Hank Davis

Hank Davis. Born in New York on July 6, 1941. As any other teenager up in the Big City, Henry “Hank” Davis grew up listening to the standard music that was regularly played in the radio back in the mid-fifties, but being a curious kind of guy he soon learned the way to escape of mainstream by going down to the end of the dial in order to find his own exciting treatment of Country and Rhythm & Blues sounds. Discovering not long after all the stuff that was coming out from Memphis through the Sun label, Hank attended some of the Rock’n’Roll shows that Alan Freed was putting together in New York and, armed with a cheap guitar he had bought in Sears, started playing his favourite Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash or Billy Lee Riley songs with some fellow schoolmates. In early 1958 he formed his first band, Hank & The Electras, recording some raw demos that attracted the attention of Dauphin Records, a small label located down at 1650 Broadway, in the heart of Manhattan. The boys were taken into the studio to re-cut a couple of Davis’ originals that after some changes and misspellings (plus the addition in the credits of an Italian guy’s name whose only merit was paying for the session) would be issued as “Get Lost Baby” and “Women Train”. At the same time, Hank kept showing around his songs to other companies and another Broadway label, Wizz Records, offered him a deal of his own which would result in a 45 released on early May 1959 with “I Want You To Be My Baby” and “You’re My Kind” on it. This way, when Dauphin finally put out the cuts by Hank & The Electras a few months later, the band was already history.
Hank’s solo record sold moderately well in the New York area and he was prompted to cut a follow-up, which he did in a busy session that produced a bunch of new cuts. All of them written by him, being “One Way Track” and “Real Soon” the ones chosen for release. However, Jack Waltzer, owner of Wizz, changed his initial plans and decided to lease the masters to James Gaylord, president of Stacy Records, a Chicago based company set up as a tax-write off for Maybelline Cosmetics. Business is business. The single came out on May 1960, one year after it was recorded and, even though “One Way Track” was described by Billboard as “an appealing side in the Johnny Cash tradition”, the record didn’t sell enough to secure a new Hank Davis’ release on the label.
Of course, this was not the end of Hank’s musical career. He kept quite active during the first half of the sixties by way of different projects that would leave behind a vast collection of recordings, although only a few came to light through formal record releases. Man of many faces, he also found the time to complete his studies of Psychology at Columbia University first and at the University of Maryland later, moving to Canada in the beginning of the next decade after teaching for a short while at California State University. Davis has remained up in America’s hat ever since, combining professional duties as Psychology professor and researcher with his profound love for every kind of American Roots Music. An old tireless interest that has produced not only tons of new songs through the years but also extensive liner notes written to accompany reissues of his original heroes’ music.
For the very first time on vinyl, “One Way Track” is presented here in its original intended form, a little different than the take that was finally issued under Stacy’s label. On the flip side you will find “Salamay”, a great sax-driven rocking cut destined to fill dance floors all around. Both together, a cool, essential and minuscule piece on Hank Davis’ fabulous story.



* Hank Davis: www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLuptCDT5w8

Sortie d´un 45 RPM: www.sleazyrecords.com