09/18/2012
Our Music Caleb Davis About Caleb Davis:
Sounds like: To the untrained listener, his music could be considered pop/rock, but a critical ear will pick up on his heavy jazz, R&B and gospel influences. “You’re going to hear me and an original song that consists of all of those things together,” he said.
Releases: His self-titled CD, his first release, has 13 tracks and will be available at a CD release party taking place at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 12, at the Southfork Room next door to Center Street Tavern, 115 Center St., Cramerton. A 9:30 p.m. show is also planned if the first show is full.
Influences: He grew up on Led Zeppelin and Jeff Beck; jazz legends George Benson, David Gilmore, Thelonious Monk and Wayne Shorter are also influences. Outside of music, Davis considers the Rev. Jeff Long of Parkwood Baptist in Gastonia, which he attends, to be a teacher. “He provides me with a clear representation of what it means to know Christ and that’s a huge inspiration to me when I write,” he said.
See him live: His regular haunts include Center Street Tavern, Jax Backstreet Tavern in Belmont and Freeman’s Pub in Gastonia locally, as well as Mortimer’s Pub at the Epicentre in Charlotte and Ed’s Tavern in Charlotte’s Dilworth neighborhood. For upcoming performance dates, follow him on Facebook.
Sample the music: His website, www.calebdavismusic.com, is expected to be up soon and will feature some of his music.
When Caleb Davis graduated from the Berklee College of Music in Boston in 2006, he headed to Nashville to get his start in the music business, regularly working as a side man for Tennessee bands.
“I was what people refer to as a hired gun,” said Davis, who grew up in Gastonia and graduated from Ashbrook High School in 2003.
But he knew he’d never be satisfied backing up other musicians. So when he was ready to do his own thing, he and his wife, Jaclyn, decided to move to his hometown.
“Most people probably don’t understand that,” said Davis, 26. “This is a less saturated area. People are hungrier for music here than in Nashville, where everybody’s doing it.”
Since returning to Gastonia in the fall of 2009, Davis has worked hard to establish himself on the local music scene, playing between 250 to 300 dates last year and keeping the same pace this year.
“The more you play out the more people know who you are,” he said. “My wife stayed home and raised our baby — we’re about to have another one — so I’ve had to be the sole provider here. That means staying out more and I think that helps.”
Between family, his constant bookings and the private music lessons he teaches, Davis had to squeeze in time to complete his self-titled CD. It’s been a work in progress ever since he moved back home, he said.
While the recording process took time — one day a week for eight months to keep from interrupting his schedule — songwriting came easy, he said. He already had lots of ideas stored up in his head. His faith served as the main inspiration behind his songs, though you wouldn’t necessarily listen to them and call them Christian songs.
“There’s so much there that you can write about and you can do it from a world point-of-view,” he said. “You don’t have to spell everything out.”
