{"product_id":"fred-davis-cleveland-blues-vinyl-lp","title":"FRED DAVIS - CLEVELAND BLUES - VINYL LP","description":"\u003cdiv id=\"aec-product-description\" class=\"col-md-12 col-sm-12 col-xs-12\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"aec-desc-review collapse\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e'Fred Davis was a legend, but only in my living room. There was always music around my\u003c\/p\u003ehouse, but as a teenager, I started digging deeper and deeper in to the blues records in my\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eDad's collection. That was when I started to get the Fred Davis story in fits and starts. Fred\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003ecould play like T-Bone Walker and sang in a high, keen voice like J.B. Lenoir, he said. He used\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eto front a jump band in Kansas City, before something went down that sent him to prison at\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eLeavenworth. In the summer of 1967, he ended up working alongside my Dad at Harco, the\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eCleveland factory where my grandfather was an executive. They became friends, bonding over\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003ethe B.B. King and Bobby Bland records blaring from the AM radio on the factory floor.\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eFred taught my Dad the rudiments of blues guitar, but his style. Instead of barring with his first\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003efinger, he wrapped his thumb around the back of the neck. That left his other fingers free to\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003ecreate big, ringing voicings that imitated the Kansas City horn sections he heard in his youth.\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eFred could play up and down the neck and, even when he played and sang just by himself, he\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003esounded like a full band. Or, at least, so the legend went. These were only foggy memories from\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003ethirty years previous, passed down from a father to a son.\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eBut then we found the tape. A quarter inch reel in a plain white cardboard box, hiding on a shelf\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003ein the attic. My Dad explained how it came to exist: He found some friends (acquaintances\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003ereally) who had a band and some equipment. They setup in my grandparents living room where\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003ethe upright piano was, and he invited Fred over to record some of his songs with the band\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003ebacking him up. Invited him over, to play loud music, in his boss's living room. Sounds like\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003esomething I would have done. The idea was that maybe if there were some recordings of Fred\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003ethat he could use them to get booked on the nascent college blues-revival circuit, but it wasn't to\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003ebe.\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eWe found a place nearby that could dub the tape and put it on a CD for us. When we finally got\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003ethe transfer back, the legend became real. Fred really COULD sing like J.B. Lenoir and play like\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eT-Bone Walker. He really DID have his own style. And that style had now been passed on to\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eme. Without even realizing it, I had learned to play like Fred Davis. Even now, when I sit down to\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eplay the guitar or write a song and I wrap my thumb around the neck, I'm playing like he did.\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eWith this music now professionally transferred and remastered, I can only hope that Fred Davis\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003ecan finally receive the acclaim that he deserves; that he never received in his lifetime. The\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003elegend can finally go behind the confines of my living room and, with any luck, to the whole\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eworld.'\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e- Eli Paperboy Reed, fall 2022\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e","brand":"mySite","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":62998888251763,"sku":"BAV-490-R","price":16.79,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0998\/5209\/1763\/files\/338D40E5-70FE-BF03-91A6-BD8244A599D0.webp?v=1781797252","url":"https:\/\/sahva.shop\/products\/fred-davis-cleveland-blues-vinyl-lp","provider":"ForestMusic","version":"1.0","type":"link"}