Review by Peter Coates – www.facebook.com/InsideEdgePhotography
The return visit to Australia from this dynamic pair of West Virginian country-rock guitarists stemmed from their eye-opening appearance at CMC Rocks 2018, when the big festival crowds were blown away by the songs, the delivery, and the infectious stage-presence of Donnie and Chris, and their talented band members.
The band may be named after the brothers, but this is most certainly a band, and although bassist Russ Reppert could not make the trip to Australia this time, drummer Aaron Regester was along for the ride, and they picked up Matt, a Sydney bass-player, who helped them out in their Sydney and Melbourne shows, and their Groundwater Festival headline appearance. So we did get something very close to the full Davisson Brothers Band experience!
After CMC Rocks, I have said many times that I had never seen a band fronted by two acoustic guitars make so much raucous country music, and be so damn loud!
The Sydney show was even more of a thrill, because as well as the high-energy songs we had heard before, like Run To You and Fighter which opened the show, and the wonderful off-beat Didn’t Come Here to Leave, before we got an unexpected cover of the Grateful Dead’s Franklin’s Tower, and a stripped back version of Life on Fire in the first half of the set.
An acoustic set from the brothers included some covers, and the wonderful slice of their lives in Appalachian American, which provided some real intensity and emotion in the audience, before we got the immense ballad, Breathe, and then a bit of a reprise from CMC Rocks when local songstress Amber Lawrence appeared to sing Country Roads with the boys, and bring the tempo back up a notch or two.
The full band were back now, and we hit full speed with a rip-snorting bunch of DB songs that we all knew, the new single, Unbreak You, the absolute belter of Jesse James, featuring some unreal guitar work from Chris D, before Get Down South and the single from 2018 which got los of airplay here, the West Virginia stomper of Po’ Boyz, which pretty much sums up the Davisson Brothers attitude to life!
Chicken Train and Pond Fishing from the earlier band days closed the show, which was just such an uplifting and positive experience – music is supposed to make you smile, laugh, stomp your feet and clap your hands, and the Davisson Brothers do all that and more – you just can’t help yourself when the guitars are cranking out those rock-tinged bluegrass riffs! Come back soon boys…….we need more of your type of bands to keep us feeling good!
Website : davissonbrothersband.com
Facebook : www.facebook.com/DavissonBros