OH! WHAT A BEAUTIFUL CITY A Tribute To Rev. Gary Davis 1896-1972

Robert Tilling (Compiler) Paul Mill Press, Jersey, 1992, Paperback, 124 pps, illus. £18

Like most who hold an obsession with a particular artist, Bob Tilling has never been content to ‘publish and be damned’, but has preferred to wait until the ingredients of his book has done right by his particular preoccupation, namely Rev. Gary Davis.

…Which is very laudable but over a twenty-five year period events can overtake such sentiments and, whilst not totally consigning the endeavour to an almost ran, events can certainly cause a damp squib. In Tilling’s case the ‘event’ that finally overtook his toil was Bruce Bastin's illuminating chapter on Davis in his ‘Red River Blues’ (Macmillan, 1986). Bastin's research into Davis, in particular Davis’ time in North Carolina and his influence upon other Carolina bluesmen, really left little new for any subsequent biography to say. I suspect that Tilling, fully aware of this, radically reviewed his original approach to the book.

Two decades on, what we get is not the promised standard biography, but an A4, glossy, coffee table ‘kaleidoscope of images’ (to quote from Paul Oliver's perceptive and enlightening introduction). Rotating around a host of black and white photographs (spanning 1952 to 1972) the reader is presented with a biographical chronology, colourful anecdotes from fellow musicians and record producers (John Townley’s recollections are fascinating), concert reviews (favourable and otherwise), selected record reviews, obituaries and a discography. This inventive approach brings to the page a vividness of character that standard format biographies can often fail to achieve. Thus, via Tilling, we learn from others that Gary Davis was by turns a switch-blade-carrying street musician, a compassionate man of God (braving a white’s only hospital ward to preach over the dying Woody Guthrie) as well as a guitarist with the ability to ‘teach a slug to use silverware’ (to quote a former pupil of Davis). The all pervasive impression created by Tilling with his use of this material is that, although the book is about a guitar playing gospel singer whose name happens be Gary Davis, it is the story of a ‘universal human being’ (to paraphrase Buffy St. Marie) for whom the word ‘humility’ was probably invented.

This self-published labour of love has been a longtime in preparation and, should £18 seem a trifle expensive for a mere 124 pages, all I can say is that if 25 years of my life had been devoted to such a task I'd regard it as cheap at half the price. As should you all.