Let me tell you one of my favorite guitar stories. Once upon a time a guy named Gary Davis (no, not, that Gary Davis) tried to get his young son interested in the guitar. He told him that if he learned how to play “Blackberry Blossom,” he’d buy him a guitar for Christmas. But Gary had a secret weapon. He was friends with Wayne Henderson, one of the world’s finest guitar builders, a guy who kept Eric Clapton waiting 10 years for a guitar. And so, for Christmas 1988, 11 year old Brandon Davis found a brand spanking new Henderson D-18 under his tree, next to his Legos. That’s the end of one story and the beginning of another. Ten years later, Brandon uses that very same guitar, a little worse for wear, in the guitar competition at Wayne Henderson’s Festival. And he wins the first prize—another Henderson guitar. Since then, Brandon Davis has won a lot of contests—Merlefest, and Renofest among them—but he’s more than just a slick picker with a few Tiffany-polished tunes. Listen to Up in the Air and you’ll quickly discover that Brandon’s got, as musician’s say, big ears, the ability to take the best bits from other players and other genres, and make them all his own. One lap through his playful take on the fiddle standard “Whiskey Before Breakfast,” or his rave up version of “Bill Bailey” and you’ll never hear those chestnuts quite the same way again. His slinky and sensuous version of Autumn Leaves nods not only to Antonio Carlos Jobim but to classic rock icons like Santana and Clapton. And his originals—notably “Rapids of the Gauley” and “Gracie’s Lullaby”--illustrate that he writes as well as he plays. But the thing that holds these eclectic influences together is this: instead of taking the easy way out and showing off his otherworldly chops, Brandon Davis simply plays the song, and that’s the bravest thing a guitar player can do. The other part of making a tasty and tasteful record, of course, is finding like-minded friends. Among Brandon’s partners in crime here are musician’s musicians like Sammy Shelor (of Lonesome River Band fame) who can rebut a century’s worth of banjo jokes with one sparkling riff, mando/fiddle master Andy Leftwich (who normally has Ricky Skaggs’s back), and first-call Dobro virtuoso Rob Ickes. But these guys aren’t just playing on this record because Brandon Davis is a nice guy (although he is). They’re here because they recognize that he’s a major new talent. It’s amazing what the right Christmas gift can do. --Allen St. John Author of Clapton’s Guitar: Watching Wayne Henderson Build the Pefect Instrument
