Brighten The Corners Presents Louisville artist Ryan Davis & The Roadhouse Band on Wednesday 7th May at St Stephen's Church. Support comes from Norwich alt-country band Brown Horse.
“This is the sound of someone bearing a torch.” - Bill Callahan
“Existential angst, loneliness, loss – it’s a collection of songs that meditate on life, death and all the mess that surrounds it. But key to its dishevelled charm is Davis’ innate understanding about the ridiculousness of all this living, and the wit with which he delivers his hard-won wisdom” - The Quietus
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Time: 7.30pm - 11pm
Venue: St Stephens Church, Ipswich
Tickets: £14+bf
Supports: Brown Horse
Age Restrictions: 14+ (14- 17s must be accompanied by an adult) -
At the frayed bottom-edge of Indiana – just a moderate bike ride north of Louisville, Kentucky – multi-instrumentalist, artist and songwriter Ryan Davis’ Americana-noir soundwaves have been emanating for years in a myriad of forms. As driving force for the lauded State Champion, long-running member of Tropical Trash, administrator of the esoteric and excellent Cropped Out festival, and lone proprietor of the Sophomore Lounge label, Davis lays down his first proper ‘solo’ release with Dancing On The Edge – a rich, 2-LP tapestry of tunes that absolutely glows over seven expansive cuts. It’s a pure collage of modernity and heritage.
After a period of introspection spent re-immersing himself in his drawing & painting practice, as well as his newfound delvings into instrumental music, Davis’ sea change was imminent. “I wasn't sure I would ever make another record of ‘song’ songs,” he says, “but last year I started writing again and it eventually took the shape of the record at hand. I worked painstakingly hard on the material. It felt virtually impossible to complete for a bulk of the time I spent trying to enter into it, but the process pulled me out of a strange place. I was eventually able to live inside of the songs enough to understand the world within them – to ultimately help shape them into what I understood them to be.” Indeed, there’s a load of inspiration captured in the grooves with Ryan’s unfiltered, folk-traditioned approach to poetic twists-of-tongue meeting head on with sublime instrumentation.
Recorded in early 2023 with help both in-studio and remotely from peers like Joan Shelley, Catherine Irwin (Freakwater), Will Lawrence (Felice Brothers, Gun Outfit, John Early), Jenny Rose (Giving Up), Christopher May (Mail the Horse), Elisabeth Fuchsia (Footings, Bonnie "Prince" Billy), and Aaron Rosenblum (Son of Earth, Sapat), 'Dancing on the Edge' draws backup perhaps primarily from Davis' tight-knit drinking buddies-cum-cast of collaborators in Equipment Pointed Ankh (records on Astral Editions, Bruit Direct Disques, Torn Light) – a five-headed hive-mind from which he drew impetus for his own foray into more abstract and improvisational terrain these past few years under the Roadhouse alias. The results herein are melancholic, gentle, minimal yet colorful in mood: a lilting highway accompaniment of crisp instrumentation and a relaxed, amiable approach to vocals with rhapsodic wordsmithery. Fans of the aforementioned artists as well as those of Souled American, David Berman, Kurt Vile and ‘Comes A Time’-era Neil should all easily find bounty.
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Brown Horse are back on tour with their second album, ‘All The Right Weaknesses’, out April 4th on Loose Music. Building on the stark twang of their debut album ‘Reservoir’ (9/10 UNCUT, **** The Times, **** MOJO), ‘All The Right Weaknesses’ sees an energised Brown Horse meld slacker-rock, folk, and alt-country – equal parts Lucinda Williams, Jason Molina, The Breeders and Silver Jews. Weary, wry and disarmingly honest, these songs flash a smile at the dark and strange. With contributions from the band’s multiple songwriters, the record is a patchwork far greater than the sum of its parts.