LAYING THE GROUNDWORK: Roy Davis and the Dregs. |
| Deadweight | Released by Roy Davis and the Dregs | April 11 | at the Press Room, in Portsmouth | with Zach Tremblay | April 12 | at the Asylum, in Portland | with All the Real Girls + Girls Guns & Glory + Ezra Furman & the Harpoons |
Roy Davis has made a number of good choices since the release of his promising debut disc, Grey Town, in early 2007. Chief among them, he’s formed a band, turning local veterans Kerry Ryan and Bernie Nye into Roy Davis and the Dregs. And if that weren’t good enough, he’s chosen to work with local alt-country legend (sorry, that kind of makes him sound old, but he’s doing it for 15 years now, with Say ZuZu and solo) Jon Nolan on his newest release, Deadweight. Best of all, he took his time with it and has been laying groundwork for a knock-down, drag-out release show at the Asylum this Saturday that only a fool would miss.All of these good choices come to bear on the much-improved sophomore disc. Davis has found his range as a singer, cultivating his alt-country accent and knowing his limits, and broadened his sound, getting both more raucous and more stripped-down at various times. While there is still much familiar here — shades of Wilco, Uncle Tupelo, Ryan Adams, even Waylon Jennings — Davis spreads his influences around enough that he’s made an album any alt-country fan can comfortably settle into, but doesn’t feel like a knock-off.
I’m not sure there’s a tune as good as “We’ll Always Be” from his debut disc, which still gets a spot in a playlist or two, but the 12 new songs are consistently better as a whole. The disc definitely gets out of the gate well, with a countrified electric-guitar riff paired with a banjo and drums kicking out a three-note backbone I believe is called a "ruff" to open “Please Go Home,” then rolls into this great lead couplet: “Doing 65 in a speed limit 20, with my back against the wall/It’s alright honey, I’d be so fucking rich if lies were money, but instead I got a car.” Davis’s lyrics often have this odd nonsensical cant to them, but when you tease them out, like the Mulder and Scully reference that comes later in this tune, they usually make sense in an X-Files sort of way.
That was Charlie Rose on the banjo, and Davis does well with a number of other guests. Travis Kline’s Wurlitzer warms up the title track, a juxtaposition with the coldness of the chorus, “cuz after all, you’re still my/Deadweight.” Zach Jones rips a great solo after the second chorus of “Till the Night Is Gone,” aping the enthusiasm of Davis’s hey, hey, hey-ey-eys. And Jon Nolan supplies guitars, backing vocals, even “Monster Noises” on a number of tracks here.
But Elsa Cross, who’s paired with just Davis and a guitar on the delicate duet “Lie Like the Snow Falls” probably makes the biggest impression. Similar to some of Conor Oberst’s takes with Emmylou Harris on his “country” album, I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning, “Snow Falls” features Cross only in the chorus — ”Don’t cry when your glass is full/Just lie like the snow falls/Hell is the little things/Love will dance again” — but her ethereal tone dances with Davis’s twang so nicely it should raise a goose bump or two is you can sympathize with a line like “Loves turn to lust/Turns to love turns to dust/Turns to all he can bear.”
Nye and Ryan do their parts, too. Driving barnstormers like “Get What’s Coming” equally well as keeping the syrupy country of the lap-steel-laden “Further + Further” in check. Ryan even supplies trombone on the wonderful build-up that is “Prison Guard.”
Davis remains the star here, though, and he pretty much takes over the album’s finish. “Hardly Holdin’ On” is a tongue-in-cheek foot-stomper, not unlike what I heard on the Streaking Healys disc a few weeks back, and Davis here shows off his wit: “First thing I do in Ecuador is ask to use the ban/cuz I heard that they flush backward and change is all I want.” At 2:14 it gets in and out succinctly. Then “Come Around” features nothing but Davis and his guitar, so quite at times you focus on nothing but the varying distance of the vocals from the microphone. It blends prettily, with a shuffle from Ryan, into the closing “Just One Day,” where Davis picks out a piano melody he can follow on his guitar, a haunting line that feels like you’re being dragged against your will into the future.
As the disc closes with what sounds like wind whipping across a dusty plain, you can’t help but feel the cowboy boots on your feet and the hot sun on that part of your face not covered by your hat. Just one more good decision.
On the Web
www.roydavismusic.com
Sam Pfeifle can be reached at sam_pfeifle@yahoo.com.
