Sonia de los Santos: “I Am The Light Of This World” by Rev. Gary Davis (English + Spanish version)

This performance is part of our online series: Reverend Gary Davis: In Search of the Harlem Street Singer. The New York Guitar Festival invited a dozen of our favorite artists to explore the music of the blind blues musician Reverend Gary Davis.
Rev. Gary Davis performed on the streets of Harlem from the late 1940s until his death in 1972. He is one of those curious figures in music history who should be famous, but who’s also a lot better known than you might think. Overcoming poverty, racial discrimination and blindness, Davis made influential recordings and festival appearances, and his songs have been covered by The Rolling Stones, The Grateful Dead, Peter Paul & Mary, and Bob Dylan.
Davis himself recorded as Blind Gary Davis and Rev. Gary Davis - he was ordained as a minister in the 1930s - and the two names seem to reflect the two halves of his personality. Religious imagery fills his songs, and his version of the blues is heavily colored by the sounds of early gospel music. But his guitar picking had a strong ragtime feel, and Mr. Davis was known to be, shall we say, a very secular guy when Mrs. Davis wasn’t around. We know this because for most of the 60s and until his death in 1972, his Harlem apartment became a pilgrimage site for dozens of young guitarists eager to learn from someone who had lived the blues and played them from birth. David Bromberg, Stefan Grossman, Dave Van Ronk, and Bob Weir are just some of the many students who left his apartment with new skills and often colorful, and occasionally off-color, stories.
Sonia de los Santos is a Mexican-born, New York-based singer and guitarist who played in the Grammy-winning band Dan Zanes and Friends. She has made two albums of family music and been nominated for a Latin Grammy.
The NYGF and the performing artists are asking viewers to donate to MusiCares. Learn more about the charitable foundation of The Recording Academy’s MusicCares COVID-19 Relief Fund, and donate to help the music community affected by the pandemic, here: www.grammy.com/musicares/get-help/musicares-coronavirus-relief-fund
Full schedule:
Rosanne Cash & John Leventhal - Monday, May 4
Amythyst Kiah - Tuesday, May 5
Fantastic Negrito -Wednesday, May 6
Bill Frisell - Thursday, May 7
Dom Flemons - Friday, May 8
Sonia de los Santos - Saturday, May 9
Jorma Kaukonen - Sunday, May 10
Kaia Kater - Monday, May 11
Brandon Ross - Tuesday, May 12
Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams -Wednesday, May 13
Warren Haynes - Thursday, May 14
Larkin Poe - Friday, May 15
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