Seth Davis Branitz
New Paltz, New York, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2014 | INDIE
Music
Press
Earthy and rasping while remaining personable and somehow sweet, Seth’s vocals bring a
storytelling, troubadour quality, while his writing suggests the poetic, personalized depths of an urban Lucinda Williams... Rarely does a musician arrive on the scene with the songwriting
craftsmanship displayed by Seth Davis.
Daid E. Feldman
- Aural Fix October, 2001
"Jules Shear. Immediately. Not quite exact, but shimmeringly close. There's a flavor in the voice. And it's the first thing you think of when Seth Davis begins to sing. Jules Shear. As Davis's third and latest disc, Morning Songs, unfurls, you being to think even more of Shear. How could that be a bad thing? It's not just the voice. It's the casual precision, the arc of melody, the weight of lyric. None of this means that Davis is an imitator, a monkey on Shear's stick. I don't even know that he's heard of Shear. But there is a shared economy, and it's a delightful place to start.
"A Softer Place to Land" opens the disc with a folk rock lilt and perhaps the album's weakest set of lyrics. But the forced hook doesn't prevent you from hitting repeat. Others, better, follow- the haunting waltz "Flannel and Blue (Laura's Song)," the relentlessly groovy "Kim," and the remarkable "Whole Life Crisis"- amplifying Davis's simple qualities. He has a keen way with both story and telling. Aimee Mann's "Mr. Harris," for example, is sung from a new point of view, not just male, but two steps to the side. Sonically, it's less baroque and little less catchy. But there's an earthiness that's worth the trade. A Queen's native, Davis's roots stretch back to the East Village anti-folk haunts of the early 90's, and that conflict- between writing, rocking, and respecting roots- is still playing out in the metaphorical grooves of Morning Songs.
-Michael Eck
Chronogram magazine, April 2013 - Chronogram
Prettier Than Blue is an embarassment of riches in more ways than one, an album stocked as full as a grocery store endcap with mostly mid-tempo songs evoking the Beatles and the quiet moments of Bruce Springsteen’s career at various turns. And if you like that sort of thing, there’s 16 songs here, all but one written by the artist.
Davis sings with an earnest voice, emotion often delivered with dramatic flair. “I Hope it’s You” is a curious exercise in which Davis sings of a man who wants to come back as a woman, more specifically the one he loves. “Two Birds,” with its spare drum track, strings, piano and overdubbed vocals personifies the overall theme, though maybe its best song is “Tommorrow (sic) at the Door,” with slide guitar enhancing its dark imagery. “I hope she’s okay,” is whispered by a woman’s voice as the song fades away, a subtle but gorgeous touch. The lone cover—“Friday I’m in Love,” originally performed by the Cure—succeeds in turning a bright pop tune into an intimate and deep tale of love. Like Sparklehorse, Davis’ music is sparse and lovely, using subtle rhythms to carry the many layers found in the songs.—Crispin Kott
Crispin Cott - Roll Magazine (Jan 5, 2009) - Roll Magazine
Discography
1994 Demos (cassette tape re-released digitally in 2011)
2001 Without Annette
2005 Prettier Than Blue
2010 Kim (single)
2012 Morning Songs
Various live performance videos and music-video productions on youtube.
Photos
Bio
I was raised poor in Queens and life was complicated and music was my best friend. I was in my early 20s my music and I went under a few different
names. I settled on "Seth Davis", thinking it was easier to remember than
my own, which I had trouble relating to for reasons of sub-zero self
esteem and because I thought my ethnic name could be alienating to some.
I formed and gigged with and recorded with several bands and then I
started doing open mics in the village and busking in Washington square
park and then playing cafs and bars as a solo act. I was at the Sidewalk Cafe on Avenue A when the "anti-folk" movement came to be with artists like Lach and Beck and at The Speakeasy with Dave Van Ronk and at the Living Room with artists such as Nora Jones & Richard Julian. I wrote constantly and recorded a few demo collections and then three records all over a span
of almost 20 years. I cooked unusual vegetarian food and then taught cooking classes to pay the rent, but wrote, recorded and played a lot around NYC and traveled to the
west coast, Ireland, England.... I found my sweetheart and lived by the
sea then lost my only brother, my mother and my father all within a few
months of 9/11/01. My sweetheart and I had 2 sons, forged our way to upstate New York and opened a small vegetarian cafe in a college town. I've been raising sons, rescuing dogs, making a lot of soup & over the past few year or so I wrote my best songs and travelled to Athens, Ga. to work with producer Jim White. (I'd played bass with his first band when he was first signed to David Byrnes' record label, Luaka Bop.).
Something has changed.
I'd always operated from an urgency to fulfill my creative destiny.
Like I had to get my work out in a big way as soon as possible.
Or else it was all a waste.
Before I get settled.
Before I have kids.
Before I get old.
Seth Davis fought the good fight.
Life throws curve balls.
I'm calling this record "Life is Long", as I'm confronting these
prerequisites to artistic fulfillment and plowing ahead with the name my parents gave me and a more
sustainable precept, which is this:
I'll keep on writing songs.
And I'll keep on singing them.
After all, if I don't...no one else will.
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