Career
Born in Grenada, Mississippi, United States, he died in Saint Louis, Missouri. Davis had a rich singing voice that was as expressive as the best of the Delta blues vocalists. His best-known recording, a version of the train blues standard "Sunnyland Blues", which he released in 1931, is more notable for the warmth and poignancy of his singing than for his piano playing.
Two more of his best known songs were "Ashes In My Whiskey" and "Blue Blues".
He was also billed as "Hooker Joe". Davis was born on a farm in Grenada, Mississippi, United States, and ran away from home at about 13 years of age, landing in Saint Louis, Missouri.
During the period from the late 1920s through the early 1950s he played club dates in the South and the lower Midwest, often with guitarist Henry Townsend and fellow pianist Peetie Wheatstraw, and recorded prolifically. He was accompanied by Roosevelt Sykes on his first recordings (1930-1933).
He recorded around 180 singles between 1930 and 1952.
In 1940, he had a hit with his recording of "Come Back Baby". Some of his material has been covered by other performers. Davis appears to have stopped performing professionally around 1953.
Suffering from health problems, primarily a stroke, he settled in Saint Louis, Missouri, supporting himself as a night clerk at a hotel and as a preacher.
He died in Saint Louis in 1963, aged 52. He was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2005.
In October 2012, the Killer Blues Headstone Project, a nonprofit organization, placed a headstone on Davis"s unmarked grave at Greenwood Cemetery in Hillsdale, Missouri. The stone was unveiled at the 2012 Big Muddy Blues Festival in Saint Louis, Missouri.
Davis is no relation to the jazz pianist, Walter Davis, Junior.
