From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Mon Jul 8, 2002  1:16 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Link Davis
 
LINK DAVIS (By Shaun Mather)

Born 8 July 1914, Van Zant County, Texas
Died 5 February 1972, Wills Point, Texas

Link Davis was born in Van Zant County, near Dallas, one of eight children.
He formed a trio with two of his brothers during the late '20s, playing
local dances. A natural musician, Davis started out playing the fiddle and
later took up the saxophone. He gravitated toward Western swing music when
he turned professional and one of his earliest known steady gigs was as a
member of the Crystal Springs Ramblers, a Fort Worth-based outfit with which
he cut his first record in 1937. It was after passing through several other
local bands that Davis became a member of Cliff Bruner & the Texas
Wanderers, playing fiddle or saxophone on a number of their records during
the early '40s. He tried forming his own band - later known as the Blue
Bonnet Playboys - in 1945, and cut his first solo sides in 1948. Davis moved
to the Gold Star label the following year for one release, which included
his version of "Good Rockin' Tonight," retitled "Have You Heard the News."

He was Mr Versatile during the '50s, working under a variety of names, as
well as backing various other musicians (including Floyd Tillman) on fiddle
or saxophone, occasionally singing with them, and making music in a variety
of idioms and styles, ranging from country blues and Cajun music to
rockabilly. He moved between the Starday, OKeh, Columbia, Nucraft, Sarg,
and Allstar labels, and his own Western and Tanker labels, among many
others, and left behind a significant legacy spread among all of those
variant styles, which may be one reason Davis isn't better known. A fixture
in the industry, he was too good at too many different kinds of sounds and
not great enough in any one of them to make a deep impression with the
public. He did earn a spot in the footnotes of rock & roll history by
accompanying the Big Bopper's "Chantilly Lace" and Johnny Preston on
"Running Bear," but most of Davis' recognition would reside in the country
field.

Even into the 1960s, he occasionally made a foray into rock & roll with
songs like "Rice and Gravy," but he failed to make a lasting impression in
the field. He continued to be a top session musician and cut records in
Western swing, Cajun, and blues style throughout the decade for different
labels, mostly based in Houston, TX, until he was sidelined by a stroke late
in the decade. After that, Davis' activities were far more limited, until his
death in 1972 at age 57. With the advent of the CD reissue era his wide-
ranging contributions to country music, Western swing, and rock & roll
is finally being acknowledged.
(Adapted from All Music Guide).

CD: Let The Good Times Roll, 1948-1963 (Krazy Kat). 20 tracks.