JACK DAVIS

Whenever there is discussion of "great Nebraska guitar players", the
name of Jack Davis is mentioned.

Jack purchased a used Kay arch-top guitar in 1960 and cut his
chops on listening to vinyl recordings of James Burton, Freddy King, Gatemouth Brown, and BB King - all legendary blues
and rock players.

In 1962 he joined his first band - The Aristocrats in Falls City,
NE, with the great John Schuetz on guitar.

Davis moved to Lincoln, NE in 1964 and joined up with Hall of Fame
Inductee, Jim Akin playing in the very popular Invaders.  Also in
the Invaders at that time was Carl Portie on bass, and Arnie Reeves
on drums.  After Portie left the band (moving back to Beaumont,
TX) - Hall of Fame Inductee, the late Joe Gray joined on bass
(complete with "Green" hair).   Later, Greg "Jeep" Bloom
joined on bass.  Davis says this was "his favorite band".

Davis later played in The Del Reys, with Rick Cowling, Vance Stone
(Hall of Fame Inductee with The Modds), & Stan Jacobson.
That group evolved into The Knights of Day, mainstay at Robbie's
Happy Corner on Cornhusker Highway in Lincoln (along with other
great bands including The Eccentrics & Dani & The Roulettes).

That version of The Knights of Day included Davis, Cowling. Joe
Gray & Bruce Pursley.  He then went back to The Invaders, which
then included the great Jerry Jacoby on sax.

Davis later played in Rick & The Wanderers (with Rick Simpson),
The Garden Party (a vocal harmony band including Joe Gray and
Hall of Fame Inductee, Rick Bell (The Coachmen), The Barracudas,
Lincoln Sinfony (with Les Meyers, Joe Hearn and Hall of Fame
Inductee Bill Childs (J. Harrison B. & The Bumbles) on drums.

In the late 60's - Davis, Tim Murphy, Les Meyers and John Thompson
formed The Enterprise, an 8-piece R&B group. A vinyl recording was
released by The Enterprise, which is now a sought after collectable.
Although many players called The Enterprise their band over the
years, a highlight was an occasional appearance of the then
14-year old "wunderkind" Steve Hanson on guitar.  Hanson is also
a 2000 Inductee into The Hall of Fame.

The first live band and later house band at the legendary Zoo Bar
(owned by Larry Boehmer) in Lincoln, NE was "Cotton" (aka Cotton
Blues Band), that included Davis, Dave Trupp (formerly of The
Eccentrics on drums), Hall of Fame Inductee Jim Cidlik (on keys/vocals)
and later George Bryan (Hall of Fame Inductee with J. Harrison B.
& The Bumbles) on slide guitar.  The Zoo Bar, named the top Blues
Bar in the USA on several occasions, is also a 2000 Inductee into The
Hall of Fame.

After that, Davis played occasionally with Joe Gray and other blues
greats in the Lincoln area.  In the 60's Davis also worked in the "guitar
shop" at Lincoln's Dietz Music (a Hall of Fame Inductee) - showing
aspiring musicians guitar licks that they would still be using years
to come.  Davis has been an inspiration to many rock and blues
musicians, still performing throughout the USA.

  In addition to his guitar talents, Davis is a nationally known
Illustrator.  He stopped playing on a regular basis in the early 1980's.

His son, Jason Davis, who grew up listening to blues music all of his
early life, is now a nationally known Blues-Man himself, fronting
"Baby Jason & The Spankers".  Jason has appeared at blues festivals throughout the country in recent years and has released several
CD's, which have received excellent reviews in
major blues publications.