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

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

Video for "Kings, Gods, Fools" from GemsOnVHS

A Zoetrope

A brief retelling of the moving pictures in my memory of “Moving Pictures” , a short story by Andrew Jones:

Is seeing your fate in advance a blessing or a curse? What would you do with the power to see your future if you had it?

A young man was given a secret embedded in a simple toy. Through the slots in a cylinder he could see the last day of his life as it wound down. The preliminaries and the final event of his passing. The man told no one and buried the toy in a watertight box in the bottom of a forest pond. Once a year he would visit the pond and retrieve the toy to watch his last day. He would then sink it again and return to his simple life.
In his old age, the man’s four grown children began noticing strange sequences in his behavior on their trips home. Many crates were delivered to his porch. A locked door shut off a wing of the house. Inscrutable noises emanated from behind the door. Correspondences.
At his deathbed he gave them all knowing winks and smiles and quickly drank a tincture when all but one person were out of the room.
In his wake, he left instructions to take his ashes and a sealed box to a large house on a hill several days’ journey away. All his children went, one reluctant.
Before the arrival to this shrouded mansion on a hill, a storm began to rise. The few had barely arrived at the gate when the wind swirled gustily and the rain pattered hard on the cobblestones leading up to the house. They hurried to the door and were welcomed into the grand old home and ushered into the study of a young man who looked old. Or was he an old man who looked young? There was something about his eyes.
The Old Man laughed and twinkled and regaled the young travelers with stories of their father. He easily opened the locked box and produced a stack of bendable slides. He swore siblings to secrecy before unceremoniously tossing the bundle of pictures overhead. They watched them fly into the air above them and noticed for the first time, to their surprise, a crystalline dome in the tower above them which captured the picture slides in something like an updraft and held them there, hovering and swirling. The light from the thunderstorm now blowing full bore around the safety of the warm study flashed through the crystal dome and fractured, conjoined, multiplied, and bent the light, showing sequences of pictures. Some images fully familiar, some partially obscure, some altogether untranslatable flashed and danced around the walls of the room. All were enraptured and silent until the storm and the display dissipated.
The Old Man produced small packages in paper and whispered parting words to each of the four before demanding they retire before their long journeys home.

—

So you planned and saved and stored
Was your body slave or lord?

You were utilizing tools
Are we Kings or Gods? Or Fools?

New Video From GemsOnVHS ("Lower Tiers")

Listen to and download the single version of “Lower Tiers”:
bandcamp, iTunes

Some context.
GemsOnVHS is the popular YouTube channel helmed by my old friend Anthony Simpkins. Anthony came up from Nashville, Tennessee to visit us in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan during the early part of September this year (2019) and we worked up some videos in advance of my new album Toss Your Javelin being released.

A little bit about the song.
I wrote this song in 2013 after my album Living Is Trying had been recorded, but before it had been released. I was listening to a lot of Paul Simon (top) and learning some renditions of a couple Irving Berlin (middle) compositions to make myself better at the guitar. You can hear the Tin Pan Alley hat tip in the bridge and the Simonized chorus where I take that diminished chord on a little walk downtown. I remember having the goal to use every note in the chromatic scale in the construction of the song. I made some adjustments to do so in the editing phase. That’s that off kilter, accidental sound you hear. The blues in it.
I had been having some conversations with my sister about attempting to make art pay the bills and was in the process of one of those bi-annual, zoomed-out life reassessments. The thing my murky unconscious kept spitting up was this crazy optimism that doing the same behaviors repeatedly would produce the changes I so desperately wanted in my life and my career. Does Living = Trying? Serious question. Either way, I knew I had to aim SOME direction and shoot for it. What I didn’t know then is that there was some serious living and growing up I had to do. That’s called gaining footing. I was telling myself to “sit straight up and cast off all your spells”.

I’m really proud of this song.

My brother Joe recently introduced me to this painting I had never seen before (bottom). It’s called Truth Coming Out Of Her Well. This painting says to me better than what I can say to myself.

Thanks for the kind support.
If you’d like to help keep the fire alive so’s the storyteller don’t go hungry, you can blow some ashy dollars in the direction of the top left corner of the website or become a monthly subscriber on bandcamp. If you’d like something in return like a cd, a funny shirt or digital downloads, please visit either the store on my website or iTunes, bandcamp, Amazon, etc. Tell your local promoter you want John Davey to come to your town and we’ll get something going.
If you’d just like to listen instead, no big deal. Go stream the songs on Spotify, Apple Music, Google, YouTube or wherever you usually listen to music. If you subscribe, follow or add the song to your library, it doesn’t cost you much extra than a click, but it makes a big difference on my end.

I’ll see you soon!

-John

Living Bravely On the Edge of a Big Change

Like an unwashed, uncut geode John Davey and the boys crack open this rough, gritty rock to find a sparkly colorful interior. Like every geode, this baby knows it's special on the inside. John Davey - acoustic guitar, vocals Jon “Jonny Negaunee” Letts - electric bass Raymond Little - electric guitar, effects Dennis “Bud” Clowers - drums Tracked and Engineered by Raymond Little and Bud Clowers @ the Letts family camp up past Harlow Lake in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Mixed by Steffen Yazvac @ Steffen Yazvac Audio in Minneapolis, MN Mastered by Matt Whatley @ Combover Mastering in Fort Worth, TX

I was Mad Donna's in East Nashville about to experience Liz Cooper's band play for the first time. This kid who worked in the kitchen who I knew from an open mic at Dino's told me to come out back with him. He wanted to show me his hangout spot. We went into this alley and in between two fenced in backyards there was a little nook with a tree stump in it. This kid (let's call him "Will") Will stood on the stump and produced a glass piece which he loaded up and lit. "I like to stand on this stump. People don't think to look over this way when they drive by." I tried it. I liked it. I love standing on things. Don't ask me why. 
We went back inside in a much more aware-of-details state of mind just in time to catch Liz Cooper & the Stampede roar through their set. I was very moved by it. They're a really good band and Liz's distinctive guitar playing is about to catch on in a big way really soon. 
After the set, I set out walking around this neighborhood in East Nashville, as I was wont to do. I walked about a mile, just ruminating on the set I had seen, my ears ringing, feeling inspired. I ended up sitting on a bench, eating a big slice of pizza, and recording this little voice memo in my phone which I still listen to from time to time. I texted this girl Mary from Michigan who I had been crushing on pretty hard (she's my wife now) and told her about my night.

Over the next few days this song "Brave" emerged. I was listening to a lot of Buck Owens & His Bucakaroos and feeling the bracing strength of a life lived according to one's convictions. I was right on the edge of making this big decision to move to Michigan. It was another major life change in such a short amount of time. I felt I was living in fast forward almost. So many things happening all at once. When it rains, it pours. 
I would practice this song while my roommate was at work, the empty apartment to myself and the cat. I would sing it real loud. My drunk neighbor met me outside one day and asked if that was one of my songs he had heard me playing the night before. I said "yeah" and he told me he had a cousin who worked at Capitol Records and he'd pass the song along to him. Classic. 

Fast forward about two and a half years. I'm in Michigan, I'm engaged, I have this band The Ancient Urge and this is one of the first songs we're arranging together. I really like the way it's coming together. It felt a little bit country, a little bit rock 'n roll. In the short-lived career of that band, "Brave" became an internal and crowd favorite. It was short, punchy, rolling, and the band always knocked it out of the park. We loved playing it and recording it out at camp. 

Let this tune be an injunction to find that thing you are pleased with about yourself and amplify it for the edification of yourself and the ones you love. 

-John

The Staying or the Leaving Cup?

I watched this music lesson by Chilly Gonzales on composition for beginners on QRadio a few years ago. Among other wonderful little flashes of insight, the simple idea really struck me of pedaling on a note or one chord, then jotting down whatever melody comes to you that wheels its way around the note being played. That's what got the ball rolling on this song "Leaving Cup". Thanks Chilly, you crazy bastard. 

This was one, lyrically, that took me quite a while to finally get down. I remember singing the very beginnings of it to my friends Anthony and Erin during a recording session in Atlanta during the summer of 2014. The mystery of the line about "her" changing forms and flitting around the room kept pulling me back to the half-written song until it was finished. Of course, this wasn't the first time I played with the concept of shape shifting (here's one example and here's another), but it did reveal to me in the second half of the song what all those shape shifting songs had always been about for me. I read a book called On Truth: the Tyranny of Illusion. It was life changing. I played with a lot of the themes from there in the second half of the song. I strongly recommend the book which you can download for free. 

When I moved to Marquette, Michigan, I started this band with a couple of guys I met during the first few months I lived here. We played, wrote, and learned a bunch of songs together. "Leaving Cup" was one of the first songs I wanted us to arrange all together as a band. We ended up going out into the woods for a whole weekend and recording a bunch of demos, drinking a bunch of beers, playing Frisbee, taking saunas, cooking food, and hiking around a bit. It was a great experience. I wanted to use those live recordings up at camp as the framework for the album we were going to record in a big way later on, but some of the songs turned out so well, that I'm releasing them now. This is one of them. I think this song in particular really showed a lot of the strengths we had as a band in terms of arranging, being locked in together, the writing, and just the general feel and sound as a group. We had a really cool thing going on. Here's a little video our friend Josh put together from that weekend that I'm sort of fond of. You can hear "Leaving Cup" playing during part of it. 

Finally, the fact that my old friends Steffen Yazvac and Matt Whatley came onto this project to mix and master this song is a great joy for me. We all used to live in the same town. I've done many projects with both of them, but this is the first time we've done something all together and it feels so good. I find that as I get older, the most fruitful working relationships are ones which I've had for years that have had time to deepen and mature. 

Love you all. 

-John

The Singles Project

Several years ago I read an article by legendary mastering engineer, Justin Colletti, called Feeding the Machine (it’s long, but worth the read if you’re into that sort of thing). In it, he makes the case for returning to the method of releasing a lot of singles since at the dawn of the music industry, the whole apparatus was kept afloat by a tidal wave of singles, some of which “stuck” in the public consciousness, some of which didn’t. It was one of those paradigm shifting moments for me. I had friends that released singles on occasion, but my heart and mind were really with LP’s. It was the format I knew and connected with so well that doing anything other than that rarely even ever crossed my mind. However, Colletti made such a good case for the regular release of singles, that I’ve carried this concept around in the back of my mind for years, telling myself that when I ever get to the right moment in time and circumstance, I’d begin to do just that.
I happened to read Feeding the Machine at just the moment in time where my years-long road dog experiment was winding down. I fell into one of those chaotic in-between seasons, which happened to last for a few years longer than I expected. There was some upheaval in my relationship with my family, my living circumstances changed, my trusty Ford Escort finally kicked the bucket, I moved from one day job to another, learned a ton of classic country songs, got another car, moved to Tennessee with only a foggy picture of wanting something better and more, worked more day jobs, released a really cool record, fell in love with a girl who lived across the country, packed up and moved again, started adjusting to life in a way different climate and culture, began cultivating this life-long relationship, had a really cool, tumultuous band for a year and a half, played some shows, changed jobs again, got married(!) and finally life seems to be smoothing out a little. I’m out of choppy waters and aimed across a stretch of time fully supplied. That whole time, this little idea of regularly releasing singles kept twirling and dancing in the back of my brain and occasionally suggesting itself to me. Now I’m in a period where I actually have the time and resources and people around me to make it happen in a meaningful way that is satisfying to me creatively and that I can make work for me in a financial sense.
Working with audio engineer Peter Gummerson of Rivulare is a key part of this whole enterprise. He’s a cool guy with a great method who puts his money where his mouth is. We’ve worked really well together so far. I’m also excited to get my drummer Bud from my band The Ancient Urge back on board with me. Bud is a deep well, has a composer’s mind, and is great to bounce ideas off of, not to mention he handily plays numerous instruments and is therefore a treasure trove to tap for anyone in my position. Harold South is a really busy, very serious bass player who’s been making a living off of performing and teaching music for years. I’m getting to know Harold still and I’m excited that he’ll be part of this attempt at feeding the machine. I’m sure the revolving door will keep spinning and I’ll introduce other interesting characters (musicians, visual artists, audio engineers) as we go forward and get more songs in front of you all.
Thank you for joining me and for lending your eyeballs and earballs to this ongoing project.

-John Davey