World Blues: An Interview with Garrick Davis
I thought to myself, man, this is World Blues. Blues is always going to be there, but this is something different. I get kind of tired of people not understanding what I do. They’ll say, it’s not really Blues. Well, no it's not what you think of Blues. But it is something that I do. It is a thing.~ Garrick Davis
Originally published in AKR Magazine, May 2024
Since 2001 Garrick Davis has independently produced and released five full-length albums as well as a few singles. "Davis' fifth album, "A House Full of Friends", was performed and recorded live, alongside 15 musicians and vocalists from disparate backgrounds, brought together to make music and subsequently made "magic", lighting the way for a new creative path on which to journey unabashedly". This creative path, now called “Garrick Davis World Blues” is working on new material that as a collection will be titled "The Dignity Project".
Garrick’s influences include Jimi Hendrix, Richie Havens, Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), Eric Clapton (Cream), Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones and Johnny Winter and ZZ Top to be among his earliest influences as a young teen. Davis went on to discover the "sources" of those previously mentioned, including Son House, Bukka White, Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, BB King, Freddie King, Albert Collins, Curtis Mayfield, Wes Montgomery and so many more."
My interview with Garrick Davis, both the transcript excerpt and the videos tell a poignant story of his journey and evolution through life as a musician and a father. A father to an only son who passed away in 2020 at the young age of 28. The evolving nature of Garrick Davis’ music and life can be explored more thoroughly through his discography, YouTube videos, interviews and articles..
(This is an excerpt of Garrick Davis' interview. A full article and interview are available in AKR Magazine, May 2024 starting on page 64)
Raine Jordan: Yes indeed, that’s what relationships are for, growing together. So, we were talking a little bit about your live album from the Golden State Theater in Monterey, CA. Would you call it an album?
Garrick Davis: It's an EP, an extended play. I did that just because I wanted to put something out again. I had forgotten that it was recorded on my phone. And, I just thought the energy was so good.
RJ: It was great energy and music. That's why I thought to ask you about it.
GD: I have lots of recordings like that. So, my father told me a long time ago. First, the reason why I'm bringing my parents up so much, look, I'm a 65 year old man almost 66. They've meant so much to me and they mean more to me now in a way, but they have always meant a lot. I wouldn't be in this place if they hadn't said, “go for it and we'll always be there for you”. My father's phrase is, “daddy's work is never done”. I came to him when I was getting a divorce. I also wanted to do my first album, Glass Half Full, because I had told my son that I needed to follow through on a promise I made. I made it on purpose, so I would actually follow through. I made a promise that I'm going to do something. It cost a lot of money. I produced it all on credit cards. It was a nightmare. I just had to do it. We do what we do to get moving. My father always meant a lot because he had always loved the fact that I was into music and songwriting. It meant a lot to him. He had always loved music himself. He played drums as a kid.
RJ: Oh wow, so your dad was a musician. Is your mom in music as well?
GD: My mother's a classically trained operatic soprano.
RJ: I saw your post of her the other day. I think you were in the studio together. I commented on how much you look alike. But I think you said you look like your dad more so.
GD: Yeah, I'm a mix between both my dad and mom. So, I was telling you about my dad and how important he had been to me. You know he was helping me feel like music is something I can do. After I did my second album in 2005, which is a live album, he said, “you should always record wherever you’re at in your life, whatever stage of life you’re in and I want you to keep doing this.” So that was a major thing for me. It was after the first album. I would go over to their house and play it for them in my car when the songs were just developing, you know the rough mixes. Once it was done, he said, “can you imagine what it's gonna be like when you've done with your 10 th album?” I'm like man, I'm barely done with this thing and you're talking about 10 albums. So that's always been in my head. I'm on number 6 right now.
RJ: Congratulations. And you still have plenty of time to reach your goal or even go beyond it.
GD: I feel like it, but at the same it's takien a long time for me start writing lyrics again. It's been amazing finally. I feel it's gotten me back into understanding why I play guitar. Or why I've perpetuated my artistry because my ultimate goal is to keep writing songs. That's the well that has never dried up. Or I should say to write music and then bringing the lyrics into the music. This process of writing lyrics began in January for these songs, “Ain't No Devil But The Human." I wrote that song last year or the year before, something like that, and the song, “All the Girls You Know”, the instrumental version. Those are the things that I am writing for the project that I'm working on right now. I'm trying to finish the whole project, but the daunting task is to get my head together to start writing lyrics for them. So, cracking the ice on Ain’t No Devil But The Human, was a big deal for me.
RJ: That's a great song Garrick. So, you already have the music for your songs, you just need to write the lyrics and kind of figure out so to speak, what the songs are about?
GD: Yea, they all identify themselves in the practice. So, all the songs that I'm doing now, it's so interesting. because the titles have come to me in words of 3. “Ain't No Devil” and then “But the Human”, and “Leave Somebody Alone”, also, “All the Girls”. I have all the titles for the songs, and I saw that was kind of crazy that they're all 3’s.
RJ: Interesting. I would have noticed too.
GD: Yea, I started waking up at 4:00 in the morning in January to write for two hours before I go to work out. I'm working on this software, MasterWriter. It's songwriting or book writing, whatever. And these things have just opened up. It’s amazing, the song that my mother sang, called My Only Son. It's incredibly beautiful. Everything is just beautiful. I am so glad, I think the gift that's been given, even though it's kind of frustrating as a guitarist, I feel like yeah, I can play with all kinds of people you know. Somebody suggested that you know it's so hard for you to breakthrough in the music industry. So why don't you just go work with some other artists? You know, try to be a studio guy or a side guy? But I know it’s not in me. I would like to at some point, but only on the merits of the work that I've done on myself. Meaning, someone would tell me that they really liked what I do, and they love my guitar playing and want to work with me based on that. Or that we should work together. That would be cool.
RJ: Yea, that's really honoring the integrity of your work and your own rhythm.
GD: I take it seriously. The thing that’s happening in this phase of life, is that writing has really brought me back to why I have struggled to continue and why I now feel good about continuing. I feel content in the pursuit now. When I hear these songs, when I am developing the phrases, the lines and all these things, I’m like oh my God, this is the best thing in the world.
RJ: That's beautiful Garrick. So, opening up to songwriting, cracking that code as you called it, has created a kind of renaissance. .And you're in the studio now also. Tell me about that.
GD: Well, as far as when the project began. It was in June of 2021. It was in the first throws of the pandemic. The first throws of grief. My son had died almost 6 months before, at the end of 2020. So, I’m trying to reminisce. When he passed that month, I’m pretty listless. I did a lot of walking during that time, so I decided I was going to buy a new guitar, another Stratocaster. I just wanted something new. Then I decided I wanted another electric guitar because I'd always wanted that specific electric guitar. It was different, I got a Telecaster, and the thing is I bought both of these used. The Telecaster was from this guy who couldn't afford it. He had a family. I told him I was happy to take it on and I basically told him my story you know because that’s just what I do. We were in such a good conversation. I told him my son had passed a month ago and I'm just looking for something that I can create with because I think a lot of creation is going to be happening. Or I hoped. So, I got those guitars, and I named the white Telecaster, Zangel, (Zach/ Angel) after my son Zach who had died. I had named the other one, G-Soul. And Zangel spoke to me. It just had this sound, and it was so easy for me to play, it just fit my hands so beautifully. It had all this brightness, this bite too, warmth. I mean it had all these dimensions. I never had a guitar quite like that. I put a sticker on it that Zach had given me of the band Phish. That was his favorite band. It was perfect. I had been recording a lot of music on Voice Memo and sometimes I would kind of skat sing, you know skat sing a melody, what it might be. There were certain songs I thought, maybe I could actually bring to the studio with Michael Rosen who's in in Oakland. He had mixed my House Full of Friends album, the live album from 2016, and he and I did another project together, a voiceover. Somebody hired me to use my voice, that was great. He is really just a great engineer and I’m very at home with him. So, I called him up for this project. But I also thought, I've been playing with the same people for a while now and it's time for a change. It’s all about change right now. So, I recruited this drummer Bryant Mills that I've always wanted to play with. I just never had the chance because he's a very busy drummer doing covers.
RJ: I hear you. I am a little curious about the drummer and why you were so compeled to work wth him?
GD: My bass player said you know one of my favorite drummers is Bryant Mills, you need to meet him. I had tried to book him like a bunch of years before, and it just didn't work out. I had forgot about him but then I saw him at this jazz club that I've been playing at for a couple of years. I thought, man he's doing jazz. This is cool. We met for the first time in in flesh and he was so welcoming. So that’s why it came to mind, and it finally worked out. The first session we had together we did 9 songs. First, we did 6 songs and then we came back and did 3 more. All originals. He was so intuitive. He didn't look like he was playing hard at all. He was hitting all these breaks and changes. Shortly after that recording session, Michael Rosen, the engineer told me over the phone that he had a problem, he said he had lost all of my files due to a corrupt hard drive. He offered to do it again free of charge, which was actually the best thing that happened because now Bryant knew the songs better. He was already super intuitive and now we could actually kind of go all in. It was a blessing in disguise. I never doubted that we could do it again.
RJ: Wow, I love that.You just went with flow.
GD: You know the core of the band is the base and the drums. You know those are really important elements. Well so I did this show in 2019, it was for the John Lee Hooker Foundation at Freight & Salvage here in Berkeley, right down the street. I was playing with my tabla player. I was playing acoustic guitar. So, I met all these people all these cool talented East Bay people there that I'd never pressed the flesh with before. I don't know if you know who Ruth Davies is?
RJ: She's a bassist, right?
GD: Yea, she is like cream of the crop. And after the show, she came up to me and said I love your sound. I would love to play with you sometime. I'm like feeling all good because all these musicians there were so talented, vibrant and there was such a huge diversity of sounds. I swear to God living on the peninsula in the Bay Area is a whole other world. So, I felt like wow, finally, acceptance. So, I had a couple of songs I thought acoustic upright bass would be really cool with. Ruth Davies came in and laid down some bass tracks. I brought in my regular bass player, AJ. He is real funky, a great player. I knew I had to have him. There was another musician, Kevin Goldberg who had played with me. I met him at a house concert. So, the idea of World Blues, just so you understand where it comes from. If you look at that CD from that show, the artwork on my website. There was such a variation of ethnic backgrounds in that, all the different people that played in that show. I think there were 16 total, outside of me, all age groups, all different nationalities, and ethnic backgrounds. I thought, man, this is World Blues. Blues is always going to be there, but this is something different. I get kind of sick of people not understanding what I do. They’ll say, it’s not really Blues. Well, no it's not what you think of Blues. But it is something that I do. It is a thing.
RJ: It’s music. Although there are particular sounds we can resonate with but we don’t always need to put music in a genre.
GD: Well, for marketing purposes you usually do.
RJ: You do, yea. I really like the idea of World Blues. I think it has a strong sort of attraction, especially now since we are more of a global community than ever before. I know that you are going be moving out of the country soon but having that name, World Blues, takes you everywhere. It really does, and it draws from everywhere. It’s pretty powerful.
GD: Somehow, I’ve always been able to name things.
RJ: It seems organic to what you are doing anyway. You are drawing from so many musical influences already. It’s apparent in your music. But still, you do have this bluesy kind of feel.
GD: It’s a Blues expression. One of my songs is called, The Wrong Impression. It’s a new song that I wrote. It’s going on this album. It's about Jimmy Hendricks, my internal relationship with Hendricks. It’s about how much he influenced me. All these choices in my life were really based on him, as a 13 or 14 year old. Hendrick’s died when I was 12 years old. My brother who is five years older than me, had introduced him to me through the album, Band of Gypsies, when I was 11. What I saw on the back of the album cover, was three black men and it was so cool to see. The whole vibe of that…
RJ: It was like you saw yourself.
GD: Yeah, so there is a song, The Wrong Impression, on the new upcoming album that is totally inspired by my relationship with Jimmy Hendrix.
GD: Definitely yeah, I'm going to try to sing, Only Son. I don't know how that's gonna be for me. I mean can I remove myself enough and be a performer. I can be in it, but can I perform this song because that's the gift. If it’s meaningful to me it’s gonna be meaningful for somebody else too. To be able to do that there. You know, I check in with my Zach spirit key. it's like I'm always checking in and asking what do you think about that? I have to. It's always been that way since he got to be about 13 or 14 years old. Because he's an only child. He had the ability to not fear suggesting art, songs, to me. So, I ended up always referring to him.
RJ: That's beautiful. He was a musician also, right?
GD: Yes, he played the keys. He played in my band. We played together for a good amount of years. There are videos of us playing together on YouTube. He first started playing, I think, when he was 14 years old. No, I'm sorry it was 2007, yeah so. he would have been 15 years old. It was an incredible year all kinds of things happening but musically speaking, I had just split up with a long term relationship. It was really a meaningful relationship and Zach loved her a lot too. So, I've been lucky in in those regards. I had all kinds of gigs. I did this Oakland Feather River Camp gig. It was up in the Sierra mountains, and I'd been teaching for about two years before they finally said, bring your son. So that year we did Oakland Feather River Camp and we practiced doing a song, a Dave Matthew’s song, and it's called The Dreaming Tree. It's super complex but Zach had an incredible memory and so he could remember the words of all these songs, like really complex songs. He was a Bruce Springsteen fan, the old Springsteen.
RJ: So, he leaned toward rock, so to speak and alternative music? I definitely hear rock in your music too.
GD: Yea, definitely. So that allowed me to help nurture him. The things that he really liked to do. But a song I still do called, The Maker, is a song that we developed together. We even tried to do America's Got Talent one year together, but we didn't get accepted. I won't even go into that story, but it was… they were stupid, let's put it that way.
RJ: Lol, I believe you. What about a Tiny Desk Concert submission? I love your songs.
GD: I have tried. My feet are on the ground. They will always be on the ground because I've had enough, you know. But if you think so, I know there are others. But I love what I do. And that's the most important thing. My mother would always say, they just have to discover you. Yea, I just gotta keep doing what I'm doing.
RJ: For certain. Doing what you love is everything. In many ways, despite the hardship, it is a form of resistance in a culture that would rather have you be another cog in the wheel. It's not always easy, but when you love something and you're dedicated, as you are, the support eventually comes. Althought it may look a little different than expected.
GD: Yeah, the rejections are just like well you know at this point. Before, it was like, oh god. Now it’s like well, next. Somebody’s going to get it.
RJ: Someone is going to get it. I think your move (to Europe) is going to be good.
GD: It will be.
