Rebecca Rogers Davis hasn’t entered the musical world in the traditional way, but her lifelong love for music and writing her own songs is a common thread she shares with any full time musician or songwriter. Her latest two singles, “Forever Music” and “Butt on Fiya”, continue in the same comic mode she established with her debut single as DawgGoneDavis entitled “Middle Age Woman – Hip Hop Style”, but there are tunes aren’t necessarily aimed at aping rap music as closely as the earlier single. The influence remains however and she twists it to her own devices thanks to a vocal style that’s quite individual and often wildly entertaining. She dramatizes these songs, to a certain extent, but her want for this sort of treatment never goes overboard and she tailors her voice to work well with each of these respective songs. She has quite a background, working as an IT project manager during the day, but her persona as DawgGoneDavis definitely gives her something away from the day job that obviously means a great deal to her.
“Forever Music” is the de-facto lead single and has a lot going on musically, much more than we heard with her aforementioned first single “Middle Age Woman – Hip Hop Style”. She brings piano and a plethora of colorful synthesizer sounds into the composition, but the truly masterful decision she makes with this track is the inclusion of a well arranged and especially evocative horn part that vies with her voice for the listener’s attention. The song runs a little over three and a half minutes in length and opens with swaggering percussion before Davis’ voice enters the song and proceeds to comically skewer music’s declining cultural prominence. There’s a bit of cynicism coming through the song, but you shouldn’t take it too seriously and it’s never so omnipresent that it destroys the comic tone she’s clearly after.
This tandem of new cuts reflects the hard work Davis has put into expanding her musical profile and she’ll undoubtedly be rewarded with new fans and increased viability on the indie scene. DawgGoneDavis is a unique performer working in her own world and she’s quite talented at crafting entertaining musical performances for a wide audience.
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-review by Anne Hollister
