“Somewhere in between Bruce Springsteen and Jeff Tweedy,
DHK's raspy croon saddles up nicely on easy-rolling ballad "2
Horses"; its flip-side, "Stuck in Washington," is a
honky-tonkin' cut of pedal steel steeped Americana rock.” Seattle Weekly
Damned if you do and damned if you don’t. Seattle’s Davidson
Hart Kingsbery was born in Paris, Texas in 1979. His family moved around a lot
before settling in Washington State, raising Hart in a devout religious
environment where he sang hymns in church. After a bad early divorce, he turned
his back on the church, accepting damnation as the payback for a life of
barroom debauchery, only to discover that the country songs he’d begun to write
told stories of a different sort, that of the damnation of affairs of the heart.
His debut album 2 Horses tells the story of it all. Seattle
fans can celebrate with the band at Tractor Tavern on June 30th.
The first video, for "Don't It Sound So Sweet" is
out now, view it here: http://www.davidsonhartkingsbery.com/video.cfm
Penning songs like “Devil in his Heart” (“Whatever happened
to that good Christian boy? I hear he’s a mess got the devil on his breath.)
and “Tell Me What He Looks Like” (“So I can see him in hell”) came naturally to
Kingsbery, though it was his first foray into country songwriting. “It felt
like what I should be writing,” he said, “As a kid, my father made belt buckles
for the rodeo (as well as Bob Hope and Pavorotti!), where they are used as
trophies, they are giant and really elaborate. He’d take me with him and
I heard a lot of great country music. When I began working on country songs it
felt like coming home.” Kingsbery finds inspiration in favorites like Charlie
Rich and Doug Sahm as well as soulful artists like Bo Diddley and Al Green.
The band formed in 2010 and shortly after, they were
invited to serve as house band for a series of underground 2-step parties.
Playing marathon sets instilled the kind of locked-in musical teamwork that can
take some bands years. Building a fanbase from the two steppers, they began
playing around Seattle and found that the dance movement was contagious. “You
don’t see much dancing at regular shows here, but when we started playing out
and our dancers showed up and hit the floor, suddenly all kinds of kids were getting
up and jumping around. It’s pretty cool.” After hooking up with Fin Records,
DHK released a translucent yellow/orange 7” with “2 Horses” and “Stuck in
Washington” in March; their full length release (also titled 2 Horses)
is available on June 26th. The album was recorded with Martin Feveye ar (Mark
Lanegan, Presidents of the United States of America, John Wesley Harding) at
Jupiter Studios.
After his birth in a rent house in Paris, Kingsbery’s
Christian Scientist parents remember that he stopped breathing and after they
prayed to God, he started breathing again. He continued to have breathing
issues growing up and immersed himself in art and music instead of sports.
After being completely immersed in his religion, in college he began to
question everything it represented and the leaders he’d once looked up to.
Eventually turning his back on what had once been his entire world, he headed
back to Seattle and settled in the working class stronghold of Ballard. After
leading the Kinks/Beatles-influenced Hart and the Hurricane, a girlfriend
started playing Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash, Buck Owens and others and his long
dormant love of country music was reignited.
Hart may have left the large, close-knit community of the
church, but he’s gained a new family, who share a love of timeless music and
dancing. “I’m gonna keep writing ‘till I die,” he promised.
For more information about Davidson Hart Kingsbery, visit http://www.davidsonhartkingsbery.com
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