We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Dancing On The Edge

by Ryan Davis & The Roadhouse Band

supported by
WY
WY thumbnail
Andy Turner
Andy Turner thumbnail
hrvl
hrvl thumbnail
Nicholas Mavodones III
Nicholas Mavodones III thumbnail
kennybasil
kennybasil thumbnail
cosmo trip
cosmo trip thumbnail
Jarad
Jarad thumbnail
notes_campfire
notes_campfire thumbnail
cosmic echo
cosmic echo thumbnail
Tom Shrack
Tom Shrack thumbnail
andy_james
andy_james thumbnail
Paul Spanbauer
Paul Spanbauer thumbnail
Soft Abuse
Soft Abuse thumbnail
russfinn
russfinn thumbnail
luketogo
luketogo thumbnail
dwj22
dwj22 thumbnail
/

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Digipak

    Includes unlimited streaming of Dancing On The Edge via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $10.99 USD or more 

     

  • Cassette + Digital Album

    Reworked Art by Ryan Davis

    Includes unlimited streaming of Dancing On The Edge via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $10.99 USD or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $1,000 USD  or more

     

1.
Free From The Guillotine 08:22
buy track
2.
Learn 2 Re-luv 06:03
buy track
3.
Flashes Of Orange 09:56
buy track
4.
Bluebirds in a Fight 07:07
buy track
5.
Junk Drawer Heart 06:25
buy track
6.
A Suitable Exit 09:20
buy track
7.
Bluebirds Revisted 03:57
buy track

about

"At the frayed bottom-edge of Indiana – just a moderate bike ride north of LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY – multi-instrumentalist, artist and songwriter RYAN DAVIS’ Americana-noir soundwaves have been emanating for years in a myriad of forms. As driving force for the lauded STATE CHAMPION, long-running member of TROPICAL TRASH, administrator of the esoteric and excellent CROPPED OUT festival, and lone proprietor of the SOPHOMORE LOUNGE label, Davis lays down his first proper ‘solo’ release with ‘DANCING ON THE EDGE’ – a rich, 2-LP tapestry of tunes that absolutely glows over seven expansive cuts. It’s a pure collage of modernity and heritage.

After a period of introspection spent re-immersing himself in his drawing & painting practice, as well as his newfound delvings into instrumental music, Davis’ sea change was imminent. “I wasn't sure I would ever make another record of ‘song’ songs,” he says, “but last year I started writing again and it eventually took the shape of the record at hand. I worked painstakingly hard on the material. It felt virtually impossible to complete for a bulk of the time I spent trying to enter into it, but the process pulled me out of a strange place. I was eventually able to live inside of the songs enough to understand the world within them – to ultimately help shape them into what I understood them to be.” Indeed, there’s a load of inspiration captured in the grooves with Ryan’s unfiltered, folk-
traditioned approach to poetic twists-of-tongue meeting head on with sublime instrumentation.

Recorded in early 2023 with help both in-studio and remotely from peers like JOAN SHELLEY, CATHERINE IRWIN (Freakwater), WILL LAWRENCE (Felice Brothers, Gun Outfit, John Early), JENNY ROSE (Giving Up), CHRISTOPHER MAY (Mail the Horse), ELISABETH FUCHSIA (Footings, Bonnie "Prince" Billy), and AARON ROSENBLUM (Son of Earth, Sapat), 'Dancing on the Edge' draws backup perhaps primarily from Davis' tight-knit drinking buddies-cum-cast of collaborators in EQUIPMENT POINTED ANKH (records on Astral Editions, Bruit Direct Disques, Torn Light) – a five-headed hive-mind from which he drew impetus for his own foray into more abstract and improvisational terrain these past few years under the ROADHOUSE alias. The results herein are melancholic, gentle, minimal yet colorful in mood: a lilting highway accompaniment of crisp instrumentation and a relaxed, amiable approach to vocals with rhapsodic wordsmithery. Fans of the aforementioned artists as well as those of Souled American, David Berman, Kurt Vile and ‘Comes A Time’-era Neil should all easily find bounty.

While bare-boned and uncluttered in presentation, many of these pieces track over 6 minutes allowing a fair amount of expansiveness. “Flashes of Orange” percolates with synthetic and organic percussion while Davis ruminates on how “a steady drip falls from the ceiling to my forehead / a pitter-patter of my past mistakes” as a Cale-esque violin chatters through impressionistic fields of pedal steel. It’s got an absence of recurring verses, replaced by an ever-unfolding story, words spotlighted by tasteful flanging synths and lovely key shifts as finally the titular hook lifts its proceedings up into the clouds. Other times the humor shines: tales of a jukebox that “only plays ‘Sultans of Swing’” in “Junk Drawer Heart,” ruminations like “soon I’ll be seen as a problem for the neighbors / soon I’ll be seen as a trophy for the precinct” in “Free From the Guillotine,” and of course the simple proclamation of “A Suitable Exit” being “I never asked to be born / I was only wondering where the door went to.”

Tracked & mixed by SETH MANCHESTER at Machines With Magnets (Pawtucket, RI) and mastered for vinyl by TOHRU KOTETSU at Tokyo’s legendary JVC Mastering Center, ‘Dancing On the Edge’ stares down into the navel of the American Experience underbelly with a fair amount of outward reach. Besides the Kosmische-synth and violin stabs reaching into a European element, stately organ swells build a musical bridge between 1969 Southern California and Felt’s latter era smooth moves, with layers of intelligent gesture taking this well beyond the realm of its archetypal indie troubadour/acoustic songwriter tag. Music and mint juleps never went down so well together."

Brian Turner

credits

released December 18, 2023

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

ever/never records image

ever/never records New York, New York

Record label located in NYC. Specializing in music for adults.

contact / help

Contact ever/never records

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Dancing On The Edge, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Featuring Riley Pinkerton (aka The Rat Queen) from the theatrical NYC rockers, Castle Rat.
listen now