The Sacred And The Profane In Chapel Hill
A Night For The Blues In Chapel Hill
Tonight Stefan Grossman, Ernie Hawkins, Elijah Wald were part of a show at the University Of North Carolina paying tribute to the Rev. Gary Davis.
Elijah gave a great lecture and the three of us played in turn. Ernie went on first, then Stefan then me. Now I didn’t keep a set list tonight but here at least are some of the songs I played not necessarily in the right order:
1. True Religion
2. Death Don’t Have No Mercy
3. Let Us Get Together Right Down Here
4. Come Back Baby
5. Things That Might Have Been
6. I Am The Light Of This World
7. Full Go Round
After I finished, Ernie and Stefan came our and we did, Mississippi Blues and Table Sitting in Heaven.
What a great night… great venue and an audience of people who really understood the music… it’s part of their heritage down here!
I love it!
Stefan, Ernie and I... photo by Daniel Coston
Jorma,
Sounds great!
What a great night indeed. You have to do it again some time, right here in Chapel Hill! Many thanks to Steve Weiss and everyone else who made this show possible.
Here’s the set list:
1. True Religion
2. Death Don’t Have No Mercy
3. Let Us Get Together Right Down Here
4. Come Back Baby
5. Things That Might Have Been
6. That’ll Never Happen No More
7. I Am The Light Of This World
8. I See The Light
9. Full Go Round
See you tonight in Asheville!
Jorma:
Many, MANY thanks to you, Stefan, Ernie, Elijah, and Steve Weiss and the folks at the UNC Southern Folklife Collection for such a unique event!! The lecture and the panel discussion provided a wealth of really cool info on The Rev…fascinating stuff….And then, nearly 3 hours of music from you guys. As you would say….doesn’t get any better…
I feel sooooooo blessed to have had the oppurtunity to attend.
Thanks for coming to Chapel Hill Jorma.
Safe travels
Brett
PS: uh…BTW…sorry, but I think Stefan wins for prettiest guitar ;-}
Sounds like a great lecture and concert on an incredible man – the Reverend. What makes it so cool is he did all he did – blind. And he did it coming out of the segregated back country of South Carolina. ABSOLUTLY AMAZING GRACE! And I remember hearing he finally ended up buying a house in Jamaica, Queens – where my mother was born I oft times went and visited my grandma while he was there. It’s such a small world.
It was truly a night to remember – I had a number of takeaways
- Rev. Gary Davis may have had many contemporaries and fellow players but he really was without equal in his virtuosity.
- Rev. Gary Davis had a warmth as a human being that you undoubtedly had to be there to really grasp, but those that were there felt it wash all over them. Reminds me of one of my grandmas.
- It’s important to the panel members that this music live on, even if this seems a bit challenging as most of the audience was on the downhill side of 50 I would say.
On a personal note when I told Jorma about going to a Hot Tuna concert in Boston, circa 1971-72 and then telling him I had written a high school English paper about it he laughed and told me he had written a high school English paper on Big Bill Broonzy. That was a nice moment.
Family obligations kept me from making the show in Chapel Hill. I know I missed an amazing night. Come back to NC soon. Blessings to you and your family this Thanksgiving and holiday season. I know that I count your musicianship as one of the blessings in my life. Thank you!