“Danny coined the term ‘Anacostia Delta’ because the music started in Southeast D.C. and, from there, percolated throughout the rest of the region and the world,” says Ken Avis, a co-producer of the film. “When he lived there, it was primarily a neighborhood of working-class white people who moved into D.C. after the war, and they brought banjos and bluegrass, and mixed that with the jazz and the soul and the country and the funk that was already here.”

That a particular style of blues originated here is news to many, but Anacostia Delta guitarists like Gatton, Billy Hancock and the late Roy Buchanan are beloved among blues connoisseurs, Avis says.

AD

AD

“These guys are still cult legends around the world,” he says.

Director Bryan Reichhardt hopes his documentary will get the word out about D.C. blues musicians who never got their due — especially Gatton. The cover boy for Guitar Player magazine’s 1989 article on “amazing players you’ve never heard of,” Gatton was admired by Eric Clapton and Les Paul for his lightning-fast fretwork and quicksilver imagination.

“He was just untouchable. You never knew what was going to come out of that magic box of his,” says Dave Chappell, a former student of Gatton’s. “Even if he was playing a jazz tune, you might hear a banjo roll or a Les Paul quote — you didn’t know what was going to happen next.”

Gatton, who hated touring, played locally and made ends meet by working in a sheet metal shop. He finally got a major record deal with Elektra, putting out two largely instrumental albums in 1991 and 1993. The first, “88 Elmira St.,” was critically acclaimed, but the label ultimately dropped Gatton due to sluggish sales. He seemed to take the setback with characteristic equanimity and good humor, according to his friends and family. When Gatton committed suicide in 1994, everyone was stunned, Chappell says.

AD

AD

“He must have had demons that we just weren’t aware of,” Chappell says. “That makes his musical generosity even the more impressive. He was like a musical Santa Claus, always willing to take young musicians under his arm and show them a thing or two. I am so thankful to have known someone like him.”

Gatton’s music lives on through Chappell and other guitarists who were inspired by Gatton and the Anacostia Delta sound he helped shape, Reichhardt says.

“I hope we have a role in pushing [the music] out there a little bit more,” he says. “That is pretty much our goal: to get the music out there and prove to the world that we are a music town.”