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DAVID DAVIS - DAVID DAVIS AND THE WARRIOR RIVER BOYS (REB-1807), 2004

Musicians
David Davis: Mandolin, Vocals
Marty Hays: Bass, Vocals
Josh Smith: Banjo, Vocals
Jeff Griffy: Lead & Rhythm Guitar
Owen Saunders: Fiddle(s)

Production Credits
Produced by Otis Lynn Dillon, David Davis and Josh Smith
Recorded and mixed at River Track Studio, Fort Gay, WV
Engineered by Otis Lynn Dillon and Robert Maynard
Mixed by Otis Lynn Dillon
Assisted by David Davis and Josh Smith
Mastered by John Eberle at Americana Mastering, Nashville, TN

David Davis, the esteemed mandolin player and singer who is steeped in the older traditions of bluegrass, has been fronting the Alabama-based Warrior River Boys since 1984. His love for traditional bluegrass no doubt started with his family; his father and grandfather were both musicians and his uncle, Cleo Davis, was an original member of Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys in 1939. From 2004 until 2009, David and the band released three CDs on the Rebel Label, all of which were sterling examples of how newly recorded bluegrass can work within the traditional strictures of the music, and still sound great. For his continued efforts over the years, David was a 2010 inductee to the Alabama Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame.

The make-up of the band that came to Rebel consisted of Josh Smith, Jeff Griffy, Owen Saunders, and Marty Hays. Smith is a driving banjo player from Kentucky who came to the Warrior River Boys in 1999; he stayed in the group for six years. Griffey hailed from Illinois and started playing guitar at age 11. By age 15, he was performing in local bands. He joined Davis in 2001 and logged four years of service with the group. Fiddle player Owen Saunders enjoyed working with some of the top names in bluegrass – the Gillis Brothers, Doyle Lawson, and James King – before becoming a Warrior River Boy. Rounding out the group was Marty Hays, a bass player and vocalist who joined the group in 1995; he shares some of the lead singing duties with David.

This is the group’s first release on Rebel. Released in 2004, the disc was praised for its “strictly traditional sound,” “hard-charging energy,” and the group as “top interpreters of Monroe-style bluegrass.” Band originals included “Lonesome Cry of the Whippoorwill” and “It’s Just an Old Body” and songwriters Bill Grant, Tommy Freeman, and Bill Castle filled out the remainder of the disc with tracks like “Today’s the Day I Get My Gold Watch and Chain” and “In the Shade of the Big Buffalo.”