“Brewgrass” came out in March, is available on streaming services around the world and has been getting good airplay on WNCW's “Local Color.”
"I'm thrilled with how this album turned out," Brew says. “It's a little more gritty than my first few. I didn't set out to make it. I was just getting down some demos for a record exec in Nashville who'd asked me if I had any bluegrass songs. I said ‘Oh sure, I’ve got lots of 'um.' And got to writing," he laughs.
Davis recorded the tracks at Nick's home studio. When they both liked how the songs were going they decided to keep rolling with it. A month or two later, they had a full blown “Brewgrass” album.
And what is Brewgrass? Davis grins and says, “Is it a cop out to say ‘it's just the music I make'? I just thought it was a funny name. I'm a dad of an 11 and 7 year old so I don't shy away from dad jokes. When you get down to it, ‘Brewgrass’ is just my version of that intersection of Americana and Bluegrass music that my music heroes have been making for years- Darrell Scott, Gillian Welch, Tim O'Brien, Steve Earle's The Mountain. I love it all, and you emulate what you love."
Moods on the album range from the defiant #MeToo movement anthem “Put it Back Together” to edgy moonshine numbers like “Wagon Load” and “White Dog” to tender love songs like “Kerry” and “She was a Rose Once.”
There's also a love song of a different variety, “Darlin' Caroline” which Davis wrote to North Carolina, the state he's called home for over 20 years now. “A big reason why I settled in Asheville is because I fell in love with the music. I heard Doc Watson at Merlefest in 1997, got a job at Sugar Hill Records in Durham a few years later, and there was no going back.”
Over the years, Davis has garnered praise from Grammy-winning artists, radio personalities, and Music Row royalty. He has a new fan in Grand Ol' Opry member Pam Tillis who says, “'Darlin’ Caroline' is a winsome, endearingly earnest account of the many reasons Brew fell heart over hills for the state he and his family now call home."
Be sure to give “Brewgrass” a listen and request it on your local bluegrass radio station.