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Over coffee one recent morning in Manhattan, despite being long-time friends, Guy Davis and Walter Parks, both blues-roots troubadours, writers and historians, discovered their common connection to southeast Georgia’s Okefinokee Swamp. Turns out in the 1920’s, Davis’ grandfather and also the father of famous film director Ossie Davis, ran the only black-owned track-lining railroad company during the swamp’s cypress logging boom. The swamp topic arose after Walter mentioned being archived in The American Folklife Collection of The Library of Congress for his research of the music and culture of The Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge– a wilderness in which he camped as a young Boy Scout. Naturally the concept for a tour was born with Davis and Parks combining respective repertoires of spirituals, work-songs, hollers and reimagined covers including classics by Woodstock legend Richie Havens whom Parks accompanied worldwide for 10 years. Whereas Guy Davis is currently doing a solo tour of France, last year Davis and Parks along with fiddle virtuoso Bruce Molsky road tested the collaboration to exuberant fanfare at The Tonder Festival in Denmark. From experience we can say that one would be ill-advised to miss this rare special performance.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Blue Jay Listening Room, 2457 South Third Street, Jacksonville Beach, FL,Jacksonville Beach,FL,United States
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