Showing posts with label Clarence 'Bluesman' Davis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Clarence 'Bluesman' Davis. Show all posts

Friday, May 26, 2023

Clarence 'Bluesman' Davis & Jock Webb - Before You Accuse Me

Album: Before You Accuse Me
Size: 73,7 MB
Time: 31:34
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2016
Styles: Blues, harmonica blues
Art: Front

1. Before You Accuse Me (3:56)
2. CC Rider (5:23)
3. 5 O'Clock Blues (3:04)
4. Pants Too Tight (3:04)
5. Blues All Over Me (6:04)
6. Shame On You (3:12)
7. Shake 'Em On Down (3:44)
8. Fast Boogie (3:02)

Trying to keep this thing called the blues alive, describes Clarence Bluesman Davis and Jock Webb’s style. Their gifts of music are self developed - no formal lessons, just living and breathing the music. Between them are more than 80 years of blues experience - delivering the gritty sound you expect from Alabama’s Blackbelt. They moved through the “Chitlin Circuit” from both ends: Clarence play on it and Jock growing up listening to it from his own backyard. This duo is a perfect combination of some good ole Delta Blues. If you don’t know what the blues is you will know what it sounds like.

Before You Accuse Me mc
Before You Accuse Me zippy

Wednesday, May 24, 2023

Clarence 'Bluesman' Davis - Shake It For Me

Album: Shake It For Me
Size: 85,6 MB
Time: 36:36
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2023
Styles: Blues
Art: Front

1. Not Your Fool (3:37)
2. Gotta Rock It (1:56)
3. Goosa Farm (3:13)
4. Hoochie Mama (3:38)
5. Shake It For Me (3:20)
6. Born In The Country (3:17)
7. Facebook Blues (2:53)
8. Shame Shame Shame (2:00)
9. Good Morning Little Schoolgirl (3:41)
10. Mojo Hand (3:34)
11. Just Gettin' Good (2:30)
12. Shake 'Em On Down (Live) (2:52)

King Cotton built the city of Eutaw, Alabama. In the aftermath of the Civil War, the prominent Gosa Plantation became a sharecropping farm, called the Gosa Quarter. Here, in 1945, Clarence Davis was born into a family with nine brothers and three sisters. His family spent their days in the fields under the sun, working for $2.50 a day. “There was always something to do,” says Clarence. “If you were old enough to work, you did something.” In the heat of the afternoons, the children escaped to the porch for a nap. Clarence would tune into WRAG Carrollton’s Rhythm & Blues program on their battery-operated radio. For 15 minutes, he was transported by the sounds of Jimmy Reed, Lightnin’ Hopkins, and Muddy Waters.

His Uncle James had gifted his cousin an acoustic guitar that sat neglected, so he offered the instrument to Clarence. Elated, the 10-year-old brought it home and worked in the fields to buy a set of strings. From then on, Clarence wouldn’t put it down. “My fingers would be so sore I couldn’t pick cotton,” he recollects. He’d sit on the porch, or when his Dad shooed him away for the racket, on a swing under a sweetgum tree and practice for hours, until he taught himself how to improvise.

The Bluesman’s style has evolved over time. On a trip to New Orleans many years ago, he encountered a musician on Bourbon street playing with a bass pedal and tried his hand (or rather, foot) at it. He acquired his own and masterfully plays the 13-note instrument as he simultaneously strums and sings. Davis’ songs start with a feeling, he explains. “Those words come in, you just put them in place. It never fills up; there’s always a space for some more. You always want to learn more or do more all the time, that’s the way it goes.”

Clarence lives with his family about three miles down the road from his childhood home, in a house built in 1879. Eutaw’s slogan is “The Gateway to the Black Belt.” Sixty-seven percent of its population of 2,859 is Black, however, the median income for a Black household is 79% lower than that of a white household*. Limited financial resources have not diminished this community’s rich cultural heritage. His music evokes his lineage. “I think about when they was out there on that farm like we were. They were down in the bottom of those fields, they were hollering and whistling and singing, having a good time, singing and getting their work done. It made their life better. So I say, ‘Well, I keep singing the blues, I’ll do better.”

Shake It For Me mc
Shake It For Me zippy