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This is a little tardy, but a recent weekend trip was put together to do some live tracking of our band and the songs I've written that we've arranged together. Here's some material compiled from that weekend at the Letts family deer camp with John Davey & the Ancient Urge.
Dinner
Dogtown
Blue board
Bonfire
Morning Mugs on top of the world.
Up at The Top of the World
Sauna
My band and I had a great time at Wayside Fest up in Atlantic Mine, Michigan this past weekend. the weather was delicious and despite some technical delays, we had a real blast playing our set to a small but enthusiastic audience. It felt the most like a rock n roll band in comparison to all our shows yet. Furthermore, the Aurora Borealis lit up the sky in an untamed display later in the evening. I couldn't capture it on my phone, but I'll remember it forever. We're lucky to be alive.
Ancient Urge
Sycamore Smith
Secret Grief
Yours Truly
Jonny Negaunee
Raymond
My old friend Mark Felix, who I grew up with, recently moved to Michigan. He works for a newspaper in Flint and was able to get some time off, so he drove to the Upper Peninsula and we've been catching up and hanging out for a couple days. Big love, great hang.
Sugarloaf Mountain
Me swimming in my backyard. (📸: Mark Felix)
John Davey & the Ancient Urge had a packed weekend and we're all resting up. I wish I would've got more snaps, especially from Sekoitus, but I've included some taken by Jesse DeCaire and Taylor Freeman. All the rest were taken by me.
Sekoitus Fest was so fun and we wished we could've stuck around for all of the festivities.
Farm Block was a treat. Great weather, old friends, new acquaintances, good food, fun set, some exploring of Keewenaw spots, delicious food, powerfully good bands, lots of laughs, and I had the pleasure of riding up with my treasure of a fiance with the windows down. Highlights music-wise: M. Sord, Big Dudee Roo, After Ours, The Go Rounds, Kansas Bible Company. JD&theAncientUrge also did a quick recording for The River Street Anthology. We missed Mostly Midwest.
Art on the Rocks. We drove back on Saturday night after all the fun on FarmBlock Saturday was over. We were up and at 'em early on Sunday to load gear down to Lower Harbor. Despite some heavy noise restrictions and being about a thousand yards from the nearest electrical outlet, the show went on and it ended up being a good exercise in adaptability for the band. I don't know if we'll ever play as subdued a set or two as we did at Art on the Rocks, but I loved it. Shout out to our buddy Greg Sandell who, out of the damned goodness of his heart, lent us gear, helped us load it into the festival, set stuff up, ran cords, coordinated and was supportive in every way. He is the man. His mug is that last photo in the set.
Love ya.
-John
Song fans, John fans, and readers of things,
this has been a long time coming. I'm proud to unveil my new website. After years of moving my online home base from one social media platform to another, I'm happy to finally plant my flag at JohnDaveySings.com. This 'News' section will be updated regularly. I'll be informing you about developments with my band John Davey & the Ancient Urge as well as giving you the skinny on upcoming and happening recording projects, snippets of songs I'm writing, thoughts about songwriting and maybe even what some admirable friends are up to.
Thanks so much for visiting and please show yourself around. Don't forget to add your name and email to the newsletter list to get updates from there.
Live well! Come back soon!
-John