Steph and Matt Davies

Steph Davies

Small crowd last night (Fri, July 11) for Steph and Matt Davies, which was too bad for people who dig good, original folk and blues music. These two musicians write some real heartfelt and lyrically intelligent songs. They alternated sets between each other, which made for a nice juxtaposition, and received very appreciative applause after each song from the dozen or so people in the audience.

Matt's performance was perhaps a bit more "forceful" in that his voice and guitar work was more aggressive than Steph's, with his song list covering both his own compositions and some very complementary and somewhat deep cut covers of people like Dylan, Waits and Taylor. He's definitely got the traveling folk/blues songster mojo, and his own songs are thoughtful, clever and honest.

This was cool. This little boy's name is Bodin and his Dad asked Matt if he could pose with him on the bench outside. "Bodee" was so into playing Matt's guitar. I like this picture.

Steph's performance was (forgive this trite description) sensitive and endearing, with her own songs being very sincere and emotionally beautiful. Her voice is pillowy soft, almost shy, which fit quite nicely with the kind of personal and love-filled lyrics she writes. She forces you to pay attention to what she sings...it's the kind of music that mellows you out and makes you feel good inside or glad to be in love (or want to be in love of you're not already).

They did join together on a couple of songs, which was cool to watch (they ought to do it a couple more times, imho, when they play together...they complement one another beautifully. Anyway, it was a night that I personally enjoyed very much because even though the cash drawer didn't open as much as we might like, I did get to really relax and enjoy the music, which I don't always get a chance to do.

Steph is an accomplished graphic artist as well and we've tentatively scheduled an art exhibition of her work for November 7. I just got an email from Steph as I was finishing this post and they're going to be coming back to perform at the Stump on Saturday, September 27th...mark your calendar and plan to be here if you can.

Click here for the Steph & Matt Davies Flickr set.