Ray Davon

Story in Fontana Herald:

Just For Fun column: Mission accomplished for Fontana musician

By RUSSELL INGOLD




Music has always been an inspiration to Ray Davon. The Fontana resident played in a band for several years and also wrote songs for motion pictures.

But now he has done something that he has always wanted to do - release his own album.

So now, anyone who appreciates smooth R&B love songs can enjoy his creation, a self-titled CD which is designed to inspire pleasant memories of 1970s music that is easy on the ears.

“I have always been a fan of good R&B music - Earth, Wind and Fire, Motown, etc.,” Davon said. “What excites me about R&B is, like any music, its story and its beat. I've always been moved by any piece of music, from Bach to rock, as long as it touched my inner soul.”

Davon, who was raised in Pennsylvania, moved to California in 1980 with the Snowmen, a rock band that had a strong following. For seven years, the Snowmen played clubs throughout Southern California, including The Roxy and Wolf & Rissmiller's Country Club.

“I took to the road right out of high school, doing small and medium size clubs in 12 states as well as parts of Canada,” he said.


Then the band members went their separate ways, but Davon continued his dream.

While juggling his day job (he has been a dispatcher for 20 years with Thompson Building Materials) and having a family in Fontana, Davon was blessed to have three songs find placement in movies for Disney and Touchstone Pictures - “Stella,” “Gross Anatomy,” and “Dangerous Love.”

He also produced and was a co-writer for another R&B artist, whose debut album “Do You Feel” was released in 2002. Unfortunately, that situation didn't turn out well.

“He decided to go to nursing school, leaving me hanging with the bill and the CDs,” Davon said. “At the time, I was furious and wasn't sure what I was going to do.

“So one night in my studio I pulled up one of the songs that I wrote from the CD called ‘All Over Again' and decided to totally re-do the song. This was about the time that MySpace was getting pretty big and letting unsigned bands onto music pages on their site for free, so I gave it a go, and the rest was history.”

So now the outlook is positive for Davon, who is the founder and CEO of Snowmen Music Publishing in Fontana.

He said he will always cherish the people he has met and worked with along the way.

“Had I not gone on the road at such an early age, I would have never seen parts of the U.S. that I did, or have met some very beautiful people along the way, including my wife,” he said.

Indeed, his wife, Debra Dever, is an enthusiastic supporter of his music and his career, and is very pleased with the new CD.

“The timing was right,” she said. “This is something he has wanted to do for a long time.”

Davon sings and plays all the instruments on the 11 tracks, all of which he wrote himself. The CD is available at Rhino Records or online at CD Baby, Digstation, and iTunes (and at Best Buy in a couple of weeks).

If you're interested in “a soundtrack inspired by love” (as Dever called it), this is a CD worth checking out. - Fontana Herald