Dave Potts

With lyrics so pure and human, so natural and honest, $12.99 by Dave Potts will have you hanging onto every last word, waiting for the completion of the thought, like a moving, poetry puzzle that lives and breathes on its own. There is something so raw and unfiltered about his style that echoes the comfort and ease with delivery of country music. And while he's probably the most countrified not-necessarily-country singer/songwriter we've seen in awhile, everything about his music is accessible without being dumbed down or thinned out. His influences aren't surprising (David Wilcox, James Taylor, John Denver) but there is a definite reach beyond genre here, even while his music fits comfortably both within folk and country. That reach is one of unhindered, inspired musicality embodied within music that feels like it was always yearning to be written. - CDBaby.com

Honesty is the key to great music, and Dave Potts, with his refreshing, open-hearted songs, understands this well. On Days Like These, Potts explores the tiny battles and victories in the everyday. He explores his faith, his hometown and himself with an unabashed straightforwardness.
Potts’ songs are a mellow, sun-dappled blend of Gordon Lightfoot’s breezy folk and James Taylor’s intimate song craft. He’s a regular guy singing songs about regular folks. The glittering mandolin and nostalgic autumn imagery on “Ferris Wheel” make a listener long for the melancholic sweetness of October. In “Hamilton Road” and “His Front Row Seat”, Potts draws bittersweet portraits of the simple joys in his characters’ lives. On every song, whether joyous or sad, Potts’ overwhelming love of life comes through and fills the listener with peacefulness. - Performing Songwriter Magazine

"Every once in a while, I preview a CD that seems to get stuck in my CD player. By choice, mind you. I just have to lean back and soak it in. Dave Potts' latest CD, One Night In The South, is one of those discs. Speaking directly to my heart, Potts' music mixes life's crossroads with a personal spiritual journey that epitomizes the definition of a true singer/songwriter. His songs are often character sketches, straight out of black-and-white movies. My favorite has to be 'One Mississippi', a wonderfully touching song about the innocence of childhood love. It's adolescent nostalgia at its best."

December 2003 - Singer Magazine

What a pleasant surprise. When I slid this cd into my player, I had no idea that the lyrics and voice and acoustic guitar of this talented young man would have such a profound effect on me.
Potts begins with a contemporary Christian tune called "No Other Explanation," with poetic and introspective lyrics. He moves between positive songs of love for God (To Know You Then"), love for life ("On the Alabama Plains," "Hamilton Road"), and love for his wife ("Amanda Bramlett," "Only Once a Life"). Of the thirteen tunes here, there's not a single weak spot. Absolutely beautiful songs, song in a style that I can only compare to James Taylor crossed with Kevn Kinney. yes, I know that's an odd comparison, but if you are familiar with both artists, listen to Potts and tell me I am wrong.
This disc will gather no dust in my cd rack. I plan to play it anytime I need a spiritual lift.
-Michael Buffalo Smith - Gritz.net, the Southern Online Music Magazine

With his 11th album, ‘Days Like These’, Auburn’s own Dave Potts has created a quiet, nostalgic and revealing album of acoustic ballads that beautifully balances heart and soul, love and longing.
There’s nothing pretentious or melodramatic about ‘Potts simplistic approach to the everyday miracles of life.
Though not solely a religious record, ‘Days Like These’ through tracks like ‘Ordinary Life’, ‘No Other Explanation’ and ‘Only Once A Life’, does convey Potts’ personal spiritual quests and his discovery of inner peace.
‘Days Like These’ is an album of simple sincerity and its standout songs paint vivid landscapes of memory, hope and understanding - not the normal formula for pop superstardom. Potts is at the top of his game when singing about the mundane splendor of small-town life; those stolen moments we so often overlook.. It’s warm for the end of October, even for this town/A mist hangs in the autumn air, like it’s afraid to touch the ground Potts sings on the nostalgic ‘Ferris Wheel’.
Other stellar songs include the rousing ‘On The Alabama Plains’ and the heartfelt ‘Amanda Bramlett’.
Potts’ soothing voice and gentle guitar strumming easily bridges the gap between the spiritual and the secular, allowing the listener to experience the subtle changes without feeling betrayed or preached at.
‘Days Like These’ is a record for anyone who enjoys honest, quality songwriting.

-March 15, 2002 - Opelika/Auburn News

“Dave Potts couples well-crafted melodies with deeply-personal lyrics that move the audience, whether to smile at the clever phrases or self-effacing humor, or to hurt with the honest, naked pain of troubles past. Dave opens up his life with his music and lets us all walk through what he has known and felt. His understated and modest demeanor belies a big talent of voice, guitar playing and songwriting, all revealed in due time to everyone's delight.”
-Hank Weisman, Savannah Folk Society, Savannah GA
- Savannah Folk Music Society

"Owing more to David Wilcox and James Taylor than to Bob Dylan, South Side Diner is the best contemporary folk recording that I have heard in a very, very long time. Sweet, not sappy, all original songs are filled with great, manipulative lines that will tug at even the most jaded heart. Potts' voice is gentle and true, his accompanying musicians pleasantly restrained."

-March 1999 - Dirty Linen Magazine

DAVE POTTS MAKES WAVES IN LOCAL MUSIC SCENE

Local musician Dave Potts is turning heads across the country with his singer-songwriter style of music that taps into his love of God and nature while glorifying the small-town charm of Auburn.
Learning how to play guitar at age 5, Potts has been making music for most of his 27 years. The singer-songwriter began writing his own songs in ninth grade and dedicated much of his time in high school to making music. By the time he graduated high school, he had made two records.
"It was kind of my thing to be," Potts said.
Growing up in Colorado, Potts said he was influenced by the music of John Denver and David Wilcox and inspired by the beauty in nature. Potts continues to use nature as an inspiration for writing songs, and it has become a common thread that runs through his music.
"All of my albums have songs about sitting outside on a spring day," Potts said. He said he sees spending a lot of time relaxing outdoors as a way to help him think more clearly.
"I do a lot of things, like walking downtown in the spring," Potts said. "It gives me time to think, time to breathe, it's nice."
Nature, however, is just one of the resources tapped by Potts to create his songs. His recent conversion to Christianity has added a new dimension to his songwriting, Potts said. After spending four years touring the country, Potts said he unexpectedly found Jesus in Auburn, of all places.
"I had a friend of a friend of a friend who lived in Auburn, I had a couple of days off, and he offered me a free place to stay," he said.
While living in Auburn, Potts heard that the Auburn Christian Fellowship had a coffeehouse, and he called Campus Minister Perry Rubin to see if he could perform for them. Potts said Rubin helped introduce him to Christianity, and Potts began to get involved with the ACF Bible study and other functions.
Potts said he fell in love with the city and moved to Auburn at the end of 1998. However, he would soon be falling in love with more than just Auburn. Potts met his wife Lara at ACF, who was interning for the ministry at the time. Two years later he would be writing a song about how God made the girl of his dreams from just a girl that he knew.
She and Rubin encouraged Potts to join them at the Spring Road Christian Church in Lanett. By the beginning of 1999, he fell in love with Christianity and converted to the faith. Later that year Potts released his first faith-based album, "Live at Spring Road."
Potts found moving to Auburn involved more than just a spiritual change. Although small-town Southern lifestyle is different than anywhere else in the country, Potts said he prefers it.
"There's nowhere else in the country that I like nearly as much," Potts said. "It is really a more laid-back kind of lifestyle, and you can really notice a difference. It's my kind of style. Potts said he feels a certain connection with Auburn. "It's the perfect size and has a small-town feel, but there is everything you need here," Potts said.
He said he also fell in love with the beauty of the city.
"There is nature everywhere. I love the magnolia trees, all the trees and wildflowers, they just make you feel comfortable."
A big sports fan, Potts said the atmosphere of game-day in Auburn is one-of-a-kind.
"You want something like that in your town," he said.
Potts even mentions game-day in Auburn in some of his songs. A hidden track on his "County Line Road" album sings of the joys of rolling Toomer's Corner after an Auburn victory. On his "Days Like These" release, Potts jokes about how the tranquil, small town is transformed on Saturdays in the fall.
"The summers are quiet. At night even the streets go to sleep. They sure wake up early on an autumn afternoon. People line the streets along Magnolia Avenue," he said.
Potts said he feels connected with not only the city but the students as well. He said he felt like he was living the college life when he moved to Auburn, walking everywhere and not moving his truck for days. He said he loves the way Auburn people feel about Auburn.
"Everybody at Auburn loves Auburn, and you don't find that at all schools," he said.
The city has etched a special place in his heart, for Auburn is mentioned frequently on his newer albums. The track "On the Alabama Plains" sings of a quaint little village on the Plains of Alabama where football, friends, family and faith combine to create a unique bond that is at the heart of the city.
"Family and friends and football and faith, that's what started this town and what still makes it great. We can't stop all the changes, but our hearts remain true to the town that we love, here on the Alabama Plains."
The future for Potts is wide open, but he said he is content with his life and has no desire to get a record contract.
"I don't want to be Garth Brooks or anything like that," Potts said. "I want to keep doing what I'm doing, being independent, putting out my own albums," Potts said.
Although music is his career, Potts puts his family first. The near future holds much more than just music for Potts. His wife Lara is expecting their second child in early February, and he is staying at home with his wife.
It is a common occurrence to see Potts driving around Auburn in his four-door family sedan with his wife in the passenger seat and their son Christopher in his baby seat in the back. They are at the heart of his music and his life.

February 20, 2003 Robert Lee, Staff Writer - Auburn Plainsman

I love Dave Potts. Not only is he good, he writes his own reviews right on the CD. Says here, "Amazing", "World Famous", "Breathtakingly Handsome" and "Always In Style". Why should I write when it's already done for me? Well, maybe because "He's Good Folk"? Guy's got his bases covered as far as I can see, though I would amend the last part to say "He's Damn Good Folk".

The pictures on the insert make him look more like an astronaut than a musician, but maybe it's the two signs he's holding that throws me off ("funny guy" and "seriously funny guy"). This guy cracks me up. If Potts couldn't sing or play or write, he could do well as a graphic artist. He certainly put together a great and eyecatching package.

If the packaging is not enough, three tracks in is the quintessential baseball song for baseball the sport, not the business. I mention this because most efforts at songs about baseball are lame, at best. This one isn't. Most minor leaguers are playing for that slight chance of making the big leagues, but they wouldn't be there at all if not for the game. Potts nails the idealism of that in the chorus of If I Broke the Record:
These towns roll by like tumbleweeds
Through the windows of these late night trains
To those of us down here it's still a game
I may never be a hero and you may never know my name
But if I broke the record, I would do it clean

Potts' life is good and each song is a reminder that he is grateful. "The Garden We're Growing" nods to those in the military and the sacrifices they make; "Ferris Wheel" keys on the wonder of life as seen at the fair; Old Chevelle is a remembrance of love; Throw the Line In outlines fishing as more than fishing… No lyrical ledgerdemain here, just great lyrics and solid themes. Potts' life is, indeed, good. Twelve songs worth of good, at the least.

Dave Potts plays folk music. How could he not? He is good folk. What I mean is that Dave Potts plays damn good folk music. And he does it here with a great lineup of musicians who lay out fine music with no seeming effort. This is the way it should be done. Evidently, it is the way Dave Potts does it.
- Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange