Josh Davis & English Dave
Turnpike Cruiser
(TC02992)
While Josh Davis may be a younger
songwriter, guitarist, and bandleader, he isn't inexperienced and this CD is strong
evidence of that. He has been around for many years now and has developed his own voice in
several different musical styles including swing, jump blues and straight ahead shuffle
blues. His new CD Turnpike Cruiser on TopCat Records, is a nice mixture of the styles just
mentioned above. If you like the styles of players like Django Rheinhart, Duke Robillard,
Les Paul or Charlie Christian, you've found a good modern Dallas player to settle down and
listen to. Josh is accompanied strongly by English Dave (David Fulkerson) on guitar and
vocals. His band is a tight ensemble featuring the stellar upright acoustic double bass
playing of John Garza on the CD's 1st, 3rd and 12th songs, Kevin Phelan on tracks 2, 4, 5,
6, and 11 and finally, John Phillips on tracks 7, 8, 9, 10. John Garza played at The
Bone's CD release party with Bobby Baronowski on drums. I also enjoyed the horn
arrangements throughout the CD and would note that Josh's horn section has some pretty
stellar names in it. Randy Wensel doubles on trombone and piano with Jeff Robbins on Tenor
Sax and Steve Howard on trumpet. The latter two players comprising the White Trash Horns.
Josh used some interesting techniques in recording this album such as miking a piece of
sheet glass placed away from but in front of the guitar amps to pick up the reflected
sounds of his guitar. He then mixed those signals back into the main guitar signal. This
technique adds an interesting hollowness and brighter set of harmonic tones to the signal
that can be mixed up or down into the music during post-production. If you listen
carefully, you'll hear a few spots where the guitar lines seem fuller with a wider
harmonic range…this is accomplished using the technique above. As I listened to the
CD both in pre-mix and final mixed versions, I was pleased to hear clean melodic playing
with broad dynamics and loads of headroom. This is not just another couple of thrashing
Texas style guitar twangers; these guys are mellow and the tunes they play are both
lyrical and interesting. I'm impressed with how true the sound they achieve on the CD is
to that which they make on stage. In the end, if you like jump blues, swing and
traditional blues and shuffles then by all means get this CD and go to Josh Davis' and
English Dave's gigs; you won't regret it.
- Jim Wells -
Southwest Blues CD Review - April 1999
Current Reviews - 1999 Reviews - available at our store
