Blues for Davy

I am sometimes accused of trying to copy Bert Jansch’s guitar style. If only I could… Of course, learning to play acoustic guitar in the late 60s, I learned a lot from listening to Bert, and probably more from John Renbourn, as well as folkier people like Martin Carthy and Nic Jones, country blues players, singer/songwriter types like Tom Paxton and Phil Ochs, and many more. But if there was anyone I really wanted to sound like, it was Dav(e)y Graham. ‘Blues For Davy’ was the nearest I got to DG in jazzy mode (as he so often was). It was originally recorded on home equipment for the ‘Sheer Bravado’ cassette. That version didn’t survive migration from cassette very well, but there’s a link to it below. There’s a good guitar piece in there somewhere, and I quite like the energy and economy of the two-minute version.

I’ve recently been revisiting it, though, with a view to giving it more light and shade. Using an electro-acoustic guitar has also given it much more of a ‘classic’ jazz feel – less DG, more Jim Hall or Charlie Byrd. I wish. Actually, this is the most recent version I’ve recorded: after I posted a slightly shorter audio version, someone suggested that it would be nice to have a video version so that they could some idea of the fingering.

Blues for Davy (Harley): 2020 video

To my surprise, this actually turned out to be the best of the recent versions, though maybe too long for some tastes. So I grabbed an audio capture, added a little reverb and mastered it to bring up the sound level.

Backup version:

And here’s the acoustic version from the 1980s.

Backup:

There are a couple of other recent versions on the instrumentals page here and here, but these two very different versions are IMHO the best.

David Harley

drunk last night

Drunk Last Night: Words and Music David Harley, 1976

Old version, but in reasonable shape considering it fell off a cassette:

Backup:

Video (more the tempo I’d prefer to do it nowadays):

Audio capture:

Backup:

 

I was drunk last night / drunk the night before x2
I’ll be drunk again this evening / but I won’t be drunk no more

I don’t mind coffee
Milk or even tea
But water without whisky
Is just too strong for me

I was drunk last night / drunk the night before x2
I’ll be drunk again this evening / but I won’t be drunk no more

Feeling tomorrow
Like I do today
I’ll break your hard rock head
And make my getaway

I was drunk last night / drunk the night before x2
I’ll be drunk again this evening / but I won’t be drunk no more

If you quit me baby
Tell you what I’ll do
I’ll drink a quart of whisky
And let it out all over you

I was drunk last night / drunk the night before x2
I’ll be drunk again this evening / but I won’t be drunk no more

Down to the River

Copyright David Harley, 1981

Another example of the sort of song I never write. I’m not really sure where this one came from. When I was singing with Anna (Lyn) Thompson in the 80s we were going to work this one up as a duet, but never really got to it. So I pretty much forgot about it until recently, so for a while there was just a very rough-and-ready demo here. The present demo, however, was recorded back in the 80s, and the voice was in better shape.

2020 version:

Down to the River: copyright David Harley, 1981

Another example of the sort of song I never write. I’m not really sure where this one came from.

I won’t go down to the river / anyway not yet
There’s too much to do and the water’s cold / and I don’t want my feet wet
I don’t want my feet wet

I won’t go down to the river / I guess I really should
But the sand’s so warm between my toes / and you know it feels so good
I know it does me good

Come on down to the river / it can’t do you harm
You’ve got to learn sometime to sink or swim / and the sun will keep you warm
The sun will keep you warm

I won’t go down to the river / you know I can’t go down
The water’s so still, the sides so steep / I’m scared that I might drown
So scared that I might drown

Come on down to the river / the road’s so hard and rough
If you keep your head and your hands are clean / surely you can’t drown in love?
You can’t drown in love

I can’t go down to the river / I surely can’t go down
My soul is parched but my body aches / and I just know I’ll drown
I know I’ll surely drown

Come on down to the river / it tastes so sweet and cold
Come on down before it gets too late / and wash the mud out of your soul
The mud out of your soul

We’ve got to get on down to the river / we have to learn to trust
Got to wash away all the doubt and fear / before the whole damn’ world dries up
Before the world dries up

David Harley
Wheal Alice Music