A salute to the late Governor Davis

I’ve been out of Indiana for six and a half years now, so it’s not surprising that I would be detached from a lot of Indianapolis-area news in that period unless I were subscribing to an Indiana news outlet.

I elected not to continue my IndyStar online subscription after moving, and for the most part, I hadn’t felt like I missed a lot.

But in the days since composing my previous post, the one commemorating blues musician Gene Deer, I’ve learned that another Indy community blues stalwart, 73-year-old Governor Davis, had died in October 2021 of Covid-related complications. And given how huge of a blues stalwart that Davis was and how much I enjoyed his shows, I figured I owed him a post here, too.

I’d seen Davis and his longtime band, the Blues Ambassadors, perform many times at the Slippery Noodle Inn in Indianapolis. Davis was a delightful showman known for wearing colorful threads and a wide-brimmed fedora and for taking his cordless guitar and making forays into the audience to play up close and personal. It wasn’t hard for him to get customers to dance at their tables, in the aisles and — during the late set at the Slippery Noodle when attendance had thinned to half a dozen to a dozen — on the bench seats of the front stage. It was crazy good fun, in fact.

Governor Davis and the Blues Ambassadors had two tracks on the 1994 Slippery Noodle Sound live-performance compilation CD, and both are fantastic. A wonderful pumping bass riff drives “Faith,” and the danceable Elmore James classic “Shake Your Money Maker” was an enjoyable Governor Davis concert staple.

He and the Blues Ambassadors also had two CDs, both issued by JK Publishing — “I Am the Governor” in 1997 and “Live” in 2001. 

The Governor (which was his real name) was born in Chicago and grew up around blues music at Chicago clubs because his father, also named Governor, worked in car repair and his customers included many Chicago blues musicians, so dad got to play piano in the clubs. 

At the urging of his father who wanted his son to get “a real job” (i.e., not vehicle repair), Governor moved to Indiana and enrolled in two-year Vincennes University, where he studied social work and played in several music ensembles, according to his obituary. He finished his studies at Ball State University in Muncie, where he taught himself how to play guitar, sat in with local bands and learned the art of performance. He got his degree there in 1977.

After brief employment in social work, he elected to work as a musician full time, and the rest is history. He made Muncie his home, and played there, in Indianapolis, Lafayette and in other locales in the Midwest and beyond. He and the Blues Ambassadors took a break from each other circa 2012 when the Governor sought medical help to figure out why he was experiencing bouts of mental health lows. 

After being diagnosed as Type 2 bipolar and taking some time off from the stage, he returned to performing, but not with Blues Ambassadors. The Governor Davis Blues Band was born. Today, there is a Blues Ambassadors band, based in central Indiana, performing with the Governor’s longtime guitarist Steve Robbins. (Longtime bassist Jose Joven, 74, died in November 2023.)

Like the photos I used for my post on Gene Deer, I took the photos in this post on April 20, 2011, at the Slippery Noodle Inn, which was hosting a memorial and benefit blues jam for Jerry Booth, front man for for the Indy blues band Mean Weenies. Booth (aka Jerry Blues) had died on April 15.

RIP Gene Deer, longtime Indiana blues musician, composer, band leader

When I did a post here in April 2011 about a memorial tribute jam for blues musician Jerry Booth, a jam at which I had taken pictures, it did not occur to me that I might turn to those photos again years down the road to commemorate yet another member of the Indy blues community.

But that is just what happened recently.   

Booth (aka Jerry Blues) was the front man for the Mean Weenies, a group I had seen only a time or two at the time of the tribute jam at the Slippery Noodle Inn in Indianapolis. But I sensed that artists I knew much better would turn out for the jam, which is why I sought and obtained Slippery Noodle Inn owner Hal Yeagy’s blessing to photograph the event.

Just a few days ago, the Noodle posted on its social media accounts news of the passing of Gene Deer, 59, a stalwart of the Indy blues community and one of my favorite performers that I’d seen in my many visits to the Noodle over the years. 

Gene performed at the Booth tribute jam (he’s the recurring musician in all the photos from that tribute in this post), so I’m pleased to say I got some quality images of him on stage. 

And, yes, indeed many local blues stalwarts did turn up to participate in the tribute jam; in addition to Deer, there was Gordon Bonham; Governor Davis; Scotty Thomas (aka Scotty Gun), who had played with Booth in the Mean Weenies; Sweet Lou Rapier; violinist Allison Irvine; Smokin’ Dave Wyatt; drummers Jeff Chapin and Joe Means; and bassist Henry “Chief” Connelly (who died in October 2021). Below are Deer (left), Connelly and Irvine.

I first saw Deer perform at the Slippery Noodle Inn in the early 1990s, and soon afterward also saw him at Zanies Too on Indy’s Eastside, a venue that proved to be Deer’s home base, if such a place could be nominated. He played there often — sometimes multiple times a week — and hosted many a Zanies blues jam.

Years after I first saw him play, I learned that he had played in the popular 1980s Indianapolis band Coda as early as 1984. (I own an Indy blues music compilation cassette tape, issued in 1989 by the former Blues Society of Indiana, that contains the song “Pay the Rent” by Coda.) Also part of Coda were bassist Tom Beckleheimer and drummer Joe Means. 

Coda disbanded in late 1989; Beckleheimer eventually landed with Red Beans and Rice, while Deer, Means, keyboardist James Taylor and former Duke Tumatoe bassist Larry Barber formed the Generators, beginning in 1990. That collaboration was short-lived, however. 

By April 1992, Deer was performing numerous gigs billed as Gene Deer and the Groove Merchants, an association that lasted into 1995, the year he and his ensembles began a nine-year run of being named best Indianapolis blues band by Nuvo weekly publication. It was a period that solidified his reputation as an Indy blues community heavyweight. 

In the late 1990s, the Groove Merchants gave way to the Gene Deer Blues Band, featuring Deer, Means, Connelly and keyboardist John Wesley Smith, although there would be many collaborators and iterations through the years as evidenced by the individual song artist credits on his 1997 CD “Livin’ With the Blues” (more on this below). 

Deer also was talented enough to attract gigs performing as a solo act, and he periodically logged stints hosting the Slippery Noodle’s Wednesday night jam sessions at which any musician could show up, sign in and share time showing their skills on the stage during the night. 

In May 1997, Deer even appeared with The Spirtles, a popular Indy area band, and with national singer and keyboardist Merl Saunders, a longtime cohort of and collaborator with the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia, for at least one performance at Irving’s Water Bowl north of Muncie. 

In 2002, 1999 Indy 500-Mile Race champion and guitar-playing Kenny Brack signed Deer to be band leader of Kenny Brack and the Subwoofers, which toured with the Indy Racing League in 2003. The Subwoofers released a benefit CD “Live in Nashville” that featured former Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Ed King. The album contains live recordings before an Indy Racing League race at Nashville Superspeedway in July of that year. In 2007, Deer toured South Africa with an England-based support band called the Raging Calm.

I saw Deer, which The Indianapolis Star described as “arguably the hardest-working blues artist in Indianapolis,” at the Slippery Noodle many times in the 1990s and into the new millennium. On a couple of occasions in the 2000s, I brought out-of-town family with me to the tavern if and when he performed there on Thanksgiving weekends, which happened a few times. Twice I got lucky when both he and fellow Indy blues stalwart Gordon Bonham’s bands played the Noodle on the same Thanksgiving weekend. Note: The Noodle has two stages, one in front, the other in back. They were connected by a long narrow hallway but separated with enough distance that one performer’s music would not disturb the other’s. Part of the unique SNI experience on two-act live-performance weekends was that customers had the ability to go back and forth between stages to enjoy both bands at some point during an evening. The bands’ start times were staggered so that breaks also were staggered, guaranteeing that there always was at least one band performing at all times.

I reviewed Deer’s first CD, “Soul Tender,” for The Indianapolis Star when it was released in 1994 on Slippery Noodle’s then-new record label, Slippery Noodle Sound. It was a fine collection of tunes, with my favorites being “Whisper in My Ear,” “Don't Turn Your Back on the Blues,” and “Midnight Healing.”

Slippery Noodle Sound released “Livin’ With the Blues,” Deer’s second CD, three years later in 1997. Deer dedicated the album to his father, Gene Paul Deer, who had died in October 1996. “I wanted to be a guitar player since I was a kid, and my dad was always a proud pop,” Deer said in the dedication on the back side of the album sheet. 

Although “Livin' With the Blues” attributes the artist to “Gene Deer & the Blues Band,” album song credits reflect an amalgam of talent helping out. Bill Mallers handles keyboards on all tracks, and Jeff Stone is on bass for all but two tracks. Keith Young handles percussion on “Too Far Gone.” Darrell Cox is on drums, Geoff Bushor on bass and Byron Graves on harp for “One Foot on the Road”; former Coda bandmate Beckleheimer is on bass for “Smokestack Lightning”; and Cox is on drums again for “Can’t Afford to Pay the Rent,” “Blues in the Afternoon” and “Dreams.” Rick Bole is on drums for all other tracks. 

“Livin’ With the Blues” contains a reprise of the Coda “Pay the Rent” song found on the aforementioned Blues Society of Indiana cassette compilation. The improvement in sound quality on the CD version is immediately apparent, and Deer’s 1997 treatment of the song is wonderfully refreshing. The CD version also expands the song title to “Can't Afford to Pay the Rent.”

Another 19 years passed before Deer self-released his third and final album, “Trippin’ Delta,” in 2016.

In 1994, Slippery Noodle Sound included Deer and the Groove Merchants on its second of four live blues compilations recorded at the downtown Indy blues bar and again, in 2013, on the fourth compilation, a three-disc set marking the bar’s 50th anniversary under the Yeagy family ownership. (That family ownership extended another 10 years; Hal Yeagy, who took over the bar from his father in 1984, died of cancer in December 2020, and his widow, Carol, sold the bar in March 2023.)

I learned of Deer’s passing early this month via posts on Slippery Noodle’s Facebook and Instagram accounts: 

It is with heavy hearts that we have to share the news of the sudden passing of Gene Deer. He was an icon in the Indy music scene and beyond. He was a beloved member of the Slippery Noodle family. His great smile and energy made every one he touched a better person. He will be deeply missed. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family. RIP Gene!

Circumstances and details of his death were not initially disclosed, but on Dec. 30, Gene issued a post on his Facebook account announcing that he and his band would have to cancel a show scheduled for the next day at American Legion Post 355 on the Far-Southside of Indianapolis because he was “still very sick.” He did not elaborate. The SNI and family members announced his death a few days into the new year, and a few days after that, an acquaintance of Deer posted on Facebook that authorities had determined Deer had contracted shingles and died of resultant sepsis. 

Deer’s calling and funeral services were scheduled for Friday, Jan. 12, at Flanner Buchanan Washington Park East Community Life Center, 10612 E. Washington St., Indianapolis. He was to be buried in Washington Park East Cemetery.

An article at www.nuvo.net reports that two known public celebrations of life for Deer are planned. The first will be a tribute jam and fundraiser at the Slippery Noodle, beginning at 7 p.m., on Jan. 24. 

The Rathskeller in downtown Indianapolis, where Gene performed his last gig on Dec. 23, announced it will hold a three-hour memorial and fundraiser in its Grand Kellersaal Ballroom for the Deer family from 5 to 8 p.m. Jan. 28. Donations will be accepted at the door. 

In addition, Matthew Socey’s Blues House Party radio show will air a tribute to Deer at 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 13, on WFYI-FM (90.1) in Indianapolis.

Above, Deer, Irvine, Wyatt and Bonham (left to right) together on the Slippery Noodle's rear stage. In the three photos below, Deer with Bonham trade lead and solo guitar licks. 

To view a full gallery of images from the jam, follow the link in this sentence.

iPhone test, Part III: at Slippery Noodle

A third recent opportunity to turn to iPhone5 to photograph also was its most critical test -- low indoor lighting with moving objects, specifically, a couple of blues bands at the Slippery Noodle.

I was there on a night that two out-of-town bands had the stages. In the back was Dicky James and the Blue Flames, a five-piece band from Northwest Indiana, and on the front stage was the Scott Ellison Band from Tulsa, Okla., making what Ellison said was his annual visit to the Slippery Noodle and the sixth of eight stops on the band's "Walking Through the Fire" tour. Ellison was selling tour promotion T-shirts (front is above left) with all the tour stops listed on the back (right). That's Ellison (left) and his trio in the photo leading off the post.

I wouldn't normally want to use a camera phone to shoot live performances because you have no control over the settings; I just wanted to see what (and how) it would do. Examining the image files afterward, the camera shot every picture at f/2.4, at shutter speeds of either 1/15 or 1/20, and at ISOs of 800 or 1600. Phone cameras are a little easier to hold steady than DSLR models because of their lighter weight, so I expected I wouldn't have to worry too much about motion blur at speeds of 1/40 or 1/30. But 1/15 and 1/20? I didn't think so. You be the judge. It did enable a desired blur effect on the drummer's stick in the first photo immediately below.

I found my main gripe with the phone camera in this particular scenario is the face highlight and focus lock mechanism (a feature I'd ordinarily like). Unlike the same feature on more sophisticated cameras -- when you can focus on your subject then hold that focus while recomposing the shot -- the iPhone face highlight won't lock if you hold the focus button while trying to recompose. You'll see in the photos of the Dicky James band, when I wanted to focus on James (who was on the far left side, farthest away from me), the moment I tried to recompose the image to get everyone in the band in the picture, the camera's focus switched to the face closest to me, the harmonic player. While I did want to focus on the harp player for a few shots, it wouldn't let me focus on James for the others.

 

 Above: First of several shots of Dicky James and the Blue Flames.

Above and below: This was a dual-purpose shot. For one, I wanted to get James in focus during a solo, largely succeeding. But my real effort was to frame a shot to include the person in the balcony in the upper left area of the photo (in a quite dark area). That person was holding a camera to photograph down toward the stage. The gear he/she was using was emitting an electronic flash, and I was hoping to get my shot taken at a point when that person's flash was going off. But my camera couldn't focus and trip the shutter fast enough.

Above: Here was a shot I really did want to get the harp player (right) in focus. 

The blues community's nod ... to Jerry "Blues" Booth

It was an electric night at the Slippery Noodle Inn on Wednesday, when blues musicians and fans from near and far gathered for the Noodle's weekly jam session to pay tribute to the late Jerry "Blues" Booth, longtime front man for the local blues band Mean Weenies, who died April 15.

The club's main performance stage room is cozy even under normal circumstances, but on Wednesday night, the influx of fans, musicians and well-wishers made things even more compact than usual. Many of Central Indiana's blues stalwarts were on hand, including Gene Deer (left, above) and Gordon Bonham, who are shown in the throes of an intense guitar solo near the end of the first set. I'd heard that the list that musicians use to sign-up to participate in the jam reached three pages Wednesday; a co-worker said he sat with a musician from Toledo, Ohio, who was unaware of Booth's passing but knew about the weekly jam and thought he'd drop in while staying in town overnight. His name was never called.

I was able to grab photos for about an hour and a half before I reached a point where I could not either move around or find an open spot to shoot any more; that's not at all to complain -- it's to testify to the support of Jerry in fan and musician turnout from the local blues community. They put a bucket on the stage for folks to donate money so Jerry's family can afford a proper send-off. My co-worker acquaintance, who stayed till 1 a.m., said they announced near the end that they had collected $1,100 for Jerry.

To view a full gallery of images from the evening's performances, visit this link.

Gene Deer Band members bassist Henry "Chief" Connelly (above) and drummer Joe Means (below).

Above and below: Deer in mid-groove.

 

Above: Gene Deer with drummer Joe Means, violinist Allison Irvine and guitarist Gordon Bonham.

Above: Gordon Bonham

Above (from left): Gene Deer, Allison Irvine, Smokin' Dave Wyatt and Gordon Bonham.

Above: Drummer Jeff Chapin along with bassist Smokin' Dave Wyatt.

Above: Scotty Thomas, aka Scotty Gunn, sang for Booth's band in the 1980s. He came up from Florida to participate in the jam. It kind of looks as if Scotty is checking to see if Booth is enjoying the show.
 

Above: Bonham's band has Smokin' Dave Wyatt as its bass player.

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Above: With Bonham's head flinging back and hair flying and with Deer's head bent and eyes closed for maximum concentration, you know the intensity level is high.

Above: The spotlight is now all on Bonham.

Above: Blind Side Band's Sweet Lou Rapier, playing with musicians who started the jam's second set.

Above: Governor Davis of Governor Davis and the Blues Ambassadors