Rags & Minstrel Show Songs of Rev. Gary Davis – 2 Volume Set – Ernie Hawkins

Rev. Gary Davis had an enormous repertoire that spanned from gospel to blues, rags to folk tunes and old minstrel show songs. In this double DVD lesson Ernie Hawkins presents some of Rev. Davis’s most requested rags and minstrel tunes. These vary from Sally Where’d You Get Your Liquor From (made popular by Jorma Kaukonen and Hot Tuna) to the complex dance rhythms of Buck Dance and Twelve Sticks to Devil’s Dream, an instrumental played in the Key of F. These are arrangements that will challenge any guitarist.

Ernie Hawkins teaches each tune phrase by phrase and carefully shows you the right hand picking as well as the left hand fingerings that were unique to Rev. Davis’s approach. You will be able to easily follow the instruction with the tab/music booklet. Also featured are split screen segments where each section is played slowly and you can study the movements of each hand. As a bonus we have included various audio performances of Rev. Davis playing each song.

Volume One: Buck Dance, Devil’s Dream and Sally Where’d You Get Your Liquor From (76 minutes)

Volume Two: Twelve Sticks, Fast Fox Trot and St. Louis Tickle (102 minutes)

Review from Blues Rag: Still sour that you – unlike Jorma Kaukonen, Stefan Grossman, Roy Book Binder and Ernie Hawkins – missed out on studying ragtime guitar back when Rev. Gary Davis taught master classes out of his Bronx apartment? If so, then Hawkins is your Candyman, dishing out the same sweet secrets that he learned knee-to-knee from the legend many moons ago. And his ever-expanding series of how-to lessons is a fingerpicker’s candy store, filled with all kinds of tasty technical insight into that Davis brand of Gospel Guitar, Blues Guitar, Ragtime Guitar, and Novelty Instrumentals.

The newest addition is this double DVD guide to Rags and Minstrel Show Songs of Rev. Gary Davis. With deliberate attention, Hawkins performs step-by-step dissections of “Buck Dance,” “Fast Fox Trot,” and “Sally Where’d You Get Your Liquor From.” Plus you’ll see how to get “Twelve Sticks” – a masterpiece among masterpieces – to popcorn off the strings using only one pair of hands. As always, every song gets played through several times, including a slow-motion split screen version to separately detail right and left hands. A tab/ music booklet maps it all out too. And to buffer any residual sourness, Davis even plays and sings for you via some vintage film clips and audio recordings. It’s the next best thing to being granted a summer full of afternoons in the good Reverend’s parlor. Blues Rag – Dennis Rozanski