Biography

They don’t make bluesmen like Boo Boo Davis anymore. He’s the embodiment of traditional postwar electric blues: no dilution of the genre, no hint of blues-rock. So is this CD, featuring 10 rough, tough songs that take no prisoners, the way it used to be.
“It’s blues all the way,” promises Boo Boo, who plays fat-toned, full-bodied harp and sings with raw emotion, delivering the torrid one-chord boogie title track, the ominous swinger “She Made Me Evil,” and the no-holds-barred social commentary “Hell Round Here” like it’s last call at the funkiest blues joint in town. Guitarist LA Jones, bassist Adrianna Marie, and drummer Chris Millar lay down mean grooves that complement Boo Boo without stealing his thunder.
James “Boo Boo” Davis learned his blues down in Drew, Mississippi at the dawn of the ‘50s. At seven years of age, he beat on a lard can in his family band in lieu of drums (they proceeded to play all over Mississippi). After moving up to the St. Louis area, Boo Boo corralled a real drum kit, backing Doc Terry and then Little Aaron before reuniting with his brothers John and S.L. for a weekend gig at Tabby’s Red Room in East St. Louis that lasted 18 years. “They didn’t want nobody else to play!” says Davis, who made his debut CD, East St. Louis, in 1999. He’s made a lot more since then, and he remains a mainstay of the St. Louis area blues scene.
“You ain’t gonna find nobody to do it like me,” declares Boo Boo, whose unusual handle was bestowed on him as a child by his father as a tribute to his uncles James, Boo-Jack, and Davis. “No, you ain’t gonna find nobody no better!” That’s no idle boast.
--Bill Dahl