I teased you before.

Now, as promised, I would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to Nathan Davis - his music, his life, and the man. There’s been a lot written about Nathan. I am of the belief that enough can’t be said about him, about his genius, or about the legacy he’s left behind through his music. Hopefully you will, in turn, want to introduce him to your friends, too.

After having read several articles about Nathan, I decided I wanted to showcase not only the artist, but also the human side of the artist - the love and joy and happiness Nathan had in his life.

The Music

I often talk about natural talent versus mechanical performances that are the distinguishing characteristics between a true artist and a wannabe. Nathan’s ability to tell a story through music was a sheer work of art. He didn’t attempt to gloss over life - but portrayed it as he lived it; both the good and the bad of it.

Add in the blistering guitars, barroom piano, raw bluesy vocals that resounded through the room, and commanding stage presence, and you have the essence of Nathan.

“Take all the anger, addiction, despair, revelation, love and redemption that can possibly be packed into the human heart over a lifetime, pour it into gospel piano and raw guitar, lead it with a vocal that can growl, rasp, plead, and roar, and this is the result.” -Jennifer Layton, from Indie-Music.com

It was the passion in Nathan’s music that drew throngs of adoring fans to listen to him sing a song - or two. I’m immensely jealous of those who had the great honor of holding court with Nathan - seeing him perform live. I’d had high hopes the same opportunity would come my way. Instead, I take consolation in the (live) audio and video performances captured. I simply close my eyes and pretend he’s there on-stage in front of the crowd, pouring out his soul for us.

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“Some try to describe Nathan Davis as a modern day Billy Joel. Others hear him as an incarnation of Bruce Springsteen. Whatever the comparison, all agree on one thing: Davis has a remarkable style, writing poignant lyrics full of pain, hope, heartbreak, love, despair and strength, always telling his story with passion and honesty. He’s made every mistake six times, but has never accepted defeat, and has written his life down a hundred times over. His songs are his testimony. You’ve been invited to listen.”

Thankfully, the music hasn’t been silenced. During his career, Nathan released four albums and, at the time of his passing, he was in the process of finishing up his new CD, Revolution Lane. Currently, it is scheduled to be released sometime in 2007. Hopefully, other previously released and unreleased material will be mastered and/or re-mastered and made available to the public.

The Life

Nathan hailed from southern roots, and spent the better part of his life in the south. A trained pianist, Nathan demonstrated musical genius at an early age, having taught himself to play the guitar, and writing and performing his own songs while still in his teens.

At the age of 18, Nathan left home to follow his dream. His travels and life experiences took him far and wide across the United States, exposing him not only to the successes - but also to the hardships and excesses. Along the way, his journeys took many a left turn into a dark abyss oftentimes shrouded as home. His depictions of the harsh realities of life are a constant theme in his songs.

“Sorry Mama, I’m fucked up again
I seem to have a love affair with sin
And everything looks fine from the end of a line
It always seems to be around when I need a friend

I know the things I do break your heart
But my life wants to end before it starts
My life was never mine, the devil had it this whole time
And it won’t leave me be till I tear it apart

So you can dry your eyes and rest your weary head tonight
I can find my own salvation giving up this fight
Tear out my eyes, give ‘em to a nice guy going blind
Just tell him they’ve forgotten how to cry”
-Nathan Davis, Blow

Tragically, Nathan died in the summer of 2006 at the young age of thirty. With his premature passing, the world lost not only a talented songwriter/musician, but also a father, a son, a friend, and a musical ally.

The Man

“Life’s journey is not to arrive safely at the grave in a well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways totally worn out shouting … holy **batman** - what a ride!” -unknown

I didn’t know Nathan personally, but those who did said he could be gruff. He probably abhorred the necessity to be diplomatic, opting instead to be brutally honest. If he didn’t like you, he wasn’t going to pretend he did. I’ve seen it stated many times that, in the course of a day, you could love him, hate him, laugh with him or want to kill him. But more than anything else, you respected him for the person he was, as he did the many musicians he met and/or befriended along the way.

“…Davis was one of those people who was here for only a brief moment of time in this great span of life, that he knew that, and he was here to impact the lives of many by his music and the lives of a few with his devotion, friendship and laughter…and perhaps one of the few whose effect and passion couldn’t be fully recognized or continue to lift us up in a greater way in life than in death. When I look more closely, I find he is still here - embodied in the eyes of his daughter, in his music, in his friends who are now also my friends and in his zest for upholding a dream….”-Kami Periman

You can’t talk about Nathan without mentioning his daughter, Cassidy. Being a mom, myself, I can only imagine the magnitude of his adoration for his little girl, and her’s for him. I can also imagine his spirit walking with her every day, guiding her and watching out for her, as that’s a bond eternally gifted from blood to blood. And hopefully, as Cassidy grows up, she’ll continue to cherish and appreciate her father as much as those around him do/did.

Nathan - the Son. An Interview with his mother, Sally Davis.

I had the great pleasure of interviewing Sally Davis, Nathan’s mother. I was truly humbled by the conversation, and awed by her strength, her undying love, and her unwavering commitment to ensure Nathan’s memory is kept alive. We talked about the love and happiness that he had in his life. And we talked about the person. Herein is that interview.

Besides his daughter, Cassidy, what brought Nathan the greatest happiness? What would bring a smile to his face?

“Without a doubt, the two loves of his life were Cassidy and music. Any music. All music. He was so passionate about it. It surrounded him, everywhere he went, all the time. He had quite literally hundreds and hundreds of CDs, several large boxes full of cassette tapes that he refused to part with even when he didn’t have a cassette player. I cannot really readily describe how music encompassed his life. He listened to it from the moment he awoke until he went to sleep.

“And in that love, he loved musicians. All of them. Any of them. Sometimes he didn’t really like them as people - he’d get irritated, as we all do, with individuals - but I never one time heard him denigrate their music, or belittle their sincere efforts. He could be brutal with what he saw as put-on or phony-ness (are those words?), but never with sincerity.

“On a lighter note, he was a huge fan of South Park. If you go to the MySpace page and look in the pictures, there’s a terrific one there that we call South Park Nathan that somebody did right after he died.”

What was Nathan’s favorite story to retell from the stage?

“Nathan talked very little from the stage. Early on, I used to encourage him to tell the stories of his songs, to interact with his audience with words, to banter with them. He just wouldn’t do it very much. His interaction was almost entirely through his songs. They were his stories.

“Nearly all his songs are biographical in nature. Some are not about real people, but about composites. Some are totally about real people. Some are about Nathan himself. Some are about how he saw real people (the characters in Revolution Lane come to mind here.)”

I’ve read he was the consummate practical jokester. What were some of his favorites?

“Nathan’s longtime keyboardist is John Henry Trinko. Two more different people cannot be imagined. They are simply polar opposites. They had a tremendous relationship musically, though, and a real bond. One of my favorite stories involves the two of them working in John Custer’s studio in Raleigh. John Custer and Nathan are a lot alike, and used to gang up on poor John Henry terribly. One day, they took the lyrics to one of Nate’s songs, and redid them, replacing the real lyrics with all sorts of horrible stuff about John Henry. They waited until he came into the studio and then told him that he needed to listen to the super new mix Custer had done. Then they sat in the corner and split their sides laughing at him as he listened.”

As a mom, what were some of your favorite mother/son memories that you’d like to share, and family memories? Funny, poignant travels?

“Nate was an only child, and as such, treated as an adult most of his life. He was part of a trio, the third leg in a three-legged stool, if you will. Some of our best times were on the mini-farm where he grew up in Traveler’s Rest, South Carolina, just north of Greenville. We had lots of animals, and feeding and caring for them was the first thing on the agenda every morning. His dad would leave for work, and Nate and I would go out and feed and milk goats, feed chickens, feed hogs, feed the horses.

“One of my best memories is of the day when one of our goats went into labor. I had a box with all the stuff I needed for the delivery at the back door. Nate was homeschooled, and sitting in the kitchen doing his school work. I came running in the house, yelling, “Come on, Nathan. We’re having science!” And off we went. As it turned out, one of the kids was turned wrong and I had to reposition it, and poor Nate had to hold the goat, yelling at the top of her lungs, while I did. I’ll never forget him standing there saying “Yuck. Oh yuck. Oh yuck.” Afterwards, he told everyone how he had delivered the kids. Right.

“When he was about 10, we went on an extended family vacation out west, taking in the Grand Canyon along the way. Nathan had a cowboy hat, given to him by his aunt, and had been collecting hat pins everywhere we went along the way. The hat was quite literally covered in those pins. He must have had fifty or more on it. Tragically, he set it down someplace in the Grand Canyon park and forgot it until we were many, many miles away - way too far to go back. He cried for hours. I remember him sitting next to me, a hundred miles down the road, doing what I called “snuckering” - not crying out loud, but softly sobbing. We felt really bad for him, and would’ve replaced the hat if we could have. He still talked about it sometimes when he was grown.

“And another great story involves the pig. Every year, we raised two pigs and took them in to be butchered in the fall. One day, Nathan and his dad loaded the pigs up in a small trailer, and Nathan kept telling Dave that there was a small hole in the trailer. Dave looked at it and said it would be okay. So they went off down the interstate highway, and when they arrived at the butcher’s, they only had one pig. These were large pigs, mind you. So they backtracked trying to find the pig. No luck. Just as they arrived home, pigless, the police called and said that our pig was at Exit XXX, at the Waffle House on the interstate. So back they went to get the pig. She had gotten under a bush at the exit, where the traffic cloverleafs around. Nathan and Dave tried to lure her out, with no luck (she wasn’t stupid, and she wasn’t getting back in that trailer if she could help it.). Finally, they put ropes around her and pulled her out (try getting a pig to go when she doesn’t want to.) People on the highway were circling through the exit again and again, just to watch the show. When they finally got her loaded, the cars circling around began to honk and people were yelling and clapping. They brought her home, where we nursed her back to health for several weeks before sending her off to become ham, which seemed a little bit unfair.

What’s next?

“I have had several requests and am considering writing a book about all this. There’s way more to it all. Raising an only child who is a musical prodigy is a daunting task, and often quite challenging. Doing it in the confines of a very strict religious belief system makes it more so. The story of our journey into and out of all that is an interesting one, I think, and it defines much of who Nathan became. You can see the signs of it sprinkled all over his music. There are religious references everywhere, but they are always upside down. For instance, he takes the line from “Jesus Loves Me” and turns it into “These are things I know because the devil tells me so” (The Devil Knows). In Bittersweet, he meets Jesus, but it’s in New Orleans, and he’s wearing a tie-dyed t-shirt. In Fool Like Me, Nathan is on the cross, not Jesus. And in So It Goes, he’s got a spirit inside, but it’s the devil, not god.

“We’ve been asked about all this over and over again, because despite all these lyrical oddities, and despite the fact that Nate was an atheist, he wasn’t hostile about religious people. It’s a complex issue and not one that can be dealt with in a few lines. Hence, we’re considering a book, tentatively titled “In the Shadow of the Cross.”

The Legacy

“I would love to see him as well known one day as Eva Cassidy or Kate Wolf. He deserves for people to know who he was.” -Sally Davis

The comparison of Nathan’s life to that of Eva Cassidy echoes many similarities: each was on the brink of something big when tragedy took them away; each embodied the heart and soul of music.

Eva achieved her greatest success posthumously. Her beautiful voice has become known the world over and, thanks to the love and undying efforts of her fans, her music continues to live on to this day.

It is his friends’ and fans’ hope and intent that the same will happen with Nathan’s music. His voice demands to be heard and appreciated worldwide by an audience not yet familiar with his brilliance. Nathan leaves behind a catalog of music - some unfinished - that is destined to keep his songs - his spirit - strong and alive.

Annette Warner: If you died tomorrow…what would you want people to remember about you 10 years from now when all the details about Nathan are fuzzy?

Nathan: I’d want people to remember that I had a damn good time living. I’d want people to remember me for helping other artists I knew that I believed in. I’d want them to remember all the crazy shit I did.

(Full interview: Diggin’ on Some Nathan Davis - Live)

So you go your way, brother, and I’ll go mine
Until we meet each other on the other side
Gonna take the long way home
Cause man, I had a damn good time -Nathan Davis, The Long Way Home

Several tribute songs have been written for and about Nathan. A mutual friend of Nathan’s and mine - Jeremy Gilchrist - wrote the following, entitled: The Devil Can’t Fly, featuring John Henry Trinko, and Doug Kwartler.

In his memory, a music festival is scheduled for June, 2007 to celebrate his life and his music. Proceeds from the festival will benefit his daughter, Cassidy’s, educational fund. For more information, visit his website at NathanDavis.com.

“Death cannot kill what never dies
and as long as I can hear
your music keeps you alive.” -Jessica C. Mashburn

In closing, I would like to thank Nathan for finding me and letting me be a part of his world. I feel cheated in the sense that the time was too brief; yet I am fortunate to have been introduced to such an amazing talent. And, Nathan - while you may have lost your inner battle, you’ve carved your legacy through the gut-wrenching lyrics - personified - and soulful musical mastery. And that will continue to be my consolation prize. For as you said, in your own words:

“…I got something burning in me, something this old world can’t take away,
I’ll be playing long after I’m gone, Lord I’ll be singing from my grave.”
-Nathan Davis, Carolina Sky

Help keep the music alive. For more information, visit Nathan’s website: NathanDavis.com, or his MySpace.

Footnote

In Nathan’s own words … an unfinished life.

“People look at me and they see my past. As a result, I tend to walk the road I’m expected to walk. The things that other inadvertently weigh down my reputation with aren’t necessarily the things I focus my eyes on, just the things I wish I’d be, the stye [sic] in the eye of the beholder, if you will. It would make sense for me to attempt to adapt, blend in more with what’s around me, become what I’m not, but that isn’t what I do. I do everything I can to betray that perception. Every day I wake from sleep and do what’s not expected, say what’s not… (unfinished)”
- Nathan Davis (found on his computer desktop)

Update:

If you want to help promote Nathan and his music, there’s a number of ways you can help: 1) create awareness of his life, his passion, and his music through links to articles, websites, and/or webrings; 2) buy his music, buy extras and give them away to friends as gifts; 3) join in at Nathan’s music festival this summer, or 4) create and/or join a Street Team in your area - build up the fanbase.

For more ideas or to join in the effort, visit NathanDavis.com.