Josi Davis

Josi Davis is an award-winning songwriter, vocalist and dynamic multi-instrumentalist originally hailing from the D.C./Baltimore area where she began performing at an early age, finding outlets for her wild theatrical nature and imaginary characters in anything from family pageants to an appearance as a young Puck at the Folger Shakespeare Theatre. Her experiences in music and theater have been wide ranging and intense, greatly influencing the breadth of her art, along with some entertaining and questionable life choices - and a few reality checks. In short, Josi Davis has taken a hard and winding road. Her one constant: Songwriting. 

"...a powerful and distinctive vocalist and a songwriter whose appreciation for all manners of musical styles is evident in her work. Some call Davis a practitioner of "nouveau cabaret," and that certainly provides a sonic indicator." (Rick Koster, The Day) 

Josi's perception of the world and her experiences, her fun-loving and genuinely heart-felt disposition, her fondness for mischief and a series of inevitable misadventures evolved into a rivetingly intimate and continuously ripening show of songs and (mostly) true stories called The Evolution of Love. The soundtrack was released in 2013 to great acclaim as a live in-studio album of original work, nominated "Best Album" in the 2014 Connecticut Music Awards, and lauded as "one of the most powerful live experiences of the season." 

Love/Rain was Josi's beautifully produced second release, in collaboration with producer, arranger and composer Louis Anthony deLise, whose credits include a Billboard #1 with Patti LaBelle, and hits with William DeVaughn and cult dance club favorite, John Gibbs. Love/Rain is a monumental journey of perseverance, the gambles of wearing your heart on your sleeve and the rich rewards that come with waiting out the storm. Love/Rain, as it is displayed on the hauntingly stark and beautiful CD cover, is the fraction of “LOVE” over “RAIN” - representing a fragile moment in the heart of its creator, as she came to terms with watching a loved one drown in addictions and struggled every day with the consequences. 

“The songs are jazz-infused, cinematic, theatrical …  Listening to them is like an event, or like watching a film.  The songs are simply captivating… the vocals from Davis are just superb.  They are heartfelt and expressive; a little bit Liza Minelli and a little Barbra Streisand.  She’s not just singing, she’s telling a story.” – (Soundwaves Magazine) 

Themes from Davis’ own journey always play an important role in her songs and performances.  “Music is powerfully vicarious – an understanding of some deep truth… words to express something important when we can’t seem to find the right ones.  I believe in expression, and I believe in honesty,” proffers Davis, “If some experience or observation of mine put to song serves even one person trying to make sense of their own world … well then I guess I'm making progress.” Her laugh is infectious.

We know to expect genuine emotion from Josi Davis’ performances.  Anyone who has seen Josi in action has experienced how she captures a room and how we, as its momentary inhabitants, come willfully along on her journey.  Her 2023 eponymous release with the Salt Pond Poets was no exception.  This homecoming to the raw power of live room recordings harkens back to her debut, but the decade of salt and maturity has made for some exceptional songwriting.  This enticing collaboration with songwriter Chris Boyd (Big Red and the Resonators), named the #1 release of 2023 by Gramma's Attic Radio, is one of the most dynamic and unapologetic digests of love, loss and wonder told from yin and yang and beautifully assembled in red, rock, blues, ballad and tear-jerking reprise.

Josi Davis is an enigma; her open heart and humanity endear her to audiences ….She is likeable, tender, tough, sweet, salty… she has found her voice and finally come home….Hang on for a wild ride. (Ink Magazine)

"[Josi Davis'] voice can exhibit Joni Mitchell's smoky fragility, Phoebe Snow's full bodied barroom belt, and Ann Wilson's rock-and-roll wail. Occasionally, they come out all at once..." (Grace Magazine). 

Her voice is captivating and unmistakeable, her performances indulging and flavor-full; a tapas fare of life's truths and love's pizzazz.