The review on Rock and Blues Muse sums up the impact of these young, Florida-based musicians: “Dynamism, precision, and outright fury. It’s like a three-pronged sonic offensive – the guitar pierces, the bass rattles, and the drums batter. For fans of the heavier end of blues rock, it’s a beating your eardrums will gladly take.”
Shaw Davis (guitar) and his bandmates, Bobby Van Stone (drums) and Patrick Stevenson (bass), will be featured at the Saturday, Oct. 19 Coral Head Music Fest at Marathon’s Community Park Amphitheater. Davis and company have serious energy on stage.
“For first-time listeners, it’s very in-your-face, almost aggressive. But after the first hit, they get the soulfulness of it and realize what we are playing comes from deep within us,” said Van Stone.
The band’s third album is already recorded and undergoing the final touches before its release. The first two albums have garnered rave reviews. “They’re a three-man wrecking crew that infuse the blues with hard rock muscle to gratifying effect,” one reviewer in The Rock Doctor wrote of the second album, “Tales From the West.”
When asked about the band’s favorite crowd-pleasing tune, Davis just laughed and said, “the last one, that’ll keep them in their seats!”
Van Stone, however, identified one of their originals — “My Friend.”
“You could say it’s a long journey of a song. It starts out quiet and emotional and then goes to big and bombastic in the solo, and then back down. I know our fans look forward to hearing that,” Van Stone said.
Davis said the band’s influences range from Jimi Hendrix to Phillip Sayce to Eric Tessmer to Black Sabbath and ZZ Top. One of his favorite songs to play is a cover of Hendrix’s “Peace in Mississippi.” It’s not a very well-known song, he said.
“True Hendrix buffs will know where we’re coming from,” Shaw said.
Shaw and friends are all in their 20s. That youthfulness, Van Stone said, is bringing the blues to a new generation.
“That’s one of our goals,” he said, “to play in front of people that aren’t typically exposed to blues rock. I think we’re slowly expanding our reach to other fans of music. I’m pretty confident that when young people see us play, we get their attention.”
Van Stone and frontman Davis have been friends since kindergarten, growing up near one another in Pompano Beach. Patrick Stevenson joined the group just recently, after an online introduction to one another’s work.
Davis said he picked up the guitar … well, because another friend wasn’t very good at sharing and caring.
“I would go over to play Xbox at a friend’s house but he only had one controller and he never let me play. But he had a guitar sitting in his closet. I think I was about 14 years old at the time and have been playing every day since,” Davis said. He has been a vigorous self-teacher. “I am learning every day, listening to everything whether it’s blues, rock or rap. I am looking for something that is coming from the right place and is genuine, open and honest. That’s what draws me to the blues — improvisation, and there’s no bullshit.”
Sounds good.
Coral Head Blues Fest
Saturday, Oct. 19
Gates open at noon
Marathon Community Park
Tickets $14/$19 | coralheadmusicfest.com
