WASHITA LOVE CHILD

A definitive biography of one of the great unsung rock heroes of the 1970s.

Oklahoma-born Jesse Ed Davis was a guitarist’s guitarist, cherished by elite and aspiring musicians for the sensitive musicality of his work for Taj Mahal and as a studio musician in Los Angeles. No less than Duane Allman, perhaps the greatest bottleneck slide guitarist of his generation, credited Davis’ slide work on Mahal’s “Statesboro Blues” as the main inspiration for his own artistry. In short order, Davis’ guitar was in demand by artists of the highest stature in rock and roll. George Harrison called on him to play the Concert for Bangladesh in 1971. The Rolling Stones put him at the top of the list, next to the Faces’ Ronnie Wood, to replace Mick Taylor in 1975. Davis also worked—and partied—with John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Levon Helm, Leon Russell, and scores of other big names at the apex of classic rock. Why is he not better known? The answer, like Davis himself, is complicated. The only child of parents from distinguished Native American families—Seminole and Mvskoke on his father’s side and Kiowa on his mother’s—Davis grew up a typical middle-class baby boomer in Oklahoma City in the 1950s, but with the weight of Indigenous history deep in his bones. “Being Native was painful for Jesse,” one friend said. “Part of him wanted to get away from it by becoming a rock star.” By the end of the 1970s, he had sunk into a heroin habit that derailed his career, ruined relationships, and ultimately killed him. Miller, an Oklahoma State University history professor and a former musician, is well suited to the subject; the research, he makes clear, was a labor of love.

A vivid, well-rounded portrait of an overlooked major talent.