Moot Davis

Moot Davis | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 9, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Little Dog Records
• ASIN: B0001AVZBM
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #233,861 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars First Rate Country Honk, July 2, 2004

By 

Paul McGrath (Sacramento, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Moot Davis (Audio CD)

Well, I don't know too much about country music, having been born and bred on rock and roll, but with the utterly contemptible state of popular music these days, I've been willing to try about anything. I read a little blurb about this one in the local newspaper recently, which stated that it was in the style of old "honky-tonk" music, and reminiscent of Hank Williams. Again, I don't know much about country, but I do know that Hank Williams was a star many years ago--before music turned to crap--and I liked the sound of the word "honky-tonk," so I decided to give this one a try.

Well, I'm here to tell you, this is great stuff. It's not honky-tonk the way I imagined it--I guess I was thinking of a more blues-oriented sound--it's country. Old-style country. Country I suspect the way it sounded forty years ago. The best way I can describe it would be to say that when the singer sings the word, "blues," he doesn't pronounce it, "blues," he pronounces is, "bleee-yews." The honky-tonk description probably has to do with the subject matter of these songs, which is mostly about cheating women, wine, whiskey, roadhouses and loneliness. There's even great song about a train.

The first thing you notice about this is the vocal. This guy has a very powerful, mature and confident voice. He really belts it out. And he sings in such a way that you can actually hear that he has a little tug of a grin at the corner of his mouth. In other words, he doesn't take himself too damn seriously. It's a bold performance, and although this is his first album, it's pretty clear that he has been around the block a few times.

The musicianship is uniformly great. There is guitar, bass and drum, of course, and most of the songs have a steel guitar and a fiddle in there. I think there's a banjo on a few of them too, and there's a terrific sax on "Last Train Home." You find that while a song is playing you can pick out just about any instrument to focus in on, and there will be something interesting going on. This, to me, has always been a definition of great music: it's not just one good musician and a bunch of hacks, it's a bunch of great musicians.

The songs are excellent; energetic and bouncy; clever and funny and sometimes wistful. There's no sap or corn or condescension or vanity here, it's all genuinely sincere. I shouldn't really compare this to other country music performers, because I'm just not too familiar with many of them, but if I had to I would say that he's like Steve Earle only more upbeat and less political.

This is really a great album. It just breaks my heart that although it has just barely been released, it's hardly made a ripple on Amazon and is already difficult to obtain. Why in the world can't the music industry promote good music?

Well, I don't know, but this assuredly is good music, great music in fact, and you can do your part to change this trend by buying the thing. You won't regret it.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dusty roads and county-line honkytonks. . ., July 9, 2004

By 

Ronald Scheer "rockysquirrel" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Moot Davis (Audio CD)

Moot Davis is Hank Williams reborn with all new material. This CD is as entertaining as seeing him live, plus it has the advantage of a whole stable of great studio musicians creating that wonderful 50s country sound, rhythmic and wailing, that just jumps with the feeling of dusty roads, pickup trucks, starry summer nights, and county-line honkytonks.

New Jersey born Davis has a driving voice that drawls, yodels, and slides over notes, and you'd swear he was from deep in the heart of Texas. His songs are about the open road, wine and whiskey, lovesick yearning, busted relationships, and a hard-nosed realism unfazed by disappointed hopes. My only wish is that there were more songs on this CD. The last one comes around just too soon.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Honky tonk bliss!, March 20, 2004

By 

Patricia Avila (Glendora, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Moot Davis (Audio CD)

Hard core honky tonk at its best! From the opening track "Thick of It Now" 'til its closer "Stay Gone" this album rocks the way that all country music should. With his fine nasal delivery Moot Davis sounds not unlike Hank Williams senior. Production duties are superbly handled by Pete Anderson(Dwight Yoakam, Roy Orbison, etc.)who also plays brilliant, blister-busting guitar. Watch out Nashville there's a new tonker in town.