guitar style influenced many other artists. His students included Stefan Grossman, David Bromberg, Steve Katz, Roy Book Binder, Larry Johnson, Alex Shoumatoff, Nick Katzman, Dave Van Ronk, Rory Block, Ernie Hawkins, Larry Campbell, Bob Weir, Woody Mann, and Tom Winslow. He also influenced Bob Dylan, the Gra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laurens, South Carolina
Laurens is a city in Laurens County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 9,139 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Laurens County. History Located in upstate South Carolina, the city of Laurens is named after Henry Laurens, a South Carolina merchant and rice planter who was one of America's wealthiest slave traders. He was a delegate to and second president of the Continental Congress and served as a diplomat. It is part of the Greenville– Mauldin– Easley Metropolitan Statistical Area. Laurens was established by an act of the General Assembly on March 15, 1785, as a location for commercial activities. It was one of the six counties created from the Old Ninety-Six District of South Carolina. Laurens was originally named Laurensville. On December 15, 1845, a charter was issued with the name of Laurensville. The first appearance of the town name Laurens was in an 1873 charter. The town of Laurens was chartered in 1900 and in 1916. It was name ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Larry Johnson (musician)
Larry Alonzo Johnson (May 15, 1938 – August 6, 2016) was an American blues singer and guitarist. Life and career Johnson was born in Wrightsville, Georgia. His father was a preacher who traveled extensively. This led to Johnson being exposed to blues records by Blind Boy Fuller, who inspired Johnson to learn the rudiments of guitar playing. He served in the Navy between 1955 and 1959, before relocating to New York City. After his befriending Brownie and Stick McGhee, Johnson found employment recording with Big Joe Williams, Harry Atkins, and Alec Seward. The latter gave Johnson an introduction to Reverend Gary Davis. Johnson's first single release was "Catfish Blues" / "So Sweet" (1962). His first album was produced by iconic blues writer/producer Sam Charters on Prestige Records entitled ''The Blues/A New Generation'' (PR 7142), in 1964. Hank Adkins was his second guitarist on this record. He made numerous live appearances with Davis over that decade. In 1971, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jorma Kaukonen
Jorma Ludwik Kaukonen Jr. (; ; born December 23, 1940) is an American blues, folk, and rock guitarist. Kaukonen performed with Jefferson Airplane, and still performs regularly on tour with Hot Tuna, which started as a side project with bassist Jack Casady, and as of early 2024 has continued for 55 years. ''Rolling Stone'' magazine ranked him No. 54 on its list of "100 Greatest Guitarists". He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 as a member of Jefferson Airplane. Early life and education Jorma Ludwik Kaukonen Jr. was born on December 23, 1940, in Washington, D.C., to Beatrice Love (née Levine) and Jorma Ludwik Kaukonen Sr. He had Finnish paternal grandparents and Russian Jewish ancestry on his mother's side. He is the older brother of fellow musician Peter Kaukonen. During his childhood, the Kaukonen family lived in Pakistan, the Philippines, and other locales as they followed his father's State Department career from assignment to assignment before ret ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wizz Jones
Raymond Ronald "Wizz" Jones (25 April 1939 – 27 April 2025) was an English acoustic guitarist, and singer-songwriter. He performed from the late 1950s and recorded from 1965 until 2025. He possessed what was described as "unparalleled virtuosity" on the guitar and worked with many of the notable guitarists of the British folk revival, such as John Renbourn and Bert Jansch. He taught Keith Richards, Eric Clapton was "an avid follower", and others he influenced included Rod Stewart, Paul Simon and Bruce Springsteen. Career Early days Jones was born on 25 April 1939 in Thornton Heath, Surrey. His father, who had been listed as "missing in action" in World War II, reappeared three years later, and Jones wrote "one of his most poignant songs", 'The Burma Star', about his father's experiences during the war and his struggle to readjust afterwards. He became infatuated with the bohemian image of Woody Guthrie and Jack Kerouac and grew his hair long. His mother started calling h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in Palo Alto, California, in 1965. Known for their eclectic style that fused elements of rock, blues, jazz, folk, country, bluegrass, rock and roll, gospel, reggae, and world music with psychedelia, the band is famous for improvisation during their live performances, and for their devoted fan base, known as " Deadheads". According to the musician and writer Lenny Kaye, the music of the Grateful Dead "touches on ground that most other groups don't even know exists." For the range of their influences and the structure of their live performances, the Grateful Dead are considered "the pioneering godfathers of the jam band world". The Grateful Dead was founded in the San Francisco Bay Area during the rise of the counterculture of the 1960s. The band's founding members were Jerry Garcia (lead guitar and vocals), Bob Weir (rhythm guitar and vocals), Ron "Pigpen" McKernan ( keyboards, harmonica, and vocals), Phil Lesh (bass gui ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year career. With an estimated more than 125 million records sold worldwide, he is one of the List of best-selling music artists, best-selling musicians of all time. Dylan added increasingly sophisticated lyrical techniques to the folk music of the early 1960s, infusing it "with the intellectualism of classic literature and poetry". His lyrics incorporated political, social, and philosophical influences, defying pop music conventions and appealing to the burgeoning Counterculture of the 1960s, counterculture. Dylan was born in St. Louis County, Minnesota. He moved to New York City in 1961 to pursue a career in music. Following his 1962 debut album, ''Bob Dylan (album), Bob Dylan'', featuring traditional folk and blues material, he released his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tom Winslow
Thomas Griffin Winslow (November 13, 1940 – October 23, 2010)Tom Keyser, "Tom Winslow, folk and country-blues musician, dies at 69", ''Albany Times Union'', November 13, 2010. Found aTimes Union website Accessed November 16, 2010. was an American folk singer and writer known as a "disciple" of Reverend Gary Davis and a former member of Pete Seeger's band. He performed with his family as The Winslows and recorded with Al Polito. His career as a performing artist lasted over forty years. He was most notable as the composer of "Hey Looka Yonder (It's The Clear Water)", a folk song that has been the anthem of the '' Sloop Clearwater''. While he toured throughout the United States, he continued to perform in Upstate New York until shortly before his death at the age of 69. His children are the performing artists Thomasina Winslow and Gary T Winslow. Early career As a teenager, Winslow learned to play guitar from his grandfather, Thomas Winslow. He was a band member of the Reve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Woody Mann
Haywood Lee Mann (December 30, 1952 – January 27, 2022) was an American guitarist. Biography He was born in New York, where he studied acoustic guitar with blues guitarist Reverend Gary Davis from 1968–72. From 1973–78, he continued private lessons, focusing on improvisation with jazz pianist Lennie Tristano. He received formal instruction at the Juilliard School's pre-college program, earned a degree at Empire State College in 1974, and returned to Juilliard to pursue post-baccalaureate studies in music performance and composition from 1975–76. During these years he played with guitarists John Fahey (musician), John Fahey, Bukka White, Son House, and Jo Ann Kelly. Mann toured Japan, Brazil, and Europe. He performed fifteen times at the Great Britain International Guitar Festival where he was the U.S. Ambassador to the festival. He performed at the Expo '98, World's Fair Expo in Lisbon, Portugal and the Tbilisi International Guitar Festival. He hosted and co-produced t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bob Weir
Robert Hall Weir ( ; né Parber, born October 16, 1947) is an American musician and songwriter best known as a founding member of the Grateful Dead. After the group disbanded in 1995, Weir performed with the Other Ones, later known as the Dead, together with other former members of the Grateful Dead. Weir also founded and played in several other bands during and after his career with the Grateful Dead, including Kingfish, the Bob Weir Band, Bobby and the Midnites, Scaring the Children, RatDog, and Furthur, which he co-led with former Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh. In 2015, Weir, along with former Grateful Dead members Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann, joined with Grammy-winning singer/guitarist John Mayer, bassist Oteil Burbridge, and keyboardist Jeff Chimenti to form the band Dead & Company. During his career with the Grateful Dead, Weir played mostly rhythm guitar and sang many of the band's rock & roll and country & western songs. In 1994, he was inducted into the Ro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Larry Campbell (musician)
Larry Campbell (born February 21, 1955) is an American singer and multi-instrumentalist who plays many stringed instruments (including guitar, mandolin, pedal steel guitar, slide guitar, and violin) in genres including country, folk, blues, and rock. Campbell is best known for his time as part of Bob Dylan's Never Ending Tour band from 1997 to 2004, his association with Levon Helm of The Band, and the musical director of the Midnight Rambles. Larry Campbell also has extensive experience as a studio musician. Over his 40-plus year career he has recorded with such artists as Levon Helm, Judy Collins, Lucy Kaplansky, Richard Shindell, Linda Thompson, Sheryl Crow, Chris Castle, Paul Simon, B. B. King, Willie Nelson, Eric Andersen, Buddy and Julie Miller, Kinky Friedman, Little Feat, Hot Tuna, Cyndi Lauper, k.d. lang, Anastasia Barzee, Rosanne Cash and Ayọ, among others. Biography During the 1970s and 1980s, Campbell performed regularly on New York City's bur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ernie Hawkins
Ernie Hawkins (born Ernest Leroy Hawkins, 1947, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is an American acoustic blues guitar player, singer, songwriter, recording artist, and educator. Hawkins, along with fellow bluesmen Stefan Grossman and Roy Bookbinder, studied with blues legend Reverend Gary Davis in New York City in 1965 and 1966. Over the years, he learned a variety of styles, including Piedmont blues, Delta blues, ragtime, and gospel. In 1969, Hawkins moved back to his hometown of Pittsburgh, and enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh, earning a degree in philosophy. In 1973, he moved to Dallas for graduate school and earned a PhD in phenomenological psychology at the University of Dallas, though he remained active in music, studying and performing with Mance Lipscomb, Robert Pete Williams, Fred McDowell, and Robert "Nyles" Jones. In 1978, Hawkins decided to put aside his psychology career and become a full-time musician. In the mid 1980s, he returned to Pittsburgh, and fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rory Block
Aurora "Rory" Block (born November 6, 1949) is an American blues guitarist and singer, a notable exponent of the country blues style. Career Aurora Block was born in Princeton and grew up in Manhattan. Her father, Allan Block, ran a sandal shop in Greenwich Village in the 1960s, and the Greenwich Village folk music scene, such as Peter Rowan, Maria Muldaur, and John Sebastian influenced Block to study classical guitar. At the age of 14, she met guitarist Stefan Grossman, who introduced her to the music of Mississippi Delta blues guitarists. Block began listening to old albums, transcribing them, and learning to play the songs. At age 15, she left home to seek out the remaining blues giants, such as Mississippi John Hurt, Reverend Gary Davis, and Son House, and hone her craft in the traditional manner of blues musicians; then she traveled to Berkeley, California, where she played in clubs and coffeehouses. After retiring temporarily to raise a family, Block returned to the musi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
