Oh Glory represents my personal tribute to Rev. Gary Davis. He was an enormously broad musician and teacher who was born blind in 1896, died in 1972, and played for most of his life on the street, in the wind and the cold.

He was extraordinary in many ways: his playing was so rich and fluent that he can be said to have been the architect of the style known as Piedmont Blues, though he was primarily a Gospel singer. His singing could be heard for blocks when he wanted it to, and he was a broadly enough based 'songster' that he could cover most any song or instrumental in any genre, including classical music. He was a fiery preacher, a patient teacher, founded three churches and was a major lynchpin between the blues players of the Southeast and the Folk Music Revival of the late fifties and sixties. All that, and he taught hundreds of players who are now professional musicians.

I have written more extensively about him elsewhere,...