Click here to visit our new site --> CafeDVD 2.0 Reverend Gary Davis And Sonny Terry: Masters Of The Country Blues (1995) Rating: Starring: Rev. Gary Davis, Sonny Terry Director: Category: Music Studio: Koch Releasing Subtitles: Length: 60 mins     Introduction by Taj Mahal Durham, North Carolina in the 1930s was a moderate sized town whose economy was driven by tobacco farming. The tobacco crop acted somewhat as a buffer against the worst ravages of the Depression. During the fall harvest, with its attendant tobacco auctions, there was a bit more money around, and that, naturally, attracted musicians. Performers would drift in from the countryside and frequently took up residence and stayed on. Two master musicians who made Durham their home, whose careers extended decades until they became literally world famous, were Reverend Gary Davis and Sonny Terry. Rev. Gary Davis Reverend Gary Davis was one of the greatest traditional guitarists of the century. He could play fluently in all major keys and improvise continually without repetition. His finger picking style was remarkably free, executing a rapid treble run with his thumb as easily as with his index finger, and he had great command of many different styles, representing most aspects of black music he heard as a young man at the beginning of the century. Beyond his blues-gospel guitar, Davis was equally adept at ragtime, marches, breakdowns, vaudeville songs, and much more. Born in Lawrence County, South Carolina in 1895, Davis was raised by his grandmother, who made his first guitar for him. Learning from relatives and itinerant musicians, he also took up banjo and harmonica. His blindness was probably due to a congenital condition. By the time he was a young mane, he was considered among the elite musicians in his area of South Carolina where, as in most Southern coastal states, clean and fancy finger picking with emphasis on the melody was the favored style. Sometime in the early 1930s, Davis started a ministry and repudiated blues. In 1935, he recorded twelve gospel songs that rank among the masterpieces of the genre. In 1944 he moved to New York where he continued his churchwork, and sometimes did some street singing in Harlem. By the early 1960s, with the re-emergence of interest in traditional black music, Davis finally received the recognition and prominence he so richly deserved. Sonny Terry Sonny Terry, born Sanders Teddell on a farm outside Durham in 1911, grew up learning harmonica from his father, playing traditional tunes like Last John and Fox Chase. With two separate accidents before age 16 leaving him close to being completely blind, there remained few options for employment other than music. Terry developed a unique style, distinctive for its falsetto whoops and hollers and for vocalizing through his harmonica. In 1934 he met up with Blind Boy Fuller, and they performed together until Fuller's death in 1940. By 1935 Terry and Fuller were playing together with Reverend Gary Davis on the streets of Durham, and in 1937 Terry recorded with Fuller. Terry appeared at the famous "Spirituals to Swing" Carnegie Hall Concert in the late 1930s, and this proved to be a turning point for him as he liked life in New York and became involved with the emerging folk music scene. Around this time he met Brownie McGhee, an associate that would last over three decades. Performing and recording prolifically together, they became one of the most popular blues acts of the post-war era.