Guy Davis

Wednesday 17th August. The Half Moon. Guy Davis. It’s another warm August night this time in West London Following a great Monday evening of acoustic blues with Charlie Parr, tonight is the turn of Guy Davis in the same vein.

Again it’s one man and a guitar with Davis switching between his 12 string and six string acoustics with a dash of blues harp thrown in for good measure.

It’s a set of standards and original songs much taken from his latest album Kokomo Kidd which sounds great. There are many stories to be told tonight in between the songs while he tunes with special mention to the accompanying story to the album’s title track. It’s essentially about the black coal delivery man to the white house who on top of coal sends alcohol, drugs and women down the chute into the building. He’s the Ray Donovan of his time fixing things for men who are running the country.

Davis’ fretwork is impressive whether he’s just picking or playing slide and he possesses that classic blues voice. Obviously a perfectionist the only complaint of the night is the constant tuning in between all songs. I’ve got a reasonable ear but am sure that most of us wouldn’t have noticed the difference and he could probably have fitted in an extra song or two with the twiddling.

Again it’s difficult to pick a highlight but he did do great versions of Statesboro Blues and Little Red Rooster plus a brilliant harmonica performance from the stage show Finians Rainbow made famous by Sonny Terry.

Keep on rockin y’all.