Geater Davis

Born in Kountze, Texas, in 1946, Geater Davis ranked among the South's most overlooked soul vocalists, an impassioned performer whose timbre merged gentle sweetness with gritty abrasion. His approach recalled the blues-soaked deliveries of Johnnie Taylor and, above all, Bobby "Blue" Bland, yet Davis achieved even deeper cult renown than fellow deep-soul artists such as James Carr or O.V. Wright because most of his prime-era work appeared on modest regional imprints. The majority of his sessions took place in the first half of the 1970s, a period when he often wrote or co-wrote his own songs and sometimes handled production or guitar parts as well. In 1971 he recorded the album Sweet Woman's Love for House of Orange, and his version of Jerry Butler & the Impressions' "For Your Precious Love" later found favor with British soul collectors. Singles followed on Luna ("I Don't Worry (About Jody)") and Ace ("Strange Situation," "Tired of Busting My Brain") before a sustained run with 77 that yielded "Long Cold Winter," "I'm Gonna Change" (cut at Muscle Shoals), "I've Got to Pay the Price," "Your Heart Is So Cold," and additional titles. Despite steady touring on the blues and chitlin circuits, his discs moved few copies. Davis suffered a fatal heart attack on September 29, 1984, at the age of thirty-eight. West Side later assembled the 1998 anthology Sadder Shades of Blue: The Southern Soul Sessions 1971-76, which surveyed his output for every label except House of Orange.