(Traditional Cajun /) Link Davis - Let The Good Times Roll - 1993, MP3 (tracks), 128 kbps

Given the sheer length of Link Davis' career, it's surprising that this 20-track CD, covering highlights across 15 years of recording, is the only compilation out on him -- on the other hand, the diversity of his music also makes it difficult to quantify in a single survey. The selection covers Davis' own recordings, done for Gold Star, Nucraft, Starday, and Allstar, as well as records on which he played and sang, either backup behind Floyd Tillman or lead with Benny Leaders and the Western Rangers, or was working under the pseudonym of "The Harmonica Kid." The sound is a mix of Cajun and honky tonk, leaning toward rockabilly as the '50s sides advance, intermingled with elements of country blues -- "O.P.S. Blues," credited to the 102 Ranch Boys, is an extraordinary piece of topical white blues that's almost a throwback to the Depression-era in purpose and style; it's juxtaposed with the jaunty, Cajun-flavored "Coo-Coo-Coo," which contains a gorgeous fiddle workout. The real treat for rock & roll historians, however, will be "Grasshopper," a 1955 piece of Cajun-style rockabilly that was probably a little too deep Southern to have caught on more than regionally, but would delight any fan of Sun-era Elvis Presley or Carl Perkins. Much of what Davis did over the next few years, as represented here, moved between blues, rockabilly, and country, culminating with "Beatle Bug," a 1962 instrumental credited to "The Man With the Buzzin' Sax." The makers of this collection have done their best to be comprehensive, but as this is not an authorized release (coming out of the Czech Republic by way of England), there is a mild deficiency in the sound; the sources for the early material were clearly discs -- clean ones to be sure, but definitely not studio master quality. The notes are thorough enough to make up for some of the sonic drawbacks, and one shouldn't question the quality of releases like this too extensively -- rather, we should be glad to have it.

Link Davis was born in 1914 in Wills Point, Van Zandt County, TX, 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."
Davis spent the 1950s working under a variety of names, as well as backing various other musicians, including bandleader Benny Leaders, Floyd Tillman, and Smith Spadacene (working as "the Harmonica Kid") 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 was equally capable in all of these areas -- as far back as 1949, he'd cut a hot adaptation of "Good Rockin' Tonight" under the title "Have You Heard the News" -- and could easily have been a competitor in the new field of rock & roll when it began breaking out in the middle of the decade. Some of the flavor of his stuff, such as "Grasshopper," was a little too southern to ever find favor outside of the region, but he was better suited in style to the new music than many other country music veterans who tried it on for size. Moving between the Starday, OKeh, Columbia, Nucraft, Sarg, and Allstar labels, and his own Western and Tanker labels, among many others, he 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. It's only in the 1990s, some 20 years after his death, with the deep reissues of music by Cliff Bruner and Floyd Tillman, that Davis' wide-ranging contributions to country music, Western swing, and rock & roll fully began to be acknowledged. His son, Link Davis Jr., also a multi-instrumentalist, has similarly worked in a multitude of musical idioms, including recordings with Asleep at the Wheel and one of the latter-day incarnations of the 13th Floor Elevators.