![](https://cdn.statically.io/img/static01.nyt.com/packages/flash/multimedia/ICONS/transparent.png)
CeDell Davis at his home in Pine Bluff, Ark., in 2001, using a butter knife to play the guitar.
Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times
CeDell Davis
Died on September 27, 2017 at age 91
A Delta bluesman from Arkansas, Mr. Davis sang with a grainy moan and developed a playing technique of using a knife along the fretboard of his guitar after childhood polio had constricted his hands.
Notable Deaths 2017
Remembering Mary Tyler Moore, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lewis, David Rockefeller, Trisha Brown, Glen Campbell, Dick Gregory, Edith Windsor, Sam Shepard, Tom Petty and many others who died this year.