Axton!

Oh man! I know its been a while in between blogs, but there's a lot of good news going on so let me catch you up to speed! The most important news is the birth of a new Davis(the world needs more Davises)! Axton Jay came to hang out with us on October 17...or 16. I got the text from my brother on the 16 at about 11:30 west coast time...but that could be 1:30am Texas time...I'll have to find out for sure. Anyway, I love the name(of course) and from the pictures I've seen he's got big guitar playing hands. I'll try to post a picture where he's already making a perfect C chord!! Atta boy!

In other news the band the Essex Lights flew to New York to do a bit of recording(Drums) and came back here to LA and have started the guitar rhythm and lead tracks. We're playing at the Viper room on the 28th of October which we are very excited about. The Viper room was owned by Johnny Depp for a while until actor River Phoenix overdosed on heroin. So its kindof a Hollywood landmark...not that any of us are going to overdose on anything other than rockin' yer socks off!! I also have an artsy lovely lady friend named Abby Sawyer-from Boulder, Colorado. I may mention Abby in blogs moving forward just to let ya know! I will also try to post a picture of her on here. Its been long enough since I've written in this guy that I may have to re-learn a thing or two. Alright...I need to get ready for work! I'm hoping this short post will get me going again on writing in this thing!

ok...this blogger has changed formats and i cant seem to get a picture up. i'll try again soon! sorry!!

Uncanny Parallels

It was a nice weekend for the Essex Lights crew. We had a gig at Rusty's surf ranch in Santa Monica on Friday and then a photo shoot in Hollywood on Saturday. I had to wait tables somewhere in the middle there too...which was not as cool as a gig or photo shoot...but kinda had to be done. Anyway I thought we played pretty well but I don't think the tall ceilings of the bar suited a loud raucous band like us. So, the sound was a wee bit deafening-but as always it felt good to strap on the Les Paul and wail. The weekend before we played an acoustic show which also went really well...we probably should have stuck to the acoustics at Rusty's but like I said...it just feels so good to get the electric juices flowing!!
So after putting on my waiter hat all day long I rushed home after picking up a foot long big hot pastrami melt from subway(which was pretty awesome). I then got together some clothes and guitars and other things that may or may not have been needed at a photo shoot and headed to Micheal's house to meet up with the mike and Ben. Ben is a hair stylist so he gave me a trim and fixed up Mike's hair. Which I gotta say...getting a hair cut on a balcony overlooking Hollywood while drinking a bud is definitely the way to get a haircut! Of course having the barber drink too got a little nervous...I think I've seen some casualties of drinking and hair cutting! But not to fear with Benzo...when done he said it looked a little more “Mitch Mitchell” which was fine with me...although I was going for more of a Jimi Hendrix.
We loaded a few guitars and our changes of clothes into my car, put on the new black keys album and headed around the corner to this photo studio...or really a large studio apartment that was set up with a back drop, lighting and computer screens to show images. Quite the professional set up if you ask me. We started out sitting on these boxes under the lights...the photo man Myles told us just to act kinda natural...i think we started just talking about Ben's tattoos which gives us a lot to talk about and can cover quite a bit of time. Also the handle of Jack Daniel's probably didn't hurt in getting us to jabber amongst one another. After a bit of time doing that we got our guitars and started running through songs and singing and playing-the whole time Myles was there with the flashing lights. We would stop and take breaks like we usually do in a rehearsal but this time we would look at pictures and laugh at what we were doing. It was a fun night but like recording in a studio, it does start to cross the line a little into being a touch tedious. All in all it was a blast...definitely felt like we were on the precipice of fame and fortune. Which maybe we are maybe we are not but it felt good to have that feeling. Hopefully these shots will go well in press kits to send to club owners, bookers, promoters etc...and we'll be off and running!!

ps...i think there are some uncanny parallels between Ben fixing my hair and the pic of Jimi doing Mitch's...that's my opinion anyway

essex lights

well hello there! i again haven't been good about keeping up with this thing but i think i'll be better going from here. also sorry about the tester posts...we were trying to get my blog linked up to the essex lights website, which is a new group i'm in. pretty excited about that. the essex lights was started by a guy named michael brower in essex county new jersey. he works in la now, you can read more about him on the official essex lights website essexlights.com where he also has a blog. i met brower at one of the very first coffee shop places i played here in santa monica...he played first that night and talked about a record he was working on...i remember him playing a song about postcards from rio, which i thought was a pretty interesting song...anyway, we met that night and exchanged cds and talked a while, as any good musicians trying to make good contacts would. we happen to stay in touch for one reason or another- i went to his house one time to borrow an audio recorder to record my first full set here in la. of course as things go i didn't hit record properly before i played, which is typical but also makes me mad because i think i did a pretty good version of "strawberry fields forever"...i think it was john lennon's birthday that day. anyway...a few months had passed and we ended up on the same bill again at a coffee shop...this is actually the night the alice cooper guy busted his guitar 15 seconds into his first song-i believe i have a blog about that so you should go back and read some more about that. so a little while after that michael sent me an email about needing a guitar player to join his band to hit the road on the east coast, promote the album, tour etc...So!!! i'm in this new band now and am really excited! i will be needing to update this thing a little more often so get ready for that! along with mike brower and myself we have a really cool drummer in ben nelson or benzo...'cause he kinda plays like bonzo bonham of the great led zeppelin. and last but not least is dedrick the bassist...he's the newest so he still has some hazing to go through. i'm still playing shows on my own but this has quickly become a priority. it's nice to be in a band of dudes as opposed to the lonely road of being a solo guy. we have played our first show, got a permanent rehearsal space, cds came in last night, press kits going out soon, t-shirts in...we will, we will...rock you! i believe we even have a photo shoot coming up soon-so maybe that'll be something good to tell ya bout soon! until then...check out the essex lights!!!

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little people show

I've got a bit of catching up to do. A number of story worthy events have occurred recently-and I figure I should write about them now that I've got a day off, a pot of coffee on the brew and Godfather two on the tube. Let's start with the little people show. I met Rebecca Curran at a friends birthday party at a Cuban cigar and rum bar in Hollywood a few months ago. She is a little person or midget, dwarf...I'm not exactly sure the politically correct term but you get the point. More important though is she is an amazing gal! Very cool, funny, caring, does charity work and volunteering etc etc etc...we ended up talking, smoking fine cigars and drinking rum that night. She even came out to a gig or two over the next weeks and months. She then sent me an email about playing a national little people convention at the hyatt in long beach , which I was pretty honored. Of course I would play!
Come to find out I was playing on the last night of a week long extravaganza. I guess the big ceremony was the night before so the festivities had died down a little. I played in a pretty big ball room but like I said the festivities had died down so it was a lot of me playing to the sound man. There was quite a bit of in and outs-people coming in and hanging out for a while, dancing a little. It was really a pretty funny scene. I don't think the irony was lost on anyone that I am surely the tallest singer they could have had play. What's funny though is I had so many people say things like, “you played at a little people convention?? did you like tower over everyone?” ummm....yes. Not unlike every other day of my life. Anyway it was definitely a unique night. I saw little people families and couples hooking up at the bar...it was wonderfully odd! It was like getting a glimpse into a different world.
Well...I'm gonna start reading the Italian subtitles in the godfather. I still need to write about the whiskey show and my recent street performing...all good stuff!

a quick one

Happy 4th of July! I've been pretty busy as of late...before going on a vacation to Texas and Oklahoma I moved from Culver City to Santa Monica while trying to work, make music etc... Anyway I'm back now and trying to readjust to LA. I met a friend in Venice and saw what looked like an aboriginal fellow with face paint and spear/walking stick and nothing but a loin cloth but...he also had brand new Nike running shoes...which was odd. Then a homeless lady asked me for about three dollars so she could get a sandwich outside a KFC...she then got mad at me when I gave her only two dollars...also odd. It was about that time I knew I was not in Texas anymore. I mean other than it wasn't 111 degrees which shoulda been a dead giveaway. I'm also back playing at the whisky a go-go at the end of July with a full band, I just bought a battery powered pa system so I can be a street performer, and today I'm playing for a little people's convention in long beach. I'm definitely thrilled to play the little people's convention but it is slightly ironic. I'm not sure they could have hired any taller musician if they had tried-but I'm very excited to play it!! I guess what I'm saying is there should be some good blogs to come. For now i'm gonna go over a few tunes for tonight!