If you were to meet the Davisson Brothers Band, the first thing you would realize is that they are proud West Virginians – pretty much because they’d tell you, but also through their music. Their love, pride and homage of their home runs through their being, and is the center of their newest album Home Is Where The Heart Is, available this Friday, April 28th.
We recently caught up with Chris Davisson to learn about this proud family, their music, the new album and more.
CN: DBB is a family affair – Chris, you and Donnie are brothers, while your nephew Gerrod Bee plays bass, and on drums is your life-long family friend Aaron Regester. Working with family can sometimes come easy but can also be a challenge. Does working together make things a little easier because you know each other so well, or is it harder for that same reason?
CD: Yeah we like having our Family on stage with us, it’s really the only way we have ever known. We started out as kids in grade school in a three piece band with our Dad, Eddie Davisson then straight to band with our Uncle, Pete Davisson. During our high school years we started as a two piece which was the first time we started playing shows as the Davisson Brothers.
We have spent so much time on stage together now that we know exactly what each other is going to do at all times. It has now gone to another level having our Nephew Gerrod Bee as a permanent member of the band and our other Nephew Landon McFadden acting as the fifth member of the band when his schedule allows him to break from his solo career. They have literally been sitting side stage absorbing our beats and sounds their entire lives. It’s our own thing we have and I don’t think it would ever work without our Family. It also allows us to travel and not be as home sick having them out on the road.
CN: Speaking of family and home, you are set to release your new album ‘Home Is Where The Heart Is” on April 28. You have described this album as “a national anthem for the Appalachian way of life”, paying extremely close attention to make sure the truths of the region were told and any misunderstandings were clarified. How did you go about deciding which 12 songs representing your home the best made the cut – especially when you had a lot of 100+ to choose from?
CD: We ended up narrowing it down to about 50 songs. We got to the point where we were so close to these songs and would have been happy putting them all on the album. About that time our producers David “Ferg” Ferguson and Brent Cobb called and said hey send us all the songs you have, we are gonna go through them and see what you guys think of our selections. Brent called and said “hey, i don’t know if you realize this but about 90% of what you sent is about Home and Appalachia.” We replied we haven’t even thought about that , we have been so close to the project we never even looked at it like that. Brent then responded, “Can I name this record?” We said well of course, he said “Home is Where the Heart Is”. Brent and Ferg then stayed on Ferg’s house boat for a couple days making notes. They sent us the list of songs they picked and we thought it was spot on, we went with it… I think we ended up replacing one song they had with “Eastern Kentucky”
CN: To have those two incredible forces in the industry – Brent Cobb and David “Ferg” Ferguson – produce this album, what was it like working with both of them?
CD: We had been thinking really hard for a unique producer for this project the entire time we were writing for it. I had remembered Del McCoury, his boys Rob and Ronnie talking about this bigger than life character that had this amazing knowledge and skills from working with all these legendary artists. I just always thought he was this guy that was super hard to get to and kept talking myself out of it. Toward the end of the writing when we started thinking we had plenty for an album, I just kept going back to this Ferg guy and couldn’t get him off my mind. I remember I was sitting in Goodlettsville, TN in a Kroger parking lot and finally called Chris Harris who manages the Del McCoury Band and asked him a bunch of questions about Ferg. I realized he was the guy for the job. I decided the best thing to do was drive back to West Virginia and think about it before I went any further and make sure I was ready to try and connect with him. I was actually preparing myself for a big hard “NO, I’m not interested” I drove back to West Virginia and got a night’s rest, I woke up and went straight to where our bus was parked and called Rob and Lisa McCoury. I asked Rob if he would give me Ferg’s number, he gave it to me on the spot. I immediately called Ferg, within the first 2 minutes he said I am totally interested and I have been looking for a brother act to work with. Once he said yes, I said well I have another curveball, I said I would like to take this a step farther and bring in my good friend Brent Cobb to co-produce. Ferg said hell yes, he had just watched Brent perform and loved what he was all about. We set a date to cut about a month later and history was made, it was hands down the most creative studio session we have ever been a part of. The two of them worked off of each other like they had been working together their whole lives.
CN: More star power was added as the album features artists from across the bluegrass//Americana/jam band spectrum. How did you go about featuring so many amazing artists including Tim O’Brien, Rob McCoury, Stewart Duncan, Leftover Salmon’s Vince Herman, Ronnie Bowman, Kyle Tuttle, Lindsay Lou?
CD: It all happened naturally and organic, After cutting the first track live in the studio with no click, i think we passed Fergs test. After the first song he called Tim O’Brien on the phone and said please get down here, we have some WV boys in the studio, Tim showed up about 30 minutes later. We were blown away, Tim is West Virginia royalty and we had a moment when he walked in, we are still pinching ourselves over that. As for Rob McCoury, Rob is one of our best friends in Nashville, we do a lot of hanging out at his garage and he was involved in a lot of the writing process. The first writing we did for this project was with him, Sierra Ferrell, Levi Lowery and Vince Herman. Stewart Duncan had played on a track we did a few years back called “Dark as a Dungeon” he is also a hero of ours so Ferg called him in on the whole session. Vince Herman and us go way back , Vince was a mentor to us early on and showed us the ropes of the festival world. Ronnie Bowman is like a big brother to us, he has been in our corner since day one, he and his wife Garnett have taught us a lot about writing and singing. They are like family to us. Kyle and Lindsay had been writing a lot with us and it was a natural direction to invite them. Some of the work tapes we made with them in the writing rooms sounded like records.
CN: So we have an all-star duo of producers, an amazing lineup of collaborators, and then we have the songwriters: Wyatt Durrette, Rob Snyder, Channing Wilson, Adam Hood and others. What were those writing sessions like?
CD: They are the best of the best of the best, they are a songwriter’s songwriter. We have learned so much from all these guys and have become such good friends over the years, we rarely write without one of them in the room. They just make everything so much better. They have mastered their craft and we are so lucky to have them on the team. We are such fans of all their work as artists, to get to write with them on a regular basis is surreal. All these writers / artists you just mentioned are also amazing, loving and caring people so that even makes it better.
CN: These writers are some of the biggest names out there, but given that you had a mission statement to represent your home with this album, did the songs come easy or was it more difficult to stick to a specific mindset?
CD: It really was easy, just about all these guys have been to West Virginia with us. They have been to our family farm and know a lot about our home life.
CN: Might not be an easy or fair question, but is there a favorite track on the album?
CD: They are all our favorite, one will stand out then another one so it keeps changing.
CN: While you collaborated with many artists on this album, is there any one artist that you haven’t worked with that you would love to?
CD: Maybe three, Darrel Scott, John Cowan and Earnest.
CN: If you could describe yourselves in one word, what would it be and why?
CD: What’s next on the horizon for The Davisson Brothers Band? We will take a few weeks to calibrate after the release, it seems like anymore it’s the bigger projects that we like. I think it’s the challenge, it’s the long term things and not so much the easy grabs.. We have already started on a few things that we can’t talk much about. We have been working so hard for so many years, we have hit a lot of mile markers but we still have work to do. We recently reunited with an old friend, he was one of the first people in Nashville that believed in us when we got to town. If this comes together like we hope, it will be a story for the history books.
In case you missed it, the Davisson Brothers Band took over our Instagram yesterday (4/25). Check it out here.
For more information on the Davisson Brothers Band, visit their website davissonbrothersband.com and follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.