Headstone bought for bluesman

Bluesman CeDell Davis died Sept. 27, 2017, at age 91 and is buried at Magnolia Cemetery in his hometown of Helena.

There is no stone on his grave, but that is about to change.

Last month, Greg Binns of the nonprofit CeDell Davis Foundation announced that the group had purchased a headstone for Davis. It includes a quote from the guitarist: “Don’t plan on dying. Plan on living. Dying will take care of itself.”

Binns is a Hot Springs musician and was a friend of Davis.

“The stone is really topnotch, and I’m proud of the fact that it will represent Mr. Davis,” he says.

The foundation’s aim, Binns says, is to establish scholarships for artists with disabilities and to “honor the legacy of CeDell Davis by inspiring, encouraging and facilitating creative dreamers in spite of their obstacles.”

Davis knew about obstacles.

At 9 years old, he contracted polio that constricted his hands and left his arms and legs partially paralyzed, according to the Central Arkansas Library System Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Determined to make music, he taught himself to play guitar left-handed while using a butterknife to fret the strings.

As a teenager, he performed in juke joints around Helena — now Helena-West Helena — with other bluesmen, including his friend guitarist Robert Nighthawk. (Davis is buried next to Nighthawk, Binns says.)

In 1957, while performing with Nighthawk in a St. Louis club, Davis was trampled when a fight broke out. His injuries left him confined to a wheelchair.

His first recordings appeared on the 1983 collection Keep It to Yourself: Arkansas Blues Volume 1, Solo Performances. His debut album, Feel Like Doin’ Something Wrong, was released in 1994.

Other releases include The Horror of It All, The Best of CeDell Davis and Lightning Struck the Pine, the latter with members of rock bands R.E.M. and Screaming Trees.

Binns and his son, Zakk, recorded with Davis on 2015’s Last Man Standing and toured with him across the U.S. and Europe.

“I didn’t realize that knowing Mr. Davis would change my life, but it did,” Binns says.

Binns hopes the dedication of the gravestone can be held in October during HelenaWest Helena’s annual King Biscuit Blues Festival. Davis played at the very first King Biscuit festival in 1986 and performed there in subsequent years.