St. Louis-based blues player, Boo Boo Davis, has 6540 MySpace friends. Yesterday, after he made a friend request, I became one of those fortunate to enough to be in the know. It took just a few minutes before I was on iTunes purchasing his 2006 record, Dear, Mississippi, a release MOJO Magazine named as one of the 10 best blues records of the year.
Davis was reared in the heart of the Mississippi Delta. Boo Boo’s father, Sylvester Davis farmed cotton and played several instruments. Musicians who he played with include John Lee Hooker, Elmore James, Pete Williams and Robert Petway. Boo Boo remembers these and other musicians dropping by and rehearsing at their house.
At the age of five Boo Boo was playing the harmonica and singing in church with his mother. By thirteen he was playing guitar, and by eighteen he was playing out with his father and older brothers under the name of The Lard Can Band.
Davis, who moved to St. Louis in the 1960s, is presently on the Black and Tan label located in The Netherlands.