The Candyman by Mississippi John Hurt

Over my many years in Santa Fe, the question I am asked most is how did you choose the name The Candyman? Here's how. Back in the sixties there was a great renaissance in traditional American folk music from which came so many of the great musician-songwriters with whom we are so familiar today. Among the many icons that preceded them, were two extraordinary guitarist-songsters: Mississippi John Hurt and Reverend Gary Davis. Both shared something particular in common: each wrote their own finger-picking masterpiece called "The Candyman."

In the South at the turn of the century, The Candyman was the man about town that had everything: not just drugs, which is inaccurately assumed, but he was the ladies man, the sporting man, and the man about town to whom you would most likely turn to spend some time with because he had the best songs and stories to be sung and told. This term has been in the American vernacular for many generations.

The Candyman - Reverend Gary Davis

"I'm the man that has the candy, I'm your Yankee Doodle Dandy," sang George M. Cohen in the classic film by the same name.

I had the rare opportunity to hear "The Blind Reverend Gary Davis", as we called him in New York, sing "The Candyman" at the legendary Folklore Center owned by my colleague, Izzy Young, who did so much to promote this art form. Even though I never saw Mississippi John Hurt myself, my guitar teacher Eddie Joe Hicks traded licks with him while both were performing in Washington, D.C.

When I traveled across the country in 1969 to open an acoustic guitar shop and finally and fortunately arrived in Santa Fe, I called it "The Candyman," of course.

- Matthew Schwartzman