Maxwell Street Jimmy Davis born 2 March 1925

Charles W. Thompson (March 2, 1925 – December 28, 1995), known as Maxwell Street Jimmy Davis, was an American electric blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter. He played with John Lee Hooker, recorded an album for Elektra Records in the mid-1960s, and remained a regular street musician on Maxwell Street, in Chicago, for over 40 years. He is best remembered for his songs "Cold Hands" and "4th and Broad". 

Davis was born Charles W. Thompson, in Tippo, Mississippi. By chance, none other than future blues giant John Lee Hooker happened to be keeping company with one of Davis’s aunts, and it was this connection that led him to begin learning the rudiments of the guitar while a teenage youngster, as Hooker took it upon himself to help the fledgling musician with the instrument’s basics.  One can certainly hear that Hooker style in Davis’s blues through his use of droning one-chord attacks and frameworks.  Hooker’s influence is undeniable. 

But early on, Davis did not only confine his musical and entertaining energies to his burgeoning blues guitar interests.  While a teen, he took it upon himself to find employment and outlets for his artistic creativity by enlisting himself into the traveling world of the minstrel shows, working with both the Silas Green From New Orleans outfit and the Rabbit Foot Minstrels.  In these shows, he showcased his dexterity as a dancer by doing the buck dance, an improvisational form of solo step dancing, along with other unique innovative skills that captivated audiences.  He even went to the extreme and employed a walking on glass routine in his fervent desire to drive spectators to heights of entertainment pleasure. 

It is generally believed that Davis made the decision at age 21 to move north out of Mississippi to Detroit in 1946 to reunite with his mentor John Lee Hooker.  Together, the pair worked together on the city’s bustling blues scene pretty much through the 1940s, following Davis's relocation there in 1946. Here is where research gets somewhat murky, as some accounts have Davis relocating once again for a brief period to Cincinnati, Ohio, before he decided to again move, this time Chicago in 1953. He started performing regularly in the marketplace area of Maxwell Street, playing a traditional and electrified style of Mississippi blues. 

                                   

In 1952, he recorded two songs, "Cold Hands" and "4th and Broad", under his real name, for Sun Records. They were offered to Chess Records and Bullet Records but were not released. And, it is acknowledged that for some time Davis performed on Mississippi radio broadcasts in the 1957 timeframe. In 1958, Davis again decided to make the move northward, this time during the blues’ surging heyday.  And like many arriving bluesmen in Chicago, he was savvy enough to realize that the best way to get himself noticed was to play his blues on the Maxwell Street open-air market for both tips and the aforementioned valuable awareness of his talents.  

It is uncertain when he took the name Jimmy Davis, but in 1964, under that pseudonym, he recorded a couple of tracks for Testament Records. They appeared on the 1965 Testament compilation album Modern Chicago Blues. His songs were "Crying Won't Make Me Stay" and "Hanging Around My Door". The album also included a track from another Chicago street performer, John Lee Granderson, and more established artists, such as Robert Nighthawk, Big Walter Horton, and Johnny "Man" Young. The music journalist Tony Russell wrote that it was "music of great charm and honesty". 

In 1966, Davis recorded a self-titled album for Elektra Records, which Jason Ankeny, writing for Allmusic, called "a fine showcase for his powerful guitar skills and provocative vocals". He recorded several tracks for various labels over the years, without commercial success. And, during a period in the 1980s, Davis renounced blues music fully and became a minister, but that pursuit didn’t last long, and he returned to what he knew and loved; performing blues. 

Davis owned a small restaurant on Maxwell Street, the Knotty Pine Grill, and performed outside the premises in the summer. He continued to play alfresco on Chicago's West Side for decades. In July 1994, Wolf Records released the album Chicago Blues Session, Vol. 11, the tracks of which Davis had recorded in 1988 and 1989. The collection included Lester Davenport on harmonica and Kansas City Red playing the drums. 

Davis died of a heart attack on 28th December 1995, in his adopted hometown of Chicago. He was 70 years old. He was another of the vital connections between the blues’ rural roots in the Southern U.S. and how it adapted to the metropolitan swirl of the Northern U.S.’s major municipalities. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & Curt’s Blues)

 

Ray Frushay born 1st March 1944

Ray Frushay (March 1, 1944 - August 8, 2022) was a Country and western singer-songwriter, who enjoyed moderate success in the 1960s, although a long-term record deal eluded him. 

Ray was born Raymond Frusha in the U.S. Naval Hospital in San Diego, California to G. Ray and Loyce Eskew Frusha. While in McCallum High School, he played his songs for local DJ and manager Clyde "Barefoot" Chesser who introduced Ray to the Country Music Variety Shows at the Austin Municipal Auditorium. From there, Ray was quickly seen on the Louisiana Hayride, the Grand Ole Opry, and stages across America, charting records from the early age of eighteen. Ray was seen on such national television shows as the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, the Merv Griffin Show, and the Joey Bishop Show. 

Ray with Johnny Cash

While Ray was a prolific songwriter in the 60s and 70s, he was also in demand as a performer.  He either opened for or did concerts with people like Johnny Cash, Mel Tillis, George Jones, Dolly Parton, Marty Robbins, Statler Bros. Roger Miller, Doug Kershaw, Jim Reeves, Porter Wagner, June Carter…..and the list goes on and on.  But, it wasn’t only country stars!  There’s that blues and rockin’ side, too, with the likes of BB King, Little Richard, and Ike/Tina Turner.  The list goes on and on.  

                                   

Later, Ray was discovered by boxer Rocky Marciano and was transitioned to perform as a "pop" singer and actor. He had an abundant recording career from roughly 1960 to 1980. During his acting career he appeared in two films, one being “Ransome Money” in 1970 where he played “Officer Smith”. However, for the first half of the 'Seventies, he was officially a major-label recording artist, but Dot/Paramount never green-lighted a full album, so Frushay kept chugging along a parallel course as an indie musician and working hotel lounge gigs and doing impersonations also in the clubs of Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe and Reno. 

In 1976, Ray revived his career releasing his last album "Frushay Country," although he continued to record singles for several years to come. His lone charting single, a private-press release called "I Got Western Pride," came out a few years after this, in 1979. His last single was released in 1980 also on the Western Pride label. He also hosted a local country music television show in Monroe, Louisiana. 

Since retirement, Ray enjoyed and was thankful for a renewed friendship with his ex-wife Barbara Covington, He also enjoyed playing his guitar and singing for friends in his new community of Hempstead, Texas. Although Ray recently suffered from cancer, heart disease, leg and lung issues, he died from natural causes on August 8, 2022 at the age of 78 years in Hempstead, Texas. He was buried in the Fairview Cemetery in Bastrop, Texas. 

His true legacy may be his daughter Sheri Frushay, a country-rock artist with whom he co-wrote “Walk Tall Cowboy”.  

(Snippets of information mainly edited from Cypresss Fairbanks Funeral Home obit & The Texas and Music Story)