Benjy Davis Project’s new album “Lost Souls Like Us” takes its title from a text message, which makes sense when you consider that each track on the album serves the same purpose: each song tells a unique and direct story. The songs are meant to be enjoyed in and of themselves, and will stand the test of popular “shuffle” listening habits
“Lost Souls Like Us,” recorded at Rivergate Studios in Hendersonville, TN, is packed with moments, both lyrical and musical, that define the band: Davis’ intensely-personal lyrics coupled with music that comfortably serves the needs of the story Davis is telling. Benjy Davis Project’s Southern roots (they hail from Baton Rouge, LA) are on display in gorgeous down-home rhythms and slide guitar work. “I draw a lot from my surroundings and the Southern atmosphere and attitude,” Davis says. “The music comes from my daily experiences and my way of life.” The record also shows a natural progression and the maturity that comes from a band on their fourth studio album
Co-produced by Bobby Capps (.38 Special) and Jason Spiewak (Ernie Halter, Pat McGee, Andrew Hoover), “Lost Souls Like Us” features the current band line-up of Benjy Davis and Mic Capdevielle, together since 2001 in Benjy Davis Project configurations that have varied in size from an acoustic duo all the way to a six-piece. In addition to Davis and Capdevielle, the album features a cast of seasoned studio musicians: Mark “Sparky” Matejka of Lynryd Skynyrd, Danny Chauncey of .38 Special and Jason “Slim” Gambill of Lady Antebellum all contributed guitar parts; Ethan Pilzer (Jewel, Big & Rich) played bass; Spiewak and Capps played piano and organ parts; Sara Jean Kelley sang background vocals. Says Capdevielle: “This is the most honest representation of the growth of us and where we want our music to be. The musicians who were on this album helped make that possible. Sparky, Slim or Ethan would put something down, and Benjy and I would look at each other and smile – it was so comfortable. Kind of made us laugh to think, ‘Holy crap – this is us?’ They helped us sound like I always thought it would in my head.”
The lead single “Stay With Me” is a dark-and-dusty, mandolin-driven stunner that “really kinda came out of nowhere” according to Davis, who delivers throughout the track – in his smoky tenor – lines like “She hates me more than ever / She loves me more than never.” “The song is about staying with someone in an ethereal way,” Davis explains. “Sort of like, ‘I want to know that you remember me and you think of me. I hope you carry me with you and vice versa.’”
The album opener “Mississippi” is a rambling yet driving love song for the state. “It’s our next door neighbor and the girl next door,” Davis says. “It’s got kind of a bittersweet thing to it. It’s the first thing we see when we leave, and it’s the last thing we see when we come home. There’s a lot of emotion involved with driving through it because we’re either leaving home or coming home.”
“Slow Wind,” an homage to the passing of time, family, and aging, is awash in gorgeous details – the smell of the crepe myrtles, the sun in the rearview mirror, the smell of his mom as she tucked him into bed when he was small – that all serve to propel the listener to inhabit the same place Davis sings about. “He’s writing something straight out of his heart,” Capdevielle says. “He’s not the kind of guy who’s really going to open up to you offstage. But somehow Benjy finds a way to say so much in his lyrics – he writes a lot of stuff that’s personal, stuff in his life that he allows to be broadcast through his music.”
Benjy Davis Project has thrilled college audiences all across the country, with party anthems like “Louisiana Saturday Night,” “Do It With The Lights On,” and “Cajun Crawfish Boil,” which Davis penned when he was 15 years old. The band has been criticized at times for this type of spirit, which Davis addresses on “Lost Souls Like Us” on the track “Get High.” Davis sings, “People say I only write about drinking and tying one on / I write songs about living and this is one of them songs!” Davis has a reputation for telling it like it is, an idea he develops well in the jangly “Bite My Tongue.” On this tune, Davis calls out everyone from the elderly to his teachers to New Orleans funk legends The Radiators
Benjy Davis Project has toured extensively in the South, including seven performances at New Orleans’ annual Jazz Fest, Voodoo Fest, and countless college performances, as well as jaunts with Sister Hazel, Robert Randolph, Buckwheat Zydeco, and many others. 2008 and 2009 saw them heading further afield on a touring circuit that now incorporates the entire country. Both Davis and Capdevielle are ready to take the new songs out on the road, to play them for fans. “We’re ready to just all-out play the songs off the new album,” says Capdevielle. “We’re so excited that we want to share it with everybody.” The band tours now as a four-piece.
“‘Lost Souls Like Us’ seems to be the culmination of it all,” Davis says. “The album has elements of growth and maturity, and I tried to balance that with how I sometimes feel stupid, and think, ‘Screw it all, let’s just hang out.’” The album speaks of the balance between responsibility and irresponsibility everybody feels as an adult. “I like to use albums to keep a timeline of my life. For each new album, I have to have a few more things happen to me that are good before I’m ready to put another notch in.” Davis’s life is well chronicled in the 12 songs on this new album. “Lost Souls Like Us” is in stores March 2, 2010.
