Little Sammy Davis

Little Sammy Davis never rubbed elbows with the Rat Pack amid the cocktail-ringed nightspots of Las Vegas, nor is he likely to oblige anyone asking for “The Candy Man.” Instead, this veteran harmonica player traces his recording history to 1952 and resurfaced in the 1990s with the Delmark album I Ain’t Lyin’. His long absence was spent in Poughkeepsie, New York.

Davis first mastered the harmonica at the age of eight. Leaving Mississippi, he reached Florida and found work picking oranges while crossing paths with guitarist Earl Hooker. In 1952 he recorded four tracks for Henry Stone’s Rockin’ label in Miami under the name Little Sam Davis, accompanied by Hooker; those sides accounted for nearly all of his documented output for decades. A 1953 stop in Chicago placed him alongside Little Walter, Jimmy Reed, and Muddy Waters, yet he soon moved on and eventually made Poughkeepsie his home.

Apart from a lone 45 issued on Pete Lowry’s Trix imprint, little was heard from him until 1995, when he teamed with guitarist Fred Scribner and resumed performing. Regular appearances as a guest on New York morning-radio host Don Imus’s program followed, along with his own band and the aforementioned album—ensuring he would not be confused with the similarly named, similarly statured entertainer of an earlier era.