Guy Davis – The Legend of Sugarbelly
M.C. Records MC-0094
13 songs – 46 minutes
A Grammy-nominated multi-instrumentalist, award-winning actor and playwright and more, Guy Davis has been thrilling audiences since the ’70s, carrying forward the songster tradition from the early era of the blues. And he hits it out of the park with this disc, displaying virtuoso fingerpicking on guitar and banjo as a welcome follow-up to his Be Ready When I Call You, which earned BMA honors in 2021.
The son of showbiz legends Ruby Dee and Ozzie Davis, Guy’s a storyteller of the first order, and he weaves together ten homespun tales with a trio of first-generation covers in this set, showing his mastery of six- and 12-string acoustic guitars, five- and six-string banjos and harmonica in the process as he delivers them in a warm, intimate style that separates from most other folks in the blues world.
This set’s dedicated to the late harmonica star Phil Wiggins and Guy’s uncle, William Conan Davis, a profound stutterer who he describes in the liner notes as “one of the best storytellers I’ve ever known.” It was captured at LRS Recording Studio in Hurley, N.Y., with vocal assists from double bassist/cellist Mark Murphy, mandolin player/banjoist Christopher James, Hammond organist Professor Louis Hurwitz and backing vocals from Timothy Hill, David Bernz, Guy’s son Martial Davis, Kheeda Cruikshank and Madeline Grace.
The opening title track, “Sugarbelly,” is based on a haunting, true story about the murder of a woman that Guy heard from his uncle and other family members in his youth. Although none of the Davises knew the victim, who stood five-feet tall, but all of them knew the man who killed her. It’s delivered from the perspective of someone who loved her dearly despite being involved with other men. Guy’s voice and clawhammer banjo remain sweet throughout, belying the description of one of those men jealously taking her life, until a spoken closing section describes angels wrestling the lady from her killer outside Satan’s door.
Davis switches to guitar and the mood brightens instantly with the delightful “Kokomo Alley.” Composed during the COVID epidemic for Guy’s Coffee with Kokomo Facebook live streams, it’s a country blues that invites a lady “with hips six-feet wide” for a “trip to some place you’ve never been before.” It gives way to the Sam Chatmon standard, “Who’s Gonna Love You Tonight (That’s Alright),” and features a slow-and-steady contemporary arrangement that builds in intensity as the singer’s discontent grows as he confronts the other man.
The rich, original ballad, “Early in the Morning,” advises finding the singer at daybreak because “by tomorrow, I may be gone.” It pairs with the mid-tempo “In the Evening Time,” the celebration of nighttime walk to “cool my mind and think about the money I ain’t made.” They yield to the traditional, “Little David Play on Your Harp,” a number first laid down on disc by the Fisk University Male Quartette at the dawn of the recording era in 1920.
Enchanted since his youth by lightning bugs, Davis launches into the uptempo send-up “Firefly” on banjo before “Long Gone Riley Brown,” a song derived by the tunes “Lone Gone” and “Lost John,” which Guy first heard at summer camp. Dealing with the escape from prison of a moonshiner, it features Sonny Terry-style harp runs, a technique Davis has had down pat since performing his forebear’s role in a revival of Finian’s Rainbow on Broadway. The theme continues in “Come Gitchu Some,” which introduces the potent, imaginary liquor, Stunkeymot, which blues folks can “feel from your hips down to your shoes.”
Guy’s reading of “Black Snake Moan” would have made its creator, Leadbelly, smile before he delivers a tip of the fedora to his paternal grandmother in “Laura” before the traditional “Twelve Gates to the City,” which states that all good paths lead to heaven, and his original, “Don’t Know Where I’m Bound,” bring the disc to a close.
The songster tradition has become almost a lost art. Thanks to Guy Davis, though, the heartbeat is strong! If you like acoustic blues, you’ll love this one.
