You see one man, one guitar; you hear a whole band.
That's either magic or good blues.

The Blues comes from everywhere and touches everyone, but none more heavily than the men and women of color who between WWI and WWII struggled to survive in the Jim Crow south and later in the industrial cities of the north - where the bigotry was no less, just better hidden.

That those people were able to take their lot and turn it into a music that embodies the entire range of emotional experience - from grinding pathos to wry wit to sparkling humor - is a testament to a depth of character most people are never called upon to tap.

That their music was embraced by even those who rejected them and turned into the defining factor of today's American music proves it was a creation of epic proportions. Such heroes - and their music in its original form - deserve to be remembered.

I can't play like Blind Boy Fuller, Willie McTell or Barbecue Bob and wouldn't if I could. Note-for-note imitation may be flattery, but it also means the music dies - it becomes mechanical and loses its spontaneity. What I try to do is capture the spirit of the old blues masters and encourage anyone who likes what I'm doing to find and listen to the originals. If you do, I hope you come to love and admire these men and women as much as I do.


About David

In the 1960s David was playing "folk" music, first in the cabarets of Tokyo, then in the coffeehouses of Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Cleveland and Akron. In 1970 he moved to Hamilton, ON and was a regular on the Hamilton-Toronto circuit, playing such venues as Campell's Coffeehouse, Fiddler's Green and local festivals. In the mid ’70s life got in the way and he dropped out of music for 23 years, during which time he moved to Windsor, ON. David began performing again in 1997, shifting his repertoire toward his first musical love — acoustic blues. He still throws in an occasional old-style country tune and an even rarer pop tune that's s worth it, but mostly it's blues in the Piedmont style on 6- and 12-string Guilds and a National steel guitar.