CeDell Davis (born Ellis Davis, June 9, 1927) is an United States|American blues guitarist and singer.
Davis is most notable for his distinctive style of guitar playing. Davis plays guitar using a table knife in his fretting hand in a manner similar to slide guitar, resulting in a welter of metal-stress harmonic transients and a singular tonal Plasticity (physics)|plasticity. He uses this style out of necessity. When he was 10, he suffered from severe polio which left him little control over his left hand and restricted use of his right. Allmusic biography He had been playing guitar prior to his polio and decided to continue in spite of his disabled|handicap, and developed his knife method as the only way he could come up with of still playing guitar.
Career
Davis was born in Helena, Arkansas, United States, where his family worked on a local plantation. He enjoyed music from a young age, playing harmonica and guitar with his childhood friends.
Once he sufficiently mastered his variation on slide guitar playing, Davis began playing in various nightclub s across the Mississippi Delta area. He played with Robert Nighthawk for a ten-year period from 1953 to 1963. While playing in a club in 1957, a police raid caused the crowd to stampede over Davis. Both of his legs were broken in this incident and he was forced to use a wheelchair since that time. The hardships resulting from his physical handicaps were a major influence in his lyrics and style of blues playing.
Davis moved to Pine Bluff, Arkansas in the early sixties and continued his artistic work. In recent times, Davis' music has been released by the Fat Possum Records record label|label to much music journalism|critical acclaim. His 1994 album, record producer|produced by Robert Palmer (writer)|Robert Palmer, ''Feel Like Doin' Something Wrong, received a 9.0 from Pitchfork Media who called it "timeless."
The Best Of CeDell Davis (1995) was also released, with help from Col. Bruce Hampton and The Aquarium Rescue Unit. The Horror of It All followed in 1998. Davis took time away from recording after these releases, and spent the next four years writing and performing. When he returned to the recording studio, he drafted musicians like R.E.M. 's Peter Buck, R.E.M. sideman Scott McCaughey, The Screaming Trees ' Barrett Martin, Brave Combo 's Joe Cripps, Thomas Houston Jones and soul keyboardist Alex Veley. The final results, ''When Lightnin' Struck the Pine, was released in 2002.
Discography
''Feel Like Doin' Something Wrong - 1994
The Best of CeDell Davis – 1995
The Horror Of It All – 1998
When Lightning Struck the Pine - 2002
See also
List of Delta blues musicians
List of polio survivors
Copyright Citations
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