Harpist Mikaela Davis and her band Southern Star, released their first album as a unit this week. The album, simply called Mikaela Davis and Southern Star, is also her first release in five years and her first on label Kill Rock Stars.
The band however, is not new, and most of them have been playing together since before her last album, Delivery was released. Joining Davis’ harp is Alex Cote on drums, who has been friends with Davis, and been playing with her in some way or another, since they went to school together just outside Rochester, NY. From nearby Syracuse, Cian McCarthy plays guitar and his brother Shane picks up bass duties. Rounding out the quintet is Kurt Johnson on pedal steel and guitar, originally hailing from Rochester southern outskirts, he has been a fixture in the city’s music scene, along with Davis and Cote for many years.
Mikaela Davis and Southern Star, the band, is locally-grown, organically-formed, and grade-A quality. Mikaela Davis and Southern Star, the album, is a superb documentation of their unique and diverse sound that will equally satisfy the hunger of the most ardent fans and those that have yet to get a taste.
It is rare for a harp to front a rock band, rarer still for a harp to intermingle with a pedal steel. Add in a guitar and bass and Southern Star comes in with a whole lot of strings in tow. It works incredibly well, and provides the band with a lot of versatility.
The set eases into the listeners ears with the beautiful harp melody in opening track “Cinderella.” With Davis’ voice and Johnson’s moaning pedal steel work joining in shortly after, the unique magic embedded inside is immediately apparent. From there each track adds new and interesting elements into the fold until the palette is revealed in full. It explodes into an extended guitar-led workout on album-closing “Leave It Alone,” before petering into ambient spaciness. But the band isn’t quite ready to call it a day and the jam re-emerges for another couple minutes like a classic album hidden track.
In between, the album jumps through genres effortlessly. Country rock awash in early 70’s psychedelia moves to pop-tinged folk, languid grooves flip over to muscular choogle. Despite it’s diversity it all comes across as a coherent whole, a satisfying full album listen with a rich and timeless-sounding production that should keep this a regular on the turntable or streams for years to come.
Top tracks: Saturday Morning, Don’t Stop Now, Leave It Alone
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