Like many other music aficionados, I first heard of guitarist Jesse Ed Davis when I read the liner notes to Taj Mahal’s 1968 albums Taj Mahal and Natch’l Blues. I first saw Davis in the 1971 film Concert for Bangladesh. Although he was called in just in case the ailing Eric Clapton was unable to play the concert, Davis presence onstage was happily received by the pantheon of artists playing the show. Already friends with Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Clapton, Leon Russell and many others who played that day, Davis’ reputation among musicians and his popularity among rock music fans jumped that day. I doubt I was the only such fan who had never seen Davis in the flesh before.
Going back to that first Taj Mahal album. The version of (Willie Dixon’s?) Statesboro Blues Taj’s band is the measure by which every artist afterwards is considered. After Duane Allman heard the record and Jesse Ed’s guitar playing on that song, he was awestruck and on board. Allman was indebted to Davis for the rest of his all too brief life and he let people know it. Indeed, a new biography of Davis titled Washita Love Child: The Rise of Indigenous Rock Star Jesse Ed Davis begins with a nod to the apocryphal tale with Allman hearing Davis’ slide guitar on Taj Mahal’s version of the blues classic “Statesbore Blues” and adapting it to the early Allmans’ sound. 
The book’s author Douglas K. Miller has done his research. This biography is a detailed account of his subject’s life. It’s more than just the story of his rise; it is also a tale of his struggle with various drugs and his place in the world. It was a place defined by multiple factors, with the most important certainly including his indigenous ethnicity in a nation built on the blood of his predecessors. Davis grew up in a time when native children were disrespected for that heritage and were constantly being discouraged from acknowledging it and encouraged to reject it. Boy’s hair was cut and worship of the Christian god was demanded. Native languages were not taught in schools and the US history students (native and non-native alike) portrayed the native peoples of the Americas as something from the past; a museum display. According to Miller, the Davis family celebrated the family’s roots. His father became known for his artwork—paintings which included motifs of his people and drew inspiration from their legends and history. At the same time, he had enlisted in the Air Force, done his stint and then worked on a military base in Oklahoma. Jesse grew up listening to Dixieland and other forms of US popular music from his father’s large record collection. Born in 1944, Jesse Ed Davis was playing guitar in Conway Twitty’s touring band by 1963. In addition, he played with a couple Oklahoma City groups he had been involved with since high school. By now, Davis had a taste for the music and the life. He knew he wanted to make a living as a musician. Indeed, he probably knew he wanted to become the sought after player he became.
In the years that followed, Davis fell in love with Patti Daley, moved to Los Angeles, and in 1967, joined Taj Mahal’s band. Miller relates the story that Taj sought him out after hearing through the grapevine about his playing. Mahal’s group would be where Davis’ renown took off. Like many other musicians in LA at the time, Davis would meet up with Leon Russell, who also came out of Oklahoma—Tulsa, but still Oklahoma. Russell had been in the business for close to a decade as a session man in LA. He was living in what he called a “giant hippie commune” that was also outfitted as a recording studio. Rock musicians came in and out of the house all day and night to party and jam. Although Davis worked with Russell on and off, he insisted on being his own person and occasionally resented the rock music media’s tendency to link him and Russell together, as if they weren’t two unique and extremely talented musicians who just happened to be from Oklahoma.
According to Miller, the fact of Davis’ indigeneity, while never a major issue in terms of him getting work (at least after he left Oklahoma), could be an occasional issue. Like Jimi Hendrix, who created music that transcended race, age and perhaps even humanity itself, Davis rarely if ever referred to his ethnicity. His guitar did the talking. At the time, elements of the counterculture over-romanticized the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, ultimately trivializing their history and existence in real time. In a corresponding manner, many fellow artists—their heads filled with cowboy and Indian Hollywood nonsense—weren’t exactly sure what to expect upon meeting Davis. Once again, his guitar did the talking. Jesse Ed refers to his heritage in some of his solo work beginning with his song “Washita Love Child”, which he recorded with Eric Clapton on Davis’ eponymous first album. His second record titled Ululu begins with a song where he brings his heritage and his rock and roll heart together in the first song “Red Dirt Boogie Brother.” Even then, it’s a song about being from Oklahoma at least as much as it is about being native. However, it wasn’t until he joined up with the poet and American Indian Movement organizer John Trudell in the 1980s that Davis took part in an explicitly indigenous artistic project. This was while Davis was in recovery, a process that led him to become a counselor in a recovery program. It was these two aspects of his final years that people referred to when he was found dead of an overdose in June 1988.
Washita Love Child is a welcome addition to the library of rock music history. It ends with four pages of his discography. The list includes his solo work, his work with Taj Mahal, John Trudell and his numerous collaborations with artists ranging from superstars like Bob Dylan, George Harrison, The Faces and Albert King to other accomplished (and well-known) musicians any guitar player would love to sit in with: Leon Russell, Gene Clark, Harry Nilsson, Brewer & Shipley, David Bromberg, Jackson Browne and The Pointer Sisters (to name a few). The author Douglas K. Miller describes a life lived in a world defined by rock and roll, American indigeneity, racism and love. It’s quite a rewarding read.
