The Blue Moon, 24 Aug 2025
Blending traditional country and Americana instrumentation with experimental touches
We’ve been big fans of Ryan Davis for a fair few years, and we’re not the only ones. Maybe the the most spot-on songwriter coming out of the Midwest of the US right now, he’s got slack melodies that linger and mazy lyrics that thrill. His songs are like classics Simpsons episodes - you never quite sure where they’re going next, and every line is a knockout blow.
We first encountered him as the leader of niche beard-rock artisans State Champion, but with the release of his solo debut, 2023’s Dancing On The Edge, it felt like the rest of the world caught up on his creative presence. The follow up, New Threats From The Soul, lands this summer. The records reckons mightily with the perplexities of human efficacy and agency in an absurd and debased world. This probably sounds hopelessly plodding and severe. It is not—not remotely. It’s a shit-ton of fun.
The songs are all earwigs; the arrangements genuinely thrilling, enlivening efforts by the crackerjacks that comprise the sprawling Roadhouse Band. Each trip through the record reveals more of the depth and breadth and tangle of its tapestry. New Threats From The Soul is a masterclass in reducing the sublime to the prosaic, immensity to infinitesimally, and vice versa [the trick can only work both ways].
Craft beer, live music, and Oscar's Pizza.
2 Norfolk Street, Cambridge, CB1 2LF
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