Benjy Davis Project
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Benjy Davis Project

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"Southern Rock Band Giving Rest Of Nation A Taste Of Louisiana Talent"

By JOHN WIRT jwirt@theadvocate.com Entertainment writer

BENJY DAVIS PROJECT/ RETROSPECT Nov. 29

Varsity Theatre

Last May at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, Baton Rouge's Benjy Davis Project played the fest's largest stage, the same venue that would later be host to recording star John Mayer.

After the group's set, something like Beatlemania erupted at the Virgin Megastore CD tent. Perhaps 100 excited teen girls lined up for autographs from the Benjy Davis Project. And the group's CD sold out, making it one of Jazz Fest's Top 25 discs.

That was crazy," the 19-year-old Davis said this week. "It's something none of us had experienced before," band member Brett Bolden said. "We kind of didn't really know how to handle it."

"I just signed stuff," Davis said. "We're all still a little confused about it, but screamers are always good."

Screaming happens at all-ages Benjy Davis Project shows and festivals where the group's younger fans can hear it, such as Baton Rouge's FestForAll.

The Benjy Davis Project, a talented local band whose ages range from 19 to 22, spent a good part of this year performing beyond its strongholds in Baton Rouge and New Orleans. The group has a following among Tulane and Loyola students in the latter city and Tipitina's, the long-running music club, has become sort of a second home to the band. Four of its eight New Orleans appearances this year were at Tip's.

Last February, the Benjy Davis Project played five Midwestern dates with seasoned Louisiana singer-accordion player Buckwheat Zydeco, including the House of Blues in Chicago. The group also made two January appearances at the Knitting Factory in New York City and played a string of other East Coast and Midwestern dates in February and March. The Project has performed in 24 states.

"We'll get busy for a while," Bolden said, "have some down time and then get busy again."

"It's fun," Davis said of touring. "It has its up and downs, but it's worth it." Even so, things get a little nuts on the road. "Occasionally," Davis said, "Jon (guitarist Jonathan Lawhun) will throw me on the ground or something. I pull his strings. We've had some bouts, but it's all in good fun."

Midwesterners particularly seem fond of the boys from Baton Rouge. "They have a fascination with south Louisiana culture," Davis said. "They just want to be in New Orleans for a night, I guess."

Touring Northern states was an eye-opening experience."

It gets really cold," Davis said. "Vermont was ridiculous. Burlington was awesome but I took a shower and I dried my hair and it was still kind of wet when I walked out and not 10 feet out of the door I went to scratch my head and my whole head of hair was frozen solid."

"I think it was like 20 degrees below freezing," Bolden concurred.

Driving on Northern roadways during the coldest months of the year was another matter.

"Every hundred yards there'd be an overturned 18-wheeler," Davis said. "So we were just kind of freaked out in that van."

"In the middle of Iowa," Bolden remembered, "you could see just dark in the distance and all of a sudden it was 70-mph winds and things were blowing by.

"The latter incident happened during the group's stint with Buckwheat Zydeco.

"He's a really nice guy and gives you good advice," Davis said. "He just said, 'Keep playing. Y'all got it.'

Nonetheless, sharing stages with Buckwheat Zydeco and other acts around the country spurred the Benjy Davis Project to sharpen their chops.

"We played with these incredible bands," Davis recalled. "We were like, 'We need to step it up.' Since then we've been working a lot harder to improve our live show. It's really paid off. It gets better and better every time."
- The Advocate


"Where Y'At Jazz Fest Preview"

Simply put, the guys of the Benjy Davis Project just want to have fun and try to make their audiences feel the same way. Their goal is evident when you listen to their music, especially at a live venue. The night I saw the Baton Rouge based band at Tip's, they were playing a sold out crowd. The easygoing rapport between the group and the crowd was awe-inspiring. At no time during their performance did they have to ask for audience participation, largely due to the sing-along-songs "Do It With The Lights On," "Louisiana Saturday Night," and the exceedingly popular "New Orleans." That night, their mission was accomplished.

The self-described "multi-faceted" "southern rock" group has been working together professionally for about six years. The genesis of the Project can be traced back to an agreement between lead vocalist and acoustic guitarist Benjy Davis and drummer Mic Capdevielle. According to Davis, the two were performing in coffee shots and "pretty quickly decided that we needed to beef it up." Soon after that, they invited childhood friends Michael Galasso, who sings and plays the keyboard, and Anthony Rushing, who plays the violin, to join them. Galasso introduced his roommate Brett Bolden to the fledgling band, and he became the group's bass player. The last person needed to complete the Project was lead electric guitarist Jonathan Lawhun. He came to the group via an arbitrary ad posted in a music shop. As their friendships grew, their music flourished.

Those friendships were tested in 2005 after the group's manager requested that they live together in an old farmhouse located in the isolated town of Angie, Louisiana. Hi goal was to get the guys away from all distractions so that they could put all energies into a new record. While there, they produced The Angie House, which included the cleverly written love song "Wait," the seductively explosive "Mighty Arenal" and the hauntingly beautiful "Somebody Else," which turned out to be my favorite.

I know from personal experience that living with friends can be agonizing at times. Davis diplomatically says while living "with six people, it can get real political." Jokingly he says that problems were handled "like the 'Amazing Race' or any other show...We hav alliances. We vote majorities. We try and manipulate the situations to favor what we want." Truthfully, the communal experience obviously boosted the group's creativity and helped each gain a deeper musical understanding of the other. When asked if he would ever do it again, Davis replied, "Absolutely."

The Benjy Davis Project performs as if they enjoy life and can appreciate its ups and downs. The group earns love from the crowds because of their exceptional vocals, rockin' riffs, lyrics that both young and old can relate to and congenial stage presence. Although I spent the most time with sweetie-pie Davis on the night of the show, the rest of the band greeted me without an ounce of affectation. I just hope that they retain their unassuming attitudes and stay as in love with the music as I think they will. - Danyiell Oviedo


"Top CD's of 2006"

Benjy Davis Project
The Angie House

On its second CD of instantly addictive guitar pop, the young Baton Rouge sextet builds on the promise of its 2002 debut. Acoustic guitars laced with piano and violin dominate, but the band - keyboardist Michael Galasso, violinist Anthony Rushing, guitarist Jonathan Lawhun, bassist Brett Bolden and drummer Mic Capdevielle - also hits harder. Lawhun peels off a muscular electric guitar solo to open the acoustic-free "She Ain't Got Love:; the jagged guitars of "Crimson Glow" echo U2's "Bullet the Blue Sky." Singer and primary songwriter Benjy Davis channels the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Anthony Kiedis in "Blame It on the Devil," Dave Matthews in "Everybody" and Counting Crows' Adam Duritz in "Purgatoria." And his "Wait" ranks as last year's best, most romantic song about reincarnation. - Keith Spera


"Sacramento Bee Review"

The Angie House
3 1/2 stars

You may not have heard of the Benjy Davis Project - yet - but if there's any justice, you will. This group of Baton Rouge-based young (early 20s) singers, songwriters and musicians makes some of the tastiest pop going. Rock, blues and country elements are at play here, and the antecedents are the expected Southern influences, Lynyrd Skynyrd, James Taylor, Dave Matthews band, REM. But the end product is one of originality and remarkable maturity. The Benjy Davis Project was formed in 2001 and was the surprise hit of the 2003 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. This is their first album since then. The material is arresting, right from the get-go. "Wait," which opens the album, begins: "She was born in April 1783 ..." and then chronicles a love that spans generations. Other songs - some funky, some classically structured - tackle such subjects as romantic breakups ("Blame It on the Devil"), life on the road (the fine "214") and deceit ("She Ain't Got Love"). (That last song features perhaps the final recorded studio performance of Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, who plays electric guitar on the track. Brown died Sept. 10 at age 81.) The album's accompaniment ranges from elegant piano and acoustic guitar to raging electric guitar, soulful horns and sophisticated strings. If the package only included a lyrics sheet so you could better appreciate the skillful use of language, "The Angie House" would be pretty much perfect. - Jim Carnes


"Benjy Davis Project takes chances and wins with new album"

It takes a special kind of audacity for a young band to make a disc that's aggressively interesting in an era when one poorly received release can mean commercial purgatory.

So give Baton Rouge, LA.'s, Benjy Davis Project major props for reaching far beyond formulaic songwriting for something special. The young band's third release, named after the small town of Angie, LA., is a finely honed valentine to pop craftsmanship.

A six-piece group that features a piano front and center in the arrangements, the band is as adept at big, rocking Coldplay-like anthems as it is finely wrought finger-picked ballads. Tracks like the purposeful opener "Wait"; the funny, stop-start "Do It With The Lights On," and "Soul On Fire" have the sound of a far more experienced band.

The Project's about as Southern-sounding as the Dave Matthews Band, another group from the South that takes a crafty pop approach, so don't expect a heavy blues influence in the Allman Brothers mode. But "The Angie House" offers up melodies that come wrapped in Spanish moss, and the end result is a warm effort that's a reflection of a band that has a passel of good albums still to come. - Toledo Blade - Rod Lockwood


"John Shelton Ivany Review"

I had never heard of the Benjy Davis Project before I listened to this album. To my most pleasant surprise, this album is completely amazing. "The Angie House" is Ben Harper crossed with Dave Matthews crossed with Counting Crows with BDP's own southern-sixties-pop tying it all together. They play harmoniously while still maintaining an aura of spontaneity. Davis' musical orchestration is so powerful and soulful that it radiates from you hours after you have listened to it. The band's southern roots show themselves on "Everybody" with strong soulful vocals, solid piano and a tasteful amount of horns.

Lets be blunt ... The Benjy Davis Project is the best thing to be released within the last year. The band is full of drive that translates well in their studio recordings. "The Angie House" is a masterpiece full of vibrant music and personality. - The Angie House


"225 - Baton Rouge"

Wed., January 31, 2007

Benjy Davis, the 23-year old titular songwriter for acoustic southern rockers The Benjy Davis Project, sits down with 225 to share the influences and experiences that have helped shape the music he makes. The band will begin work on its third full-length album this summer. bdpmusic.com

Growing up both of your parents were attorneys. And you also bounced around to a lot of different high schools. --- Yeah, having to lawyers in the house wasn't the most fun part of growing up. Dinner was more of a business conversation. They were busy, obviously. I had a rough patch in high school. I went to Episcopal, Redemptorist, Tara, St. Stanislaus and U-High.

How did your rebellious streak and your parents' strict expectations affect your writing? --- That put a huge gap between me and my parents. I was more defensive than anything else, and I would write songs because they can't get mad at me for writing a song. I can say what I want. My mom would say, "Okay, you can go out tonight, but don't get into trouble." And of course, I always would, then I'd write a song about it. I would play it for them and see their faces. It was a look of general concern that said, "What a weird way to admit you lied to us."

You stuttered as a kid. How did this affect you and your music? --- I had a lot of trouble with Ws and Ks. Ws were bad because it was hard to even raise my hand in class to ask a question. I started singing because I noticed when I sang I did not stutter. So in conversation I would sing the first word, then say the rest, and that seemed to work. One day at my aunt's house, my mom somehow convinced me to play an original song on piano for the first time. That sticks out in my mind because even though I couldn't speak to anyone there, I was able to sing my song. That was good. It felt more comfortable than talking.

So you took lessons? --- My brother Amos and I were in piano lessons from about 8 years old. And one day I said I didn't want to do that anymore. I told my mom I wanted to play the flute instead. My brother said, "You're not playing flute! You can play guitar if you want."

And that led to writing acoustic songs. --- I started off wanting to write songs for other people, so I wouldn't have to deal with performing.

As a teenager, who would you have picked to sing one of your songs? --- Jerry Cantrell [Alice In Chains] or Daniel Johns [Silverchair]. Daniel Johns is just a little older than me, and I thought if he can di it, so can I.

Ever bought a guitar because a famous musician had the same kind? --- Yea, I bought a black Ibanez like Daniel Johns played.

What movies did you like as a kid? --- I really liked The Man From Snowy River. The soundtrack is great. I still find myself every now and then playing parts of it on guitar. The Peanut Butter Solution was another one. That scared the sh-t out of me. I don't remember why. I want to watch it again.

Your band's music aims for a rootsy, throwback feel. What's the most recent new album you bought? --- The Fall Out Boy album From Under The Cork Tree.

What music did your parents listen to when you were a kid? --- My dad was all Motown. My mom was all Beatles. But we didn't listen to much Beatles growing up because my dad was in charge of the radio. We got a little bit of everything - Motown, Beach Boys.

When did you first seek out music on your own? --- When I was 8, I got Michael Jackson's Bad on cassette. That changed my life.

Do you remember some of those early grade school conversations when you and your friends first started discussing music? --- Yeah, I do. I was a closet Michael Jackson fan. I would deny it if people asked me. They would have laughed if they'd known I danced alone to Michael Jackson. From there I went to Aerosmith and bought Rock In A Hard Place. That was my first CD. For a while it was Michael Jackson versus rock 'n' roll. Rock 'n' roll won out. - Jeff Roedel


"Making national name is Davis' next 'project'"

By JOHN WIRT jwirt@theadvocate.com Entertainment writer
1/20/06

In the next few months, Baton Rouge's Benjy Davis Project will perform in the Louisiana cities of New Orleans, Lafayette, and Shreveport, plus Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee and Texas. The above dates follow the Southern rock and pop band's recent trip to Colorado.

Intense touring is part of the band's plan to make itself a national name. Meanwhile, The Benjy Davis Project attracts large audiences at home, filling venues such as the Varsity Theatre near LSU. The group olays another hometown show tonight at SoGo Live.

"I think 2006 is gonna be a big year," Davis, the group's 22 year old singer-songwriter, said last week.

"Our pockets might not be bulging right now," vilin and mandolin player Anthony Rushing said, "but what we're doing feels right. Our show is getting better and the responses from people are positive."

Jim Bateman, the band's manager, is a music-business veteran who managed the late Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown for 29 years. In the 1970s, Bateman helped Brown, who was then better known in Europe, revive his career in the United States. Now the Bogalusa based manager is confident that he can help the Benjy Davis Project achieve national fame.

"With Gate," Bateman said, "it was sort of getting his career back on track. He was already a legend, but kind of an undiscovered one. Benjy and the band started from zero, but with a lot of talent. It's just a matter of time with them. We're trying to make the decisions that'll get them to the next plateau."

Bateman happened to hear the Benjy Davis Project while the group was recording its first CD, 2002's More Than Local.

"It was something really unique and fresh," he said. "It was like hearing Buffalo Springfield, those kind of groups, for the first time. And I thought Benjy's songwriting was brilliant. He's writing about everyday experiences, things that not only the young can relate to but the older audiences, too. I have a gut feeling that they have what it takes to go as far as they want to go."

Last fall, Hurricane Katrina, the storm that disrupted the lives of millions of Gulf Coast residents, was something of a speed bump for the Benjy Davis Project, too. Katrina hit just weeks before the release of the group's latest CD, The Angie House. The group lost important gigs in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast. A show in South Carolina, too, was canceled because finding gasoline to make the trip was impossible.

The Baton Rouge band's troubles, however, were nothing compared to those of musician friends in New Orleans. Many of them lost homes and instruments.

"It's hard to complain," Rushing said, "when everything else is so much worse."

In the tragic days after Katrina, the band and Bateman, lost a friend. The chronically ill Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown died shortly after his family evacuated him from his doomed home in Slidell. (Brown is a guest artist on The Angie House and More Than Local CDs).

"It was hard for all of us," Davis said. "I know it hit Jim the hardest, obviously. It was tough."

Brown, a trouper who insisted upon performing despite his illness, isn't the only barnstorming Louisiana legend who's crossed paths with the Benjy Davis Project. Last year the band toured with zydeco star Buckwheat Zydeco.

"He appreciated us and we appreciated him," Davis said. "He talked to us about showmanship a lot, how to get a crowd going. He'd say, "You see all those people standing out there? Tell them to come up here.'"

"Our first inclination," Rushing said, "is to just play music and have people like us for our songs. But Buckwheat taught us that it's important to get people involved. We're working on that."

Davis admitted that extroverted stage presence doesn't come naturally to him.

"But it's more fun when you can communicate with your audience and feed off each other," he said.

Davis, Rushing, keyboardist Michael Galasso, guitarist Jonathan Lawhun, bassist Brett Bolden and drummer Mic Capdevielle formed the Benjy Davis Project in 2001. The group has continued ever since with the same membership.

"Mutual respect and passion," Davis said of the group's longevity. "Everybody's got the same goal in mind."

So maybe, as the band's manager believes, it is simply a matter of time before the Benjy Davis Project catches the elusive break that propels them to national fame.

"You never known where the breaks are gonna come," Bateman said. "You can make gradual steps, but usually there's an event that jumps a group to another plateau. It could be a song in a movie. It could be a deal with a major label to distribute their records more widely. It could be joining a tour as an opening band for a major act. We're just trying to be ready when that opportunity arises." - The Advocate


Discography

2007 - Dust - Real Records
2005 - The Angie House - Real Records
2004 - The Practice Sessions - Real Records
2002 - More Than Local - Real Records
(numerous downloadable songs available)
*2003 - Johnny's Blues (A Tribute to Johnny Cash) - features several BDP members backing Grammy
Award Winner Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown.
2003 & 2004 - Featured on Louisiana Arts Council CD(s).

Photos

Bio

In the wide world of American music, certain bands have a way of building an exciting life for themselves away from the glare of national attention. Much of that is because of the relationship the group has with its fans. It usually starts in small clubs or even backyards in their hometown, then spreads to nearby cities, neighboring states and soon across entire regions, until the band finally comes into its own as a national presence.
The Benjy Davis Project is poised to take on that presence. They’ve spent the past six years building fan strongholds around the U.S., releasing three albums that capture their unique force. Davis’s songs speak to the ability of music to move an audience, as seen in countless nights of touring and performing. There comes a point in a breakthrough band’s career where they finally turn that corner into greatness. With the release September 18th on Real Records of the Benjy Davis Project’s new album, Dust, this Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based band now moves into that moment.
“I want to reach people and hopefully touch them in some way.” That’s how Benjy Davis describes his mission, and music is his medium. It’s always been that way for him, since he was a young teenager in Louisiana, listening to everything on the radio, taking it all in until it would be his time to step up and become an artist. He formed the Benjy Davis Project in 2001, which began as a simple folk-rock duo but soon grew into one of the most popular bands in Baton Rouge. Mic Capdevielle (drums) was the other part of the duo with Benjy Davis in the beginning, and said “when Benjy and I got this ball rolling, I could tell that this ball would never stop. Our relationship goes further than just musically and that’s what makes this ball work."
Eventually expanding into a six-piece group, the Project has recorded three albums prior to Dust, each a big leap from the one before, and played across the country as headliners and support act on shows with John Mayer, Better Than Ezra, North Mississippi All-Stars and others, as well as events like the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. All this experience has brought them to that place where they can become the next band to take their Southern-based sound to a new level of national popularity.
The new album was produced by David Z., whose talents have helped ensure the transformation of such artists as Prince, Fine Young Cannibals, Jonny Lang, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Big Head Todd & the Monsters from cutting edge to mainstream artists. David Z summed up his experience working with the group this way. “I have striven to find artistic and musical originality my whole career and discovered it was very rare. In a world of imitators and posers, the Benjy Davis Project was a lightning bolt of reality to me. We ran through every emotion working on this recording, and I believe it shows in the music. Benjy is a true American poet and the band are real artists.”
Dust is the culmination of all the best creative parts from the band’s past, in a sound and style that proves they’re totally in the moment. The Benjy Davis Project has made an album that highlights all their many strengths. From the emotional heights of “The Rain” and “Whose God?” to heartfelt romantic classics like “I Love You” and “Green and Blue,” the band sounds like they were in the right place at the right time with the perfect producer.
There is such a sound of emotional freedom on the album, it’s obvious the band has truly found themselves. The musical backdrop to each song frames Davis’s vocals in a way that brings out his most soulful expression. Like most great musicians, there is a point in their playing when natural abilities take over; it’s almost like an underwritten code that each member of the band now knows, and the way they interact with each other during the entire album signals that as a group, they’ve fully arrived.
Michael Galasso (harmonica, keyboards, vocals) describes the music of the Benjy Davis Project as “music with a real sense of where it came from. We aren't discovering new musical frontiers, but we are delivering honest and real music that people of all ages and tastes can relate to. People like us for the same reason they like music from the sixties and seventies. There is no faking it. There is no manipulation. It is straight forward and honest, but it is also relevant.” There are so many moments of revelation on Dust, it’s clear that Benjy Davis and the band have achieved a defining moment in their career. The idea of permanence and heritage has always been at the heart of the Benjy Davis Project. Each member understands the proud tradition of Southern-influenced music, and has a lot to continue and uphold.
In the South, music is seen as a social glue that brings whole communities together, something listeners of all types can share as they experience it. Whether it’s soul, rock, country, jazz, zydeco o