Dyer Davis Creates Music For Everyone
- Charles I. Guarria
- Mar 31
- 5 min read
Updated: Apr 25
The Dyer Davis Group hits the road this June for a headlining tour with dates through mid-August. "It's gonna be a party, it always is," Mr. Davis said while sitting in a Daytona Beach, Florida, coffee shoppe.
The tour will be in promotion of the group's second album, "Kiss the Ring." The first single, "Baby," will be released on April 11, the LP is slated for release on June 3.
But before that, he performed two sets on April 5 at the Jacksonville, Florida, blues festival Springing the Blues.
The key to a one-hour performance, such as the two he played at the 33rd Springing the Blues, is to have a firecracker set of "all the best shit that you can muster up," Mr. Davis explained.
As opposed to a non-festival where he will pick the songs to play as he goes along.
He is a fan of many performers that he shared the day with, such as Southern Avenue, "What a great band."
Recalling the first time he heard them, "I was out in the lobby at the Blues Music Awards, you know, hanging out and doing my thing, and they started playing, I was like, 'oh who is this?' go running back in there. It's (Southern Avenue) killer man."
Mr. Davis played songs from the soon-to-be-released "Kiss the Ring" at Springing the Blues.
Fans can expect the new LP to be "completely from my heart," he commented, stating that it will have "something for everybody" with elements of blues, country, and rock. "I've never been more proud of anything."
Being proud of the band's second LP doesn't mean Mr. Davis is dissing their first LP, "Dog Bites Back," released in 2023. "I was proud of Dog Bites Back, really, it's a great record."
When asked which tunes on" Dog Bites Back" best exemplify his musical stylings, Mr. Davis paused, gave it some serious consideration, and replied, "Water Into Wine" and "Don't Tell My Mother" are "a very solid reflection of specifically my songwriting and the subjects that I'll tackle… it gives you a very clear picture of the way that I write and the poetic approach."
iTunes classifies his music as blues rock, contemporary blues, RB-soul, and roots-rock.
Though Dyer Davis is a Christian who takes his faith very seriously, he is not a Christian artist; however, "I am writing songs from a Christian man's perspective."
That writing process "depends on where the inspiration comes from," Mr. Davis commented.
He often finds the process to be an emotional, cathartic journey. Like most artists, when the muse hits, he will stop what he is doing to ensure he has captured the creative thought, even if it comes off as rude to the people he is with.
If he is too busy to write at that moment, Mr. Davis will hum the melody into his phone so he can flesh it out later.
Adding some insight into his writing process, Mr. Davis explained that he first thought "Damned" on "Kiss the Ring" was a great song, then had a meltdown swearing he'd never release it, after which, he got the song to a publishable place when he heard an Oasis song that shone light on how "Damned" should be written.
Born and raised in Daytona Beach, he started playing drums when he was four years old. "And then I saw tape of Joe Walsh playing with the Eagles, in Sydney, Australia, and thought that he was like the coolest guy ever."
That meant picking up the guitar.
"I was doing both of them in tandem," but "guitar really ended up being my bread and butter, so I've really been playing guitar since I was about five."
These days, in addition to guitar and lead vocals, "I play bass and drums. I could say that I could play keys,'" he joked, "but I'd be lying; I have no idea what I'm actually doing."
His influences beyond Joe Walsh are as varied as the genres his music is classified by. British blues bands like The Jeff Beck Group, the Faces, the cool parts of Rod Stewart's solo career, Dean Martin, Harry Chapin, Jimmy Durante, big band music and country,
However, one stands above the rest.
"Man, the Beatles are the biggest influence on the planet to me. Seriously, between them, Joe Walsh, inspired me to play guitar."
Mr. Davis said The Beatles were and still are profound. "Specifically, Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. My dad showed me that record when I was, like, seven years old, six or seven. That and the Truth album by The Jeff Beck Group. They were both around the same time, and it was like sensory overload."
The last song from his first set at Springing the Blues was "With a Little Help from My Friends," off of "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."
The Beatles broke up in 1970; two years later, the Eagles released their first album and eventually won over Mr. Davis.
They are "one of the greatest live bands you could ever see," Mr. Davis commented. "I lean on the Eagles maybe more now, but the raw attack of James Gang, that's awesome." (Joe Walsh played guitar, keyboards, and sang lead vocals in James Gang.)
Contemporary bands he favors are Dirty Honey and Rival Sons.
Mr. Davis' full-time work as a professional musician began at the age of 14. "I got signed to a record label in Brooklyn, New York, called 825 Records, and I worked with them for a couple years."
A few years later, he signed with a Philly firm, toured as a high schooler, but was forced to drop out of high school because the school didn't recognize his work as on-the-job training.
Left to his own devices by the Philly firm, he formed a band, hit the club scene, played as many as four hours in an evening. (As an aside, that sounds like on-the-job training to me. What was the high school thinking!)
True to his Daytonian roots, Mr. Davis got his songs into advertisements with NASCAR and the NFL during that time.
"It's been a ride, man," he said, recalling the journey that has brought him to Kiss the Ring after putting out five albums "across three different genres of music."
Along the way, he fell into addiction. Alcohol, methamphetamine, "just bouts of different things" that lead to him to being "in and out of outpatient rehab programs through all my teen years. It's been nasty."
Now 26 years old, his turnaround from addiction began seven years ago, and his career is in launch mode.
Springing the Blues took place April 5 to April 7. It is located at the Seawalk Pavilion in Jacksonville, Florida. General admission was free. VIP tickets were available for purchase.
Scoring a VIP ticket, I will add that it is worth the money for the better seating and quicker food-beverage service. Whether in the VIP section or out and about the festival grounds, the food was outstanding. I thoroughly enjoyed the pulled pork with collards, hibachi-style shrimp-chicken combo adding just a touch of rice, and an arepa.
The festival is well-run, pedestrian friendly, with many hotel options within a reasonable distance and the beach a stone's throw away.
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Photo Credit: Visit St. Augustine, Springing the Blues, Dyer Davis Youtube, Bob Krause
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