Guy Davis brings the healing power of the blues to the Shadbolt Centre on October 10
The veteran performer is an actor, a singer-songwriter, and a multi-instrumentalist—but first and foremost, he’s a storyteller
Guy Davis
Guy Davis plays the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts on October 10 at 7:30 pm
AT THE RISK OF understating things, Guy Davis has range.
Think about it: how many other Grammy-nominated blues artists also have stints on One Life to Live and roles in Broadway musicals on their resumés? As the son of legendary thespians Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis, you could argue that Davis came by his acting talent through genetics, but it’s in the musical realm where he really shines.
Davis sings and plays numerous instruments, including acoustic guitar, banjo, and harmonica, putting his considerable skills to use in a mix of his own original songs and classics drawn from the blues and folk traditions. First and foremost, Davis considers himself a storyteller, and he has spoken and written eloquently about the hard truths that lie at the heart of the blues, the reality that this is music rooted in the experiences of slaves.
None of which, of course, means that Davis doesn’t know how to get the party started. Writing about Davis’s fifth album, Give in Kind, music critic Dave Marsh observed, “Davis never loses sight of the blues as good time music, the original forum for dancing on top of one's sorrows. Joy made more exquisite, of course, by the sorrow from which it springs.”
In an interview with Down at the Crossroads, Davis himself noted that blues music can be a tool for entertainment and catharsis in equal measure. “Blues can make us laugh, can make us laugh at things that are ridiculous, or refer to some things that are truly cruel,” he said, “but to hear a man or a woman singing from their heart that they have been robbed, that they’re crying out for justice, I think this has the potential to heal us all.” 
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