With a deftly curated repertoire and a voice to kill, powerhouse vocalist Coco Davis' craft breathes new life into the iconic forms of early blues songs - those raw epics that forever haunt modern music. ...she sings with a soaring glory, said Simon Wilson of Coco Davis in Metro Magazine. His words are no understatement.
Old Haunts, Coco Davis’s debut LP, subtly dismantles and rearranges a collection of early “revenge blues” classics into a contemporary travelogue of witty and ghoulish tales. Shorn of the musical cliches that beset the blues genre, Old Haunts is one for storytellers, an imaginative realm of runaways, night-owls and badmen. The lyrics of an old blues tune take on a fresh longing when placed in the languid company of filmic synthesizers, razor sharp slide guitar and sultry baritone sax. “Old Haunts is smart, spooky, funny, and at times, funky as anything”, said Nick Bollinger on Radio New Zealand.
It’s an assured statement of purpose from a singer with a fast-growing reputation on the NZ scene, judiciously reinterpreting the vivid tales of Bessie Smith, Lil’ Green, Ma Rainey and Geechie Wiley. A song-cycle coloured by slide guitar, paired with synthesizer and vibraphone, drenched in classic reverbs, Old Haunts was arranged and produced by “Sheffield’s answer to Lightnin’ Hopkins,” (NME), guitarist Tom Rodwell. Rodwell hails from the calypso-blues notorieties Storehouse, and is also known for his session playing with Don McGlashan on the hit album “Lucky Stars”.
An instant classic, Old Haunts is set to chart Coco Davis as a true balladeer, bringing classic blues songs to a new generation. Having performed at festivals around New Zealand and beyond (Hongerige Wolf [Holland], Ealing Rhythm and Blues Festival [London], Splore, Auckland Arts Festival and more), Davis is also widely acclaimed in NZ theatre circles; having loaned her talents to numerous Auckland Theatre Company shows (Cabaret, Chicago, Little Shop of Horrors), while her own production of Sam Shepard’s surrealist cowboy operetta The Sad Lament of Pecos Bill has appeared widely on the arts festival circuit. She’s also soon to tour in New Zealand, Australia and the UK with the highly lauded contemporary musical Daffodils.
Davis' flair for cinematic design sees the Old Haunts onstage world capsulate the vengeful, ghostly mood of the record. Join Coco Davis and Tom Rodwell as they tour Old Haunts in April.
