Washita Love Child: The Rise of Indigenous Rock Star Jesse Ed Davis

No one played like Jesse Ed Davis. One of the most sought-after guitarists of the late 1960s and 70s, Davis appeared alongside the eras greatest starsJohn Lennon and Mick Jagger, B.B. King and Bob Dylanand contributed to dozens of major releases, including numerous top-ten albums and singles, and records by artists as distinct as Johnny Cash, Taj Mahal, and Cher.

But Davis, whose name has nearly disappeared from the annals of rock and roll history, was more than just the most versatile session guitarist of the decade. A multitalented musician who paired bright flourishes with soulful melodies, Davis transformed our idea of what rock music could be and, crucially, who could make it. At a time when few other Indigenous artists appeared on concert stages, radio waves, or record store walls, in a century often depicted as a period of decline for Native Americans, Davis and his Kiowa, Comanche, Cheyenne, Seminole, and Mvskoke relatives demonstrated new possibilities for Native people.

Weaving together more than a hundred interviews with Daviss bandmates, family members, friends, and peersamong them Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, and Robbie RobertsonWashita Love Child powerfully reconstructs Daviss extraordinary life and career, taking us from his childhood in Oklahoma to his first major gig backing rockabilly star Conway Twitty, and from his dramatic performance at George Harrisons 1971 Concert for Bangladesh to his years with John Trudell and the Grafitti Man band. In Daviss story, a post-Beatles Lennon especially emerges as a kindred soul and creative partner. Yet Davis never fully recovered from Lennons sudden passing, meeting his own tragic demise just eight years later.

With a foreword by former poet laureate Joy Harjo, who collaborated with Davis near the end of his life, Washita Love Child thoroughly and finally restores the red dirt boogie brother to his rightful place in rock history, cementing his legacy for generations to come.