This World Ain't No Child

Brad Davis | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 1, 2004)
• Original Release Date: November 1, 2004
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: FGM Records
• ASIN: B00076V76S
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #471,092 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful surprise-- great country music played on bluegrass instruments, June 24, 2009

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This review is from: This World Ain't No Child (Audio CD)

I first heard about Brad Davis from a fantastic compilation called, Hot & Spicy: Flatpicking Favorites. The album is a compilation of duets between hot-shot bluegrass flatpickers. One of the names on the album was Brad Davis. I hadn't heard him before, but his playing was so stellar that I decided to buy this album without knowing anything about it. I looked at the liner notes, and saw names of guest musicians like Rob Ickes, Sam Bush, Bela Fleck, John Cowan and Byron House, and I figured that I was in for more of what I got on the compilation that introduced me to Brad Davis. However, the presence of names like John Jorgenson and, uh, Billy Bob Thornton (yes, the very same) should have hinted that there was something else going on here. Despite the heavy emphasis on flatpicked acoustic guitar, banjo, dobro, mandolin, etc. and the absence of telecasters, pedal steels etc., this is a country album. This is what country music should be. Bill Monroe developed bluegrass because he was tired of the commercial sounds of country music in the 1940's. So, he played old-time string band music at warp speed to create a new genre. What Davis has done here is not as revolutionary by any stretch of the imagination, but the spirit is similar. Pop country is insufferable pap made on assembly lines by interchangeable models who are all hat and no cattle. Brad Davis' voice is not the high lonesome bluegrass sound, but instead something closer to conventional country, and the songs themselves are the type of material that pop country musicians are likely to cover. However, the instrumentation and energy here are bluegrass. This is what country could and should be, and it makes the state of modern country music all the more depressing to hear its full potential from Brad Davis. Pay attention, bluegrass snobs. This album could convince you that non-bluegrass country is a viable form.