Morgan
An ecstatic Morgan Davis shows off his Best Blues Album JUNO for Painkiller
(Electro-Fi Records). Congratulations to Morgan,
Andrew Galloway and Alec Fraser.
Morgan is touring all over Ontario in May and will be joined by Alec and a full band for a special appearance at Healeys at 10pm on Friday, May 14 to help celebrate the TBS `s
19th Birthday. The J-W Jones Blues Band from Ottawa kick off the festivities at 8pm at the Silver Dollar.
Morgan Davis' move to the East Coast was Toronto's loss but their gain and his presence there has not been taken for granted. Readers of Maple Blues are quite familiar with Morgan's story...moving to Canada from the states in the sixties, playing in bands with an array of great players starting with David Wilcox and ultimately carving a unique niche for himself in Toronto's thriving blues scene. He re-defined the solo blues man by using an electric guitar and must have caused some consternation among festival directors who expected a solo blues guy to be playing a flat-top or resonator guitar. But Morgan's fingerpicking style with a solid bass from his thumb while snapping out the melody on his trademark Fender Duo-Sonic guitar was able to cut through the background noise in a succession of blues bars that formed Toronto's "chicken-wing" circuit, often accompanied by Al Lerman on harmonica. Whether solo or with a band, his guitar style influenced most of the blues players in Toronto. Al summed it up: "Morgan has been playing the blues and touring the country from coast to coast constantly since the early seventies. While learning the ropes, he sought out his heroes, guys like Johnny Shines, Hubert Sumlin, and Muddy Waters and learned from them first hand. I figure if a guy like Muddy Waters was digging what you were doing, you must have been doing something right! He plays the blues and doesn't stray far from them, yet he definitely has his own style. I have a lot of respect for him and I know a lot of other musicians do too. He knows how to say a whole lot with both his singing and guitar playing without getting too busy or contrived. If that's not enough, he's a pretty funny and entertaining guy. He's a great frontman. I think winning all those Maple Blues Awards and the Juno were long overdue and well deserved."
A recent check of East Coast papers demonstrates the high regard Maritimers have for their new adopted son. Music writer Sandy MacDonald wrote "...belated congratulations to bluesman Morgan Davis on his first Juno win. The renowned guitarist and singer is the steady rolling man this year, winning four Maple Blues Awards, grabbing a first-time ECMA nomination then capping the award season with the Juno for best blues album."
Alison Hughes of the Telegraph Journal calls him a "Missionary for the Blues" a good description for this legendary road warrior who claims on his website that he'll be touring `till the day he dies. "I like to take the hard road and make converts instead of doing a sure thing by playing requests," he said.
She writes, "At 50 years of age, Mr. Davis remembers the days when bars routinely booked six-nighters, instead of the current weekend gigs. That's one reason why he now draws on a pool of professional musicians as needed, rather than trying to maintain a band. He neglects to mention that even playing alone, he offers a calibre of professional entertainment seldom equalled in any Maritime venue. Between tasteful slide work and picking on the guitar, his vocals resonate with a gravelly smoothness beloved by blues fans everywhere. From classics by Howlin' Wolf and John Lee Hooker, to his own original tune Why'd You Lie (made a hit in 1990 by Colin James) Mr. Davis delivers traditional blues at its best."
Morgan says "At 50, it feels like I'm just starting to develop my own unique voice and style," he assesses, noting that a few bars of recorded music is all it takes to recognize the trademark sound of a real blues legend. "If you can take the traditional tunes and stamp your own identity onto them, that's really the essence of the blues.".
Morgan wrote a note to Maple Blues following his MBA triumph but it got lost in one of the email disasters that we go through regularly (including this month). To rectify the situation, here's his overdue thank-you message:
"I want to send out my thanks to all folks who made it possible for me to win four Maple Blues Awards this year. These awards mean so much to me coming from the blues community - my fans, the DJs who play my music, and the club owners and festival directors who hire me.
I also want to thank the great players who helped make my "Painkiller" CD a winner. Rod Phillips, a soulful, world-class keyboard man, Mark Mariash, an intensely groove-oriented drummer, Al Lerman, a man who puts a whole lot into one note, Chris Whiteley, who knows just what to do on any instrument, Chuck Keeping,a fine drummist who filled in last minute and played great, my old pal Al Duffy with his smooth fretless sound, Colin Linden, a great musician and friend who has generously contributed so much to many of my recordings, and of course, Alec Fraser, who played bass, engineered, co-produced, mixed, and filled the studio with great energy and inspirement.
Above all, I am lucky to call all these great players my friends. Thanks also to the Prez of ElectroFi - Andrew Galloway. And to my fans..... I'm in your town - when I get there."