Formed In 1984 In Nashville, Davis Deluxe Released A Half A Dozen Recordings In The Eighties. The Band's Namesake, Gary Davis, Wrote And Sang All Of The Tunes. Atlantic Records Pursued Them As Did Apple, EMI And Several Other Major Labels. The Personel Of The Band Evolved Regularly With Davis, A Guitarist And Bassist Who Has Worked With Quite A Diverse Array Of Major Artists And Songwriters Including Kris Kristofferson, Go West, Mickey Newbury, Randy Bachman, Hoyt Axton, Carl Perkins, Billy Swan, Ray Stevens, B.J. Thomas, Jesse Winchester And Many Others, Keeping The Band Line-Up Filled With His Friends, Most Of Which Were Famed Nashville Session Players. Kenny Buttrey, A Drumming Legend With Over Two Hundred Gold And Platinum Recordings To His Credit, Worked With A Cavalcade Of Major Artists In The Late Sixties, Seventies And Eighties Including, Elvis, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, J.J. Cale, Bob Seeger, Jimmy Buffett, The Pointer Sisters And Dan Fogelberg, And He Was A Founding Member Of Both Nashville "Super-Groups", Barefoot Jerry And Area Code 615. That's His Drumming On Dylan's, "Lay Lady Lay", Neil Young's, "Old Man" And Buffett's, "Margaritaville" Just To Name A Few. Guitarist Bucky Barrett Had Been A Highly Sought After Session Player And Had Recorded With Neil Young, Ray Charles, Lenny Breau, Chet Atkins, Roy Orbison And Dozens Of Others. Steve Logan Recorded And Toured With Johnny Cash, Mickey Gilley, John Conlee And Johnny Lee. Steve Carmen, Bassist, Recorded And Toured With George Harrison, Joe Cocker, Peter Frampton And Gladys Knight. Mike Smoot, Bassist Replaced By Carmen, Was In Both Roseanne Cash's And Emmy Lou Harris' Bands. Jimmy Johnson Was The Bassist For Roy Orbison, Delbert McClinton And Eventually Vince Gill.
Davis' Pop/Rock Songwriting Was Heralded By Billboard Magazine And A Number Of Other National Publications Including Rolling Stone And Spin Magazines, As Well As By Nashville Music Critic, Robert K. Oermann As Being The Band's Hallmark. Oermann's Overall Glowing Review Of The Band's First Single Release In 1984, One Of A Kind, Called The Recording, "Unquestionably The Best Rock-A-Ballad I've Ever Heard By A Nashville Band...Sung By An Ace Rock Stylist." The Nashville Music Scene Of The 80's However Was One That Still Clung To Its Country Roots And Rockers Of That Day Such As Davis Deluxe, The White Animals, Webb Wilder, Walk The West, Jason And The Scorchers, Dave Olney & The X-Rays And Others Were For The Most Part Shunned By Music Row Traditionalists And Were Forced To Look To L.A. And New York For Major Label Attention. This Led To Davis' Departure From Nashville In The Late 80's, Returning Only On Occasion For Recording Projects, But He Continued To Work As A Sideman For Others, Often Resurrecting Davis Deluxe For Shows In His Adopted Locales, Miami And New Orleans, At The House Of Blues, Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville, Music Festivals And For Mardi Gras Festivities. He Has Recently Returned To Nashville And Resumed Pursuing A Writing Career There After Several Years Cruising And Living Aboard His Sailboat With Two Dogs, Four Cats, A Couple Of Guitars, A Computer, A Bit Of Recording Equipment And A Head Full Of Life. The Group's Final Recording In 1989, Four Cuts Of Which Can Be Heard On This Site, Was Produced By Davis And Buttrey And Recorded In A Single Night At Buzz Cason's Studio In Nashville And Includes Davis On Vocals And Rhythm Guitar, Barrett On Lead Guitar, Buttrey On Drums And Carmen On Bass. The Band Continued On Into The 90's However No Further Recordings Were Released. See Davis Deluxe At Wikipedia For More Info. To Hear Other Recordings By Davis Deluxe Or Other Songs By Gary Davis Visit; Davis Deluxe Music.Com And Davis Deluxe Music At My Space. Gary's Brand New Solo Music Page Which Will Feature His Newest Americana/Acoustic Styled Material Is Located At Gary Davis At MySpace.
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Davis Deluxe Music
A Little Bit About The Songs
L.A. Baby/Hollywood Kid Surprisingly, Is One Of The Only Live Recordings We Did, It Was Cut Labor Day Weekend, 1985 And It's One That I Actually Got To Play Some "Cheesy" Lead Guitar On.
When Dreams Come True Is A Tune I Wrote For Another Band Situation I Was In In '78. There Is Another Recording Of It On DavisDeluxeMusic.Com . Lyrically, I'm A Fan Of It.
Don't Do Me Outloud Came About As A Result Of A Half Drunken Discussion Kenny And I Had One Night About How Boring Playing The Blues Was, At Least Typical 12 Bar Stuff. He More Or Less Challenged Me To Come Up With Something Different. When We Went Into Rehearsals I Sprung It On Him And He Actually Cracked A Smile. (You Would Had To Have Known Him To Translate That Smile).
The Moment She's Gone Is One Of Those Broken Hearted Love Songs, Ladies. Sad, But True. There Is A Female Vocal Version Of It, Appropriately Retitled, On The Site Above.
Haven't A Clue When It Happened But Apparently The Song Fairy Came One Night And MySpace Now Allows Bands Six Songs On The Page So I Added Two More. Rather Than Add Others From The Sessions That Are Already Represented Here, I Chose To Go A Ways Back To Some Of The First Recordings By Davis Deluxe. The Personel Changed, Steve Logan Is On Drums On When The Lights Go Down And A Guy Out Of Chicago Named Gerard Hamilton Is On The Drums On (So Sad) Sad Without You. My Long Lost Pal, Mike Smoot Plays Bass On So Sad. All Of The Guitar Work On Both Tunes Is Mine. When The Lights Go Down, Aside From Getting Us Several European Distribution Deals And Probably The Most Airplay Of Any Of Our Recordings, Was The Record That Brought Us To The Attention Of Ahmet Ertegun At Atlantic Records, In Part, As A Result Of The Recommended Reviews We Received From Billboard And Spin Magazines. And, (So Sad) Sad Without You Was The Song That Brought The Beatles Label, Apple, Into Our Lives. Anyway, Hope You Like 'Em...They Are What They Were.
Once Again The MySpace Song Fairy Came...
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