All songs written/ produced/ played by dilly dilly unless otherwise noted!
dilly dilly
dilly covering MJ's Man In The Mirror
dilly dilly is Erin Olivia Davidson, a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and songwriter from Portland, Maine. Erin gained a love for music in 1992 at the ripe, young age of fourteen when her sister gave her the first guitar she would ever play. The guitar once belonged to their mother. Erin quickly began to learn how to play with help from chord books and guitar tabs on the internet and within the year she was able to at least strum a g-chord.
In 1993, she and her high school chums started the band Choda, and Erin soon took up playing the bass. The band went through some changes and evolved into the live project known as Red Light City. After six years the band ran into troubles, and Erin took her heart and bass guitar and wandered the streets of Portland pondering her next move. Ok, well, she was just walking home, but you understand.
In the winter of 1999, Chriss Sutherland from the band Cerberus Shoal heard Erin was sans band. After conversing with his band mates, Chriss called Erin to see if she would like to “come hang out and maybe play music.” Much obliged, Erin went to their house. They all got along quite nicely and everyone agreed to give it a go as the new line-up of Cerberus Shoal.
Throughout Erin’s time with Cerberus Shoal, the band was constantly experimenting with different instruments and styles of music. Erin quickly learned and began playing multiple instruments such as the musical saw, toy keyboards, toy accordion, trumpet, electric guitar, banjo, bouzouki, various percussion instruments such as drums, tympani, marimba and whatever other random toy and real instruments she could get her hands on and make sound with.
Cerberus Shoal took an abrupt hiatus in the winter of 2005 after her 13th tour with the band – during which Erin purchased her first ukulele. Alone again, Erin was left to wander with her heart set on doing something she had always wanted to do: DANCE! No, wait, embark on a solo project…and the ukulele she bought was, in her mind, an instrument that further motivated this idea.
Erin recorded her first solo EP, akidleadivy, under the guise of dilly dilly and soon hit the road for her first solo tour. She continued to do musical projects abound, solo and collaborating with other artists.
Throughout the years, Erin has worked with many artists in many forms. She has recorded instruments and vocals on songs with artists and bands, made guest appearances at live shows, collaborated on and co-written songs, joined side project bands and released split releases with artists such as Sontiago, Moshe, Bullyclub, Sun City Girls, Guapo, The Magic Carpathians, Herman Dune, Radar Tradar, Soft-ex, Filkoe 176, Seekonk and An Evening With.
Most recently, Erin has finished a two-month tour in the backing band for Sage Francis with Alias and Tom Inhaler with Buddy Wakefield, Alias and Buck 65 as support.
After this tour, Erin settled down to focus and has now finished writing, arranging and recording her first large production album, 'of art and intention'. The album involves all of the previous instruments mentioned and includes the use of the MPC, or Midi Processing Center, which uses drum breaks and samples that are chopped up and sequenced as a basis for the album’s songs.
She has also been focusing on remixing other artist material. One notable occasion of this was a remix contest for the Dan Le Sac vs. Scoobius Pip ( Strange Famous Records - Sage Francis) song 'First Time we Met Musik'. Erin took home the winning prize for her composition.
In the very near future, Erin plans on touring Europe and the United States to promote the release of her new album.
Happy listening…
check out dilly dilly and Micah Blue Smaldone live at SPACE Gallery in Portland, ME:
