This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen #126
(October/November 2006). Ernie Hawkins Thursday, 9:00 a.m. -- In the sanctuary of McDaniel College's Baker Memorial Chapel, 11 guitar-toting adults arrive, each one a proud survivor of Blues Night, International Night, late-late jams, and 7:00 a.m. yoga. (Well… maybe not the yoga.) Sunlight streams mercilessly through the stately, arched windows as the students, some clutching coffee cups, settle with their instruments. By week's end, morning class at Common Ground on the Hill, a packed week of arts and culture workshops in Westminster, Maryland, can look a little like the gathering of the undead. However, seated on the riser -- looking impossibly chipper -- the instructor is already demonstrating the fingerstyle and rhythm of the week's course: "The Reverend Gary Davis and the Blues." With a welcoming smile, Ernie Hawkins greeted the assembly: "Mornin', class." "Mornin', teacher!" And as they tuned up, they warmed up. The students, some of them already accomplished guitarists, were intent on absorbing all they could from the man who not only knew the Rev. Davis personally, but who has played with and mastered the styles of some of the blues legends of all time, including Son House, Mance Lipscomb, Fred McDowell, and Jim Brewer, among others. Offering absolution to all who neglected to do their homework last night, Hawkins proceeded. "Keep your ears open and listen to when things happen with the melody," he said, as the group practiced Davis' "Cocaine." Get the bass progression down, he directed. It's the only "constant" in the song. "Keep your mind on your thumb. You wouldn't have the syncopation without the bass," he said. "It sounds like a simple song, but it's very complex. Gary Davis had a very complex mind. He could do many different things at the same time… and add voice over it all." This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen #126
(October/November 2006).
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