Customer Reviews

I'm Not Gonna Let My Blues Get Me Down

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If you agree, with Steve Earle, that Shania Twain is the highest paid lap dancer in Nashville, that guitar-smashing Garth Brooks is "kind of evil," and that the Nashville sound is the sound of the lowest common denominator, here's a cure. Brad Davis is an exemplary flatpicker and songwriter who will probably never make it big. He's too real. Has too much integrity. He's real country, not pop with a twang. This is American roots music at its finest. Buy two and give one to a friend.

If you are a bluegrass snob, you may have heard Brad Davis without knowing what he is all about, and if you just look at the liner notes for this album, you could be forgiven for assuming that this is yet another entry in the bluegrass/newgrass catalog with plenty of hot pickin'. Brad Davis plays flatpicked acoustic guitar and mandolin. The guests here are people like Sam Bush, David Grier, Rob Ickes, and even Earl Scruggs himself. So, this is bluegrass, right? Wrong. This is country music. This is not the high, lonesome sound, and most of the music is not an extrapolation of old-time string band music with clear Scots-Irish roots. The songs and the structures are country. However, this is country music for bluegrass fans. The instrumentation and energy are bluegrass, and a few of the tracks do dip their toes into newgrass territory, so this album just may convince some bluegrass snobs that there is something to country music.

Brad Davis has another album that is well worth picking up, called This World Ain't No Child. The sound is quite similar on that album, although the guest list is slightly different (see my review of it). The primary difference is that this album has slightly more stripped-down arrangements, with fewer musicians on each track. That doesn't make it better or worse-- just a bit different. Both are wonderful albums, though. If you want a bigger sound, start with This World. If you want a more stripped down sound, start with this one. Either way, give Brad Davis a try if you are a bluegrass snob who doesn't think much of straight country. Most straight country is garbage, but Brad Davis shows that it doesn't have to be so.