The Baton Rouge, LA-based group Benjy Davis Project plans to release its new album, "Lost Souls Like Us," on March 2, 2010, via Rock Ridge Music. Recorded at Rivergate Studios in Hendersonville, TN, and co-produced by Bobby Capps (.38 Special) and Jason Spiewak (Ernie Halter, Pat McGee, Andrew Hoover), "Lost Souls Like Us" features the current band line-up of Benjy Davis and Mic Capdevielle, together since 2001 in Benjy Davis Project configurations that have varied in size from an acoustic duo all the way to a six-piece.
In addition to Davis and Capdevielle, the album features a cast of seasoned studio musicians: Mark "Sparky" Matejka of Lynryd Skynyrd, Danny Chauncey of .38 Special and Jason "Slim" Gambill of Lady Antebellum all contributed guitar parts; Ethan Pilzer (Jewel, Big & Rich) played bass; Spiewak and Capps played piano and organ parts; Sara Jean Kelley sang background vocals.
Says Capdevielle of the 12 songs that comprise the album (see full track listing below): "This is the most honest representation of the growth of us and where we want our music to be. The musicians who were on this album helped make that possible. Kind of made us laugh to think, 'Holy crap this is us?' They helped us sound like I always thought it would in my head."
The lead single "Stay With Me," which goes to Triple A, Non-Commercial, and some Alternative radio for adds in March, is a dark-and-dusty, mandolin-driven stunner that "really kinda came out of nowhere" according to Davis, who delivers throughout the track in his smoky tenor lines like "She hates me more than ever / She loves me more than never." "The song is about staying with someone in an ethereal way," Davis explains. "Sort of like, 'I want to know that you remember me and you think of me. I hope you carry me with you and vice versa.'" The song is already getting support from the Hot AC station in Baton Rouge: WCDV-FM. The album opener "Mississippi" is a rambling yet driving love song for the state. "It's our next door neighbor and the girl next door," Davis says. "It's got kind of a bittersweet thing to it. It's the first thing we see when we leave, and it's the last thing we see when we come home. There's a lot of emotion involved with driving through it because we're either leaving home or coming home."
Benjy Davis Project has toured extensively in the South, including seven performances at New Orleans' annual Jazz Fest, Voodoo Fest, and countless college performances, as well as jaunts with Sister Hazel, Robert Randolph, Buckwheat Zydeco, and many others. 2008 and 2009 saw them heading further afield on a touring circuit that now incorporates the entire country. Both Davis and Capdevielle are ready to take the new songs out on the road, to play them for fans. The band tours now as a four-piece. They plan to play an album release show at the Varsity in Baton Rouge on March 5th before kicking off a full-blown national tour for "Lost Souls Like Us." Planned tour dates will be announced soon.
Lost Souls Like Us Track Listing:
1. Mississippi
2. Get High
3. Give It A Weeks Time
4. Stay With Me
5. Send Your Love Down
6. Slow Wind
7. Check Your Pockets
8. Bite My Tongue
9. Iron Chair
10. Aftermath
11. Light Of Other Days
12. You Just Know