Hank Davis (born July 6, 1941) is a Rockabilly and Country singer / songwriter who has recorded since the 1950’s. He is a reissue producer and compiler also a professor of psychology and author.
As any other teenager born and brought up in New York, Henry “ Hank” Davis grew up listening o the standard music that was regularly played on the radio back in the mid-fifties, but he soon learned the way to escape the mainstream by listening to the Country and Rhythm & Blues stations. Discovering not long after all the music that was coming out of Memphis through the Sun label, Hank attended some of Alan Freed’s Rock’n’Roll shows in New York, and armed with a cheap guitar he had bought from Sears, started playing his favourite Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash or Billy lee Riley songs with some fellow schoolmates.
In early 1958 he and his first band Hank And The Electras recorded some raw demos that attracted the attention of Dauphin Records. The boys were taken into the studio to re-cut a couple of Davis’ originals. At the same time Hank kept sharing around his songs to other companies and Wizz records offered him a deal of his own, which resulted in a single in 1959 titled “I want You To Be My Baby”. When Dauphin released the record a few weeks later, the band was already history.
Hank’s solo record sold moderately in the New York area and he was prompted to cut a follow up in a busy session including “One Way Track” and “Real Score”. However, Jack Waltzer, owner of Wizz Record changed his initial plan and left the masters to Stag Records. A Chicago based company. The single was released in May 1960 and didn’t sell enough to secure another release.
Of course, this was not the end of Hank’s musical career. He kept quite active during the first half of the 60’s by way of different projects that would leave behind a vast collection of recordings, although only a few came to light through formal record releases. Without a hit record to his name, Hank has recorded throughout a six decade period. An on-line discography lists well over 200 recordings, appearing almost randomly on numerous compilation CDs, LPs and singles. Some of this music is quite collectable and all of it is interesting. It's what the critics today call 'authentic music': honest and underproduced.
Music has always been his passion and went from playing and recording it when a teenager, to writing about it later on. He has been writing magazine articles and album liner notes for a long time. In an interview with Eden Music Hank said “Writing about ’50s music isn’t time travel to me. My musical taste, both as a performer and a journalist, is largely based in ’50s music. My record collection is strongly rooted in the ’50s. It isn’t so much about going back in time as it is digging into what I care most about and wanting to share it.”
Man of many faces Hank also found time to complete his studies of psychology. His education includes attending Columbia University, B.A., 1963; Boston University, M.A., 1965 and University of Maryland, Ph.D., later moving to Canada in the 70’s after teaching for 3 years at California State University. Davis has remained in Canada contributing professional duties as Psychology professor and researcher with his profound love for everything of the American R&B music. It’s a tireless interest that has produced not only tons of new songs through the years but also extensive liner notes written to accompany reissues by his original hero’s music.
He now lives in rural Ontario Canada, where he is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Guelph. He has written books on animal cognition and evolutionary psychology, including his most recent, the controversial Caveman Logic.
(Edited from Eden Music. Bear Family, Carlos A.del Bosque liner notes &Columbia College Today)
