CeDell Davis – Feel Like Doin’ Something Wrong – Fat Possum Records FP 1004

CeDell Davis, a true Delta bluesman from Arkansas, was indeed a unique artist.  And not because his blues themes centered around the familiar hardscrabble and universal issues including woman predicaments and tough luck in general.  No, Davis’ uniqueness came from the way he played his guitar.

Juvenile polio had left Davis with gravely contracted hands forcing him to play guitar as it laid across his lap with his fretboard slashings made by way of a table knife that was inserted into his right hand.  His right hand?  No, he wasn’t left-handed, but he couldn’t use his right hand so he positioned his guitar into place as if he were left-handed, gaining his completely unique sound by sliding the knife up and down the fretboard.

Dais’ lead guitar stylings were sinewy and contorted, and alternatively fluently skating and jarring.  If all the trouble with his hands were not enough, a late 1950s club incident left him with numerous leg fractures, a grimly unfortunate circumstance that left him confined to a wheelchair.

This 1994 debut collection seizes Davis’ plagued conditions as he stretches out producing extraordinarily unexpected and eccentric blues guitar patterns, those matched only by his similarly bent vocal capacities.

This collection comes extremely close to being considered “Essential” for its presentation of 1980s-era blues that is utterly startling, and songs like “Every Day Every Way,” “Boogie Chillen,” and “If You Like Fat Women” bear witness to Davis’ exclusive and disquieting blues fashion.

How Davis persevered through his many challenges is testament to his resilience and will to carry his brand of blues into the consciousness of the music’s fans everywhere.

Highly recommended.