Maurice Davis Band

For 27-year old Maurice Davis, growing up in Weatherford, Texas with conservative parents meant that making music wouldn’t be easy. But Davis found a way to escape the confines of small town living and made music, literally, his savior. “Music always kept me out of trouble,” says Davis, “I first picked up the guitar when I was 13 after I was grounded for about a month. It was my brother’s, but since he didn’t play it, and I had nothing to do, I began to teach myself.” In his escape into music, he also found catharsis.

“My brothers and I were adopted when we were 2, 4 and 5 years old. When she gave us up, she claimed that we were abandoned by our father, “ Maurice expressed to me, his voice suddenly taking on a faraway tone, “We done a lot of hard living and sometimes my personal life was rough.” Suddenly brightening up, “People say to me all the time, “Man I love your music but I’m glad I don’t have your life!” But that’s just the way it is, you know? If you haven’t lived some kind of life you’re not going to write good music.”

Making music always came easy, but making at living at it? Not so much. At his wit’s end, Davis began to resign himself to the notion that his career in music was at a dead end and he needed to find a ‘real’ job. “I’d pretty much given up,” Davis laughs, “I’d just enrolled in school and kind of figured I needed just move on.” But thanks to a happy accident in 2005, he met now-manager Rick Dellagatta, and his life changed forever, “Next thing I knew, I was moving to New Jersey, I was signed to a label, and I suddenly needed a band!”

Maurice started writing new songs for his first album, including ‘Missing Children,’ a way to pay homage to his past, and that was when fate intervened again. “So I write this song and not long after I got a phone call from my biological dad’s family in Corpus Christi. I found out a lot of things I never knew, like that my Dad never abandoned us,” Davis explains, “It was weird, and I know there’s always a different side to everyone’s stories. We had our first tour booked and we were going to be playing in Corpus, so I thought I meet them.” A happy reunion and a new family, thanks to just one song, ensued.

Now Maurice’s life has taken another turn. Unhappy with the slow progress of being under the slow pace of their label’s thumb, Maurice, the band, and manager Dellagatta decided it was in their best interest to venture out and produce their latest album independently. “I came back to Texas in December to record the second album. We finished a few weeks ago at Rough Wood Studios and had our release party at Hard Rock Café in Dallas,” a relieved Davis sighs, “Now we’re getting ready to hit the road with another national tour in a couple of weeks, hitting California and looping back to Texas and beyond.

Asked if he’s happy being back in his home state, “Oh yeah. I really missed the slower pace of life in Texas, the leisurely way Texas works, you know. Work hard, play hard. In New Jersey and New York it was always go, go, go. Now that I’m back, people have to remind me that it’s okay to slow down a bit and not always be working. I really missed good Mexican food, not to mentione the heat. Yeah, I actually missed the heat.”

Maurice Davis and his band’s new album, ‘Are We Permanent,’ features, thoughtful, colorful and diverse original tracks, distinguished by signature musicianship and compelling, often heartbreaking lyrics. Davis is a natural on 12-string guitar, and his workmanship shines throughout the album in its entirety.

So, it seems that a life filled with twists and turns, and highs and lows that would rival any emotional roller coaster, suits Davis well in his songcraft. When listening to Davis play, his voice inviting us in to some pretty deep, dark secret-y things, it’s obvious from the get-go that his life and the living he’s done has incubated him as an artist, proving that sometimes, the disharmony that comes with a hard life, acts as a perfect platform for doing what one loves. - Best Of Texas

There are few of us who know the pain and confusion of being abducted from our families.Yet the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reports an average of 2,000 children go missing each day.

One local musician was so moved by stories he heard about abductions, he decided to write a song about it-- and in a twist of fate, got some life-changing news of his own. These days, 27-year-old Maurice Davis spends most of his time producing his latest CD and preparing to take his band on a nationwide tour.

But a few years ago, after watching a talk show late one night, he was inspired to write a song about something he'd seen on the show-- and that "something" was the plight of missing children. "That's how I've always written songs. I write about life and things that matter, and this just spoke to me and I went and wrote a song about it," said Davis.

Unbeknownst to Davis at the time, he had a connection to the missing children he wrote about. He and his older brothers were given up for adoption when he was just a toddler. They were adopted by family friends who loved them as their own.

But a short time after he wrote his song, "Missing Children", he received information about his biological father. And the news shocked everyone. "When I talked to him, he said, 'you know we've been looking for you guys and your mom took you without us knowing.' And it was like, 'what? What did you say?'" recalled Davis.

Joseph Suarez, Davis' biological father, had been searching for Davis and his brothers for nearly 25 years. "He told us that my biological mom had come and taken us to get something to eat," said Davis. "And that was the last he'd seen of us."

Davis' adoptive parents, Rebecca and Johnny Davis, say they went through all the proper legal channels to adopt the boys, and had no idea Suarez had been searching for them. "We never meant to hurt anyone," said Rebecca Davis. "The children was our first thought, and to know that someone had been out there hurting all those years was really heartbreaking."

"I felt really bad for him, because I had a different point of view," said her son, Maurice. "We didn't know we were missing, so we just lived life as it was presented to us, but for him it was different. It was much harder for him."

Davis says his Missing Children song has a much deeper meaning for him now, and he wishes that every missing child will have the chance to reconnect with their families who continue to search for them.

Davis' song, "Missing Children" is available on iTunes and other online locations. Some of the money from each sale will go toward the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Meantime, the Maurice Davis Band is set to release a new album at a party at the Hard Rock Cafe' in Dallas on July 29. - CBS