Geater Davis - Sadder Shades of Blue

Let's rerun Preslives original post and get another dose of Geater
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Geater Davis is one of those voices from the Chitlin’ Circuit  that is much loved by his peers and hard core Blues/Soul fans, but hardly known to the general music-loving public.  Fortunately, his recorded legacy has been issued on CD on a couple of fine compilations.  His first recordings can be found on a CD from Soundscape Records that I believe is still in print, “I’ll Play the Blues For You: The Legendary House of Orange Sessions.”   This older compilation on West Side, which is now out of print, compiles mostly recordings done in Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals for John Richbourg’s Sound Stage 7 label.    There is only a small overlap between these two compilations.  If you really like this one, be sure and buy the other one!   One song that is on both compilations is the first recording of a number that later became closely associated with Albert King – “I’ll Play the Blues For You. “

 

--> Geater Davis owes an obvious strong debt to Bobby Bland.   But his sound is more rural, with more Southern sanctified grit.   The voice is unique.  Once it grabs you, you’re hooked.    I can still remember the very first time that I heard Geater Davis on “Sadder Shade of Blue,” while listening to a "Lost Soul" compilation LP.   It blew my mind right from the get go.  I've been hunting down everything that I could find by Geater Davis ever since.   

  Geater Davis was born and raised in Texas.  He worked the Circuit for most of the 60s without a recording contract.   Allen Orange heard Davis in the late 60s and was so impressed that he started his own record label to record him: House of Orange.  In the early 70s, Davis moved to the Sound Stage Seven label where he recorded most of the tracks found here. Geater Davis died in 1984 at the young age of 38.