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Cedell Davis: A Lesson In Inspiration & Determination


I was lucky. Playing guitar has always come to me naturally. I'm not saying I didn't work hard at it, because I did. But, it seemed to come easier for me than most. Some folks even say I'm pretty good at it. (Thank ye kindly!)

I always wanted to play slide guitar...that old deep south, Delta style of blues...but I always sucked at it. I made a bit of a joke of it...playing with a beer bottle just for the attention. I still wasn't very good at it!

A few years ago, I was inspired to try, try again. I'd been watching a documentary on Mississippi Hill Country players, like R.L. Burnside & Junior Kimbrough, when I saw a few scenes about a guy named Cedell Davis (born Ellis Davis, June 9, 1927). His style of playing was like NO ONE I had ever seen or heard before! To say I was intrigued would be an understatement! You see, Cedell Davis plays with a knife. Not just any old knife...but a butter knife. Oh yeah...and he has some serious health problems too.

I've given guitar lessons off & on throughout my career. I suck at that too! It drives me crazy to listen to some kid give excuse after excuse why he/she hasn't practiced. Simply put, they don't really want to play. The kids that really WANT to play tend to pick it up like I did. On their own and quickly. The rest...well, sometimes they need some inspiration. They'll SAY that they really want to learn to play guitar...but they have no determination.

So you think YOU have it bad? Imagine coming down with polio and spending better than 2 1/2 years in the hospital...and then having to relearn how to play all over again! That's what happened to Cedell Davis. At age 10, he contracted polio. 31 months and 2 major surgeries later, he was sent home. With little use of his hands. He was determined to still play guitar. I can tell you from experience that once you get the music bug, it don't go away! You're hooked for life.

One day, Cedell snatched up one of his mother's butter knives and took it to his room to try to figure out how to play guitar with it. He strung his guitar left handed, tuned it to an open tuning, and was off and running (so to speak). His style of playing is different for sure. At first, it might sound a little out of tune. But in no time, it sounds perfectly natural.

Like most Southern blues musicians in the 1940s, Davis traveled around alot. By the 50s he was a regular on the King Biscuit Flour Hour radio show. By 1953 he was playing with the legendary Robert Nighthawk. He achieved all of this success...with a handicap that would've stopped any picker I know of!

One night in 1957 while playing a gig in pretty rough joint, Cedell Davis' life was to receive yet another bad break. A fight broke out, one guy had a knife, another had a gun, and blood was shed. The police were called and they raided the joint. The crowd went berserk and made a mad rush to get out. In the stampede, Davis was trampled under the feet of dozens and dozens of people. Both of his legs were shattered.

Another lengthy hospital stay, more surgeries, and now Cedell Davis was confined to a wheelchair. Did that stop him? No way! He continued playing with Nighthawk until 1963 and has kept on playing ever since. His has been a life of small successes. Traveling long distances to play a house party, or a school, or any old gig that will pay him, Cedell "Big G" Davis continues to play the blues. You'd think he'd be bitter but in every interview I've seen with him (and the few times I've spoken with him on the phone), he seems happy and content with his life. It's pretty tough to bring a man down who has gone through all of this and more.

At age 84, Davis still does the occasional show. A stroke finally robbed him of the limited use of his hands that he had but he can still sing and sing he will. Put a band behind him and he'll let it wail. Cedell 'Big G' Davis is one of the last of the real bluesmen out there...and to me, he's been an inspiration and a lesson in determination. If you want it bad enough, you'll work to achieve it!

For those of you who have never heard the man, I've attached a video of him. Like I said, his playing might sound odd at first...but give it a minute. YOU're just not used to HIM yet...but he's used to you.



As for me, I'm still playing and I'm finally (after 33+ years) pretty happy with the way I play slide. Maybe I'll play some for you sometime....

M

Comments

  1. Larry KoenigsbergOctober 2, 2017 at 8:39 AM

    Back when I still played guitar, I used a Burndy YS31L for slide. It fits nicely over the ring finger, and is still being sold at electrical supply stores. But finger picking was much more my method.

    ReplyDelete

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