When I did my first solo show at The Roasting Room, I got a whole new appreciation for the solo-guitar-player-life.
I practiced. I recorded my rehearsals. I rehearsed the songs over and over in between checking Facebook and fielding bookings on the phone and email. I also stared into space a lot and tried to avoid the practices altogether. Oh, the things I would do to avoid rehearsals (basically skipping my own practices)! My number one hooky move was pickleball. I would tell myself not to play, then end up there anyway. The guilt, the guilt!
Finally—at some point in the day—I ended up playing the harder songs (the ones with four chords).
More often than not over coffee (no cream); or worked on writing new songs for the show. I had a wonderful teacher at Hilton Head High back in ‘86 who taught me some important lessons, and I decided to turn her seriousness into jest, as I normally do in my songs—“You Suck at Life” was my opener. It worked out well, I think. The other new song I debuted that night was called “You Kiss My Daughter, I’m Gonna Kiss You.” Do the math.
I have been involved in six recordings locally since the first Daly Planet album came out in 1996. My brother and I wrote a bunch of songs. Andy Pitts contributed one or two great ones, as well, and we sold them at our gigs. Shows. Whatever musicians call them these days. Since then, Lowcountry Boil has done four discs of original music.
When I do a demo for a song, I typically throw in everything I feel shouldn’t be there sonically. Distorted bass guitar, silly drum parts, obnoxious guitar parts…really wonky stuff. When Jordan Ross booked me for The Roasting Room show, he said he was really excited and hoped I had a CD.
Uh-oh moment.
I had been talking to Stu Enscoe, a young producer on Hilton Head Island, and things just fell into place to make a CD. Stu and I had been talking about what we could do together for a while without really knowing it.
Recording the JEVON—GENRE album was a lot of fun. It is on iTunes and YouTube, so take a listen. Don’t search for Jevon Daly. There are no liner notes or track listing. Stu was able to make the songs all sound like they lived in the same neighborhood, or at least the same zip code. [Editor’s note: “Genre breaking alt country meets beats in a woofer shaking amalgam of song” is how the album is described on CDBaby.com.]
On the solo album, there are some fun tunes you have probably heard at our gigs.
The songs are all very important to me. I co-wrote the “Keith Richards Just Keeps On Livin’” song with Greg Critchley on Skype. “Mudd” is a Gary Pratt/Jevon collaboration. “Ease My Mind” features my wifey singing. “Unlucky” is a re-examination of the song on our last LCB album complete with BIG STU TREATMENT. “Jump Yer Bones” is a fun one, too. You can check out the local page Slowcountry Tunes on Facebook, if you need a day brightener. Jessie Renew made some super sweet videos for a few of the songs.
We are very lucky around Bluffton to have venues and people we love so much. If I think about it too much, I have to get in the fetal position with a plush Pokemon and sing Michael McDonald songs. Seriously, it really is great.
Jevon Daly has been performing in the Lowcountry since 1986; first with the HHHS Marching Seahawks and now with a number of different local lineups, including Lowcountry Boil Bluegrass Band, Unicorn Meat, Shakey Bones, Silicone Sister, JoJo Squirrel and The Nicest Guys in the World. He has slept on floors whilst traveling the East Coast on tour with LCB, a group that has played here since 1997. A class clown, fiddler, hair metal enthusiast and self-proclaimed “Biggest Deadhead on Earth,” Jevon lives in Bluffton with his wife and three kids.
