"Strong Words" featured on GemsOnVHS Monthly Playlist

My song “Strong Words” from 2014’s album Living Is Trying is featured on GemsOnVHS’ July playlist. I wrote this in an upstairs apartment in a big, blue house in Kalamazoo, Michigan in the Fall of 2011. I remember feeling really excited when I stumbled upon the minute, inverted progression in the chorus. I always thought this song was strong enough (PUN!) to compete with fraternal twins “Spent” and “Madison”, so I’m glad to see it get a little extra boost all these years later.

Listen to the entire playlist here.

Bethany Johnson - “Down by the Willows”

Bethany and Dallas Johnson made a record of my song “Down by the Willows” which I’m eager to share with you. I’ve known these people for over half my life. In fact, Dallas was running sound for the open mic I made my first performance at in the basement of the Purdue Student Union. Bethany played violin on an early recording of this very song which Wes DeBoy made for us in Muncie, Indiana.

Later, Dallas and Bethany were married and would invite me to their Music Sunday gatherings at the Greene’s where I would learn their songs. Sometimes Benjamin Ezra, The Sears Tower of Folk Music, would be there too. I have warm feelings associated with those memories.

Dallas mixed most of my first album In a Whelming Tide and engineered my second album Living Is Trying.

I heard Bethany and Dallas perform “Down by the Willows” in the side room at The Black Sparrow. It shone like a diamond in my mind. That was back before kids and careers.

Then I started this label Late Bloomer as a home for other people’s sound recordings of some of my compositions. Naturally, Bethany and Dallas were among the first people I thought of to ask to record. They shipped the kids off to Wolcott for a the weekend and invited Andy Dommer and Caleb Benner over to play bass and drums. Caleb played bass on Living Is Trying if you’ll remember.

This family has been interwoven in my life for years and I’m pleased and proud to present this recording to you. It’s a big part of the sound of my youth and now my new adulthood and it feels like home.

Hell yes. Please enjoy.

-John

Summer Nightwind (demo) exclusive for Bandcamp subscribers

I released a demo of my song “Summer Nightwind” to subscribers on bandcamp. If you’d like it, become a monthly supporter for $5, $10, or $25/mo to get access to back catalog material and exclusive demos.

"Left Arm" by Steffen Prentiss Yazvac

LISTEN / DOWNLOAD: bandcamp / iTunes / Spotify / Amazon / youtube

On January 26th, 2021 I released “Left Arm” again. This time it’s Steffen Prentiss Yazvac performing it (please follow him). It’s percussive and Steffen took surprising liberties with the phrasing. His singing, which has always been dynamic, hits a new level here. It’s satisfying to hear Steffen’s take on this song because of our collaboration on Living Is Trying. I presented the idea of that song being the opener on that album and described how I wanted it to sound. Steffen understood it and made it sound just like I had it in my head. That’s been our working relationship since we were kids.

A while ago I started thinking about what other forms I’d like to see some of my songs take. I had some memories from the road of playing songs my friends had written. A “friendship covers” album had always been in the back of my mind. I even started recording some with Steffen once. I decided it would be a good start to ask some of my friends to come up with a recording of one of my songs that resonated with them.

I’m proud of this song and how it’s grown. I feel proud of Steffen as my friend for taking something I made and making it his and making it better. The production is superb. Steffen used a new analog synthesizer and the tone reminds me of a trombone on some parts. His drumming and bass playing dance closely together. The guitar playing oscillates between rock strumming, staccato picking, and delicate grooving. All well placed. Dallas Johnson provides the breaths between on the electric piano.

I hope you enjoy this many times over like I have.

-John

"Spent" featured in film No Place

My song “Spent” runs in the credits of No Place which you can buy or rent on Amazon.
I think it works great with the major themes embedded in the story and in the character of the main protagonist. I laughed out loud a couple of times too. I think it’s a fun movie.

Watch the trailer by clicking the poster above.

Thanks for watching and listening.

-John

Toss Your Javelin Vinyl Is Here!

Dilated Time Records has released Toss Your Javelin and it's very limited.

If you backed the Kickstarter to make this record, please hang tight! Your copy is priority #1 and it's on the way to you RIGHT NOW from Dilated Time Records along with some other stuff from here in Michigan! You'll remember Ethan's really nice and personalized notes from the last record we did together.

To everyone else, this one is limited to 300 copies. She's beautiful inside and out. The album was really made with vinyl in mind and I'm so proud of everyone involved that we've arrived at the point where I can present this to you for purchase. 

If you liked Living Is Trying on your turntable, you're going to love Toss Your Javelin. I've been listening to the test pressing with my baby girl Dorothy and hearing it on the stereo speakers really gets us both dancing around the apartment. 

You can order the record directly from Dilate Time's online shop or if you're a bandcamper, it's over here.

Toss Your Javelin

Toss Your Javelin has been germinating for years. The third long playing album by John Davey is a collection of maxims and self-injunctions set to memory evoking melodies.

A black and white photo taped to a wall in Kansas City, the spiny ridge along Chimney Tops in Eastern Tennessee, the train station platform in Lansing in the dreary rain, neck craned to see the parade down Washington Street on the 4th of July, mammoth Ore Boats chugging in and out of Upper Harbor from all over the Great Lakes. This collage is the running start which throws the weighted dart.

”Lower Tiers” is the centerpiece of the album. Its arrangement borrows pages from The Great American Songbook, seeking common ground with 20th century greats Irving Berlin, Paul Simon, and Randy Newman.
The bookends of the album are the newest compositions, “Q” and “Boreal Lullaby”, both fruits of a tree transplanted. “Q” is the disentanglement of overlaying personalities and the proper identification of a newly emerging self. “Boreal Lullaby” is both old and new. It’s the hymn we hummed in church. It’s the subject of a trial, a lamentation, a psalm.
”Hard Times, Strong Men” is the outlier. Pulsating and fuzzy and rhythmic. It’s Jules Vern, Robert Louis Stevenson and George Harrison at a game of craps. Harrison rolls snake eyes. A prophetic warning. A new archetype.

Toss Your Javelin was crowdfunded by 134 generous supporters.

Songs, guitars, and vocals by John Davey
Production, mixing, and arrangement of a variety of instruments performed by Shane Leonard in Eau Claire, Wisconsin
Mastered by TW Walsh in Boston, Massachusetts
Engineering by Evan Middlesworth at Pine Hollow Audio in Eau Claire, Wisconsin
Basses by Jeremy Boettcher
Piano and other keys by Joshua Gallagher

Video Teaser of "Kings, Gods, Fools" by Zachary Schneider Studio

After some discussions with a few trusted friends, I decided to self-release the album. The undertaking of this album from the beginning has been in that spirit, I think.

I reached out to a few creative, productive people I know to assist me in creating some promotional material for the album. A few ol’ reliables like Anthony Simpkins of GemsOnVHS (may God grant him wealth) and some fresh talent from where I live too. Namely, Sarah Reynolds (Couturra) and Zachary Schneider Studio.

I saw Zachary at someone’s birthday party and I remembered seeing some of his photography. It made me wonder if he did video work. I got in touch later and Zack responded with enthusiasm and a bunch of good questions and got to work right away on collecting some footage I described to him. I think what he captured and sequenced works perfectly for the feel of this song and the images are captivating. It’s a cool thing about where we live (Upper Michigan) that that imagery is around you all the time. I hear it come through the songs on this album.

Please go full screen and enjoy the look and sound and feel of the song and the visuals and hear “Kings, Gods, Fools” on your favorite streaming platform on April 28th.
Thanks for listening.

-John

The first single "Kings, Gods, Fools" releases April 28th!

On Tuesday, April 28th, the first single from Toss Your Javelin will be available for streaming and download everywhere. Click the pre-save button below to be the first to hear the full single when it goes live on Spotify.
”Kings, Gods, Fools” will be the first of three singles released before the album is available to the public.

Thank you for your support and I hope you enjoy the song loud in your headphones. It sounds very good.

-John

Little Ghost Notes

In the Spring of 2019 I started thinking of ways to try to get my songs in front of more people’s ears and into their heads. One of those ways was to get some other artists to start recording some of my compositions in their own style. I talked to a few people about doing some administrative work in exchange for those recordings.

One of the first people to really jump into the project and make it where the rubber meets the road was my old friend Dustin Sendejas. Dustin and I have known each other since I was a kid and was just starting to play shows. We’ve traveled all over the USA and even some in Canada together, me as a solo act, and Dustin in many different musical iterations from solo songwriter to member and sometimes leader of a big band. He was sort of a mentor to me and showed me new ways of looking at the world and introduced me to some important philosophical concepts that have shaped how I view and interact with the world. It always feels like we’re on an extended hangout when we get to see each other.

As a first label release, I thought it was very fitting that Dustin and I would do something collaboratively. We’ve both been on a long path of delineating where art and commerce merge and this is another building block for each of us in our individual body of work.

Dustin chose my song “Ghost Notes” and we renamed the track “Little Ghost Notes” as a way of cross pollinating his current main project Little Ghost and my song. I’m really happy with the result. I think Dustin did an outstanding job staying true to the composition while infusing his own particular qualities through a couple minor rearrangements. Listen to some other Little Ghost material to catch my drift (the song “The Dark” is a great place to start). Dustin played the acoustic guitar and the electric piano on the track and producer Eric Stanley added electric guitar and backing vocals. There’s a really nice flourish toward the end of the song that’s worth sticking around for. I’ve found myself returning to it frequently since I heard the initial recording.

I’m so pleased to present this to the world and I hope more similar collaborations continue to happen this year and onward!

”Little Ghost Notes” can be purchased and streamed through the player above. You can also stream or download the song on your preferred streaming and downloading platform.
You can listen to my version of the song where I’ve posted it below or, as always, on your preferred streaming or download platform.
Please consider sharing the song on your social media or just play it for your friend in your car while you drive around.

Thanks for the listens.
-John