Little Sammy Davis (November 28, 1928 – February 16, 2018) was an American blues musician based in New York's Hudson Valley. His music career began in the 1940s, but he was not widely known until the mid-1990s, when he began working in radio, singing, performing on tour, and recording studio albums.

Early Life and Career

Davis was born in Winona, Mississippi, and raised in a one-room shack. He learned to play the harmonica at the age of eight. He eventually left home and settled in Florida, where he continued to play the blues in the Miami area and worked in orange groves and sawmills to make ends meet.

Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, Davis traveled with medicine shows and played with blues musicians such as Pinetop Perkins and Ike Turner. He spent a total of nine years on the road with Earl Hooker, including with the short-lived band of Hooker, Turner, Perkins and Albert King, which broke up when Hooker and King, two titans of blues guitar, came to blows. Davis and Hooker recorded four sides for Henry Stone's Rockin' label in 1952 and 1953, billed as Little Sam Davis.

In the late 1950s, Davis lived in Chicago, Illinois, performing with Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed and occasionally fronting Little Walter's band, the Aces, when Walter didn't show up for an engagement. At some point, word got out that "some guy looks and plays just like Walter and people think he is Little Walter". One night, as Davis performed on stage accompanied by Hooker, he spotted a policeman at the back of the club. Walter and the officer waited for Davis to finish his set, and when he left the stage, he was arrested on the spot. Davis later said, "Walter was a good guy and told me that yes, you do indeed sound just like me but you can't be going around letting people think you are me". Davis was locked up and spent a night in jail before Walter dropped the charges, and the two remained friends for the rest of Walter's life.[citation needed]

Davis later married and settled in Poughkeepsie, New York, where he was "discovered" by a local musician, Dan DelSanto of the Arm Bros. Dan had been looking around locally for blues players for his friend Pete Lowry, a local folklorist. During this time he recorded a session for Lowry's Trix Records at Davis's apartment in 1971, which resulted in one 45-rpm single, "Someday Blues" backed with "Sam's Swing". Davis also played harmonica on some of the recordings made by Eddie Kirkland for Trix in 1972 at a studio in Mink Hollow, New York. After the sudden death of his wife in 1972/73, Davis stopped playing and dropped out of the music scene for the next two decades, despite the efforts of Little Eliot Lloyd, Lowry, and others to persuade him to play. Eventually, no one knew where Davis was or whether he was alive or dead; some said he had gone back to Mississippi or maybe Florida. He had disappeared.

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Fred Scribner/ Midnight Slim Guitarist- former member of the Levon Helm Band and founder of Little Sammy Davis & Midnight Slim,who will be inducted into the "Blues Hall Of Fame on May 4'th,2014@ Brians Backyard BBQ in Middletown,NY can be heard on " Midnight Ramble Vol. ! with Levon Helm, I Ain't Lyin'" With Little Sammy Davis, Midnight Audio and "Say Something Strong " by Joey Degraw and "Low Down Feeling" by The " Mannish Boys". In 2012 Scribner teamed up with the Sullivan a Hotel for a two day Blues Fest: The Sullivan County Blues & Music Festival in Rock Hill, NY .

In 2015 Fred teamed with Bethel Woods Center For The Performing Arts for a one day festival : Blues At Bethel Woods. Fred has recorded with Buddy Miles,Garth Hudson, Harvey Brooks,and Little Sammy Davis, who was featured in the Acclaimed Short Documentary - " Little Sammy Davis" by Arlen Tarlofsky with Fred narrating the film. Also known as " Midnight Slim", Fred has played guitar behind: Tom Jones, Lucky Peterson, Comander Cody,Donald Fagan, Maria Mulduar,Hubert Sumlin, Joss Stone, Chris Barron(Spin Doctors,)Members of James Brown's J. B.'s , Delbert Mclinton. Has opened for Delbert Mclinton, Otis Rush,Solomon Burke, J. Geils,Johnny Winter,James Cotton,Delbert Mclinton, Edgar Winter, Gary U.S. Bonds,Robert Cray...to name a few...

See and read more here: Fred Scribner/ Midnight Slim

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