When: 2nd May 2025
Where: Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England
This is fast becoming a habit. And a most welcome one at that. Last year, Ryan Davis, the American multi-instrumentalist, artist, and songwriter from Louisville, Kentucky, was over here to play the EU and UK for the very first time. His show at the Fulford Arms in York was one of my gigs, if not the gig of 2024. Some eleven months later, he is back in this country again, this time appearing as Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band. There is still some way to go in 2025, but this performance tonight is already right up there as a leading contender for my top gig of the year.
Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band create a sound that is a joyful reminder of Silver Jews and peak-period Neil Young and Crazy Horse when they really get to cut loose and the band is represented on this trip by Ryan Davis, naturally, on guitar, vocals, and the occasional melodica; DD Bongo on keys and one, solitary bongo; Jim Marlowe on drums; LT on bass guitar; Christian DeRoeck on guitar; and Jenny Rose who augments the band on standing vox from ‘Junk Drawer Heart’ midway through this set right through to the closing ‘Bluebirds Revisited.’
Those two tracks are from the Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band album Dancing on the Edge, the record from 2023 that Ryan Davis showcased when playing here solo last June and which is again right to the fore tonight. Quite radically different interpretations of the songs on each occasion, but both are equally brilliant.
I took some photos of this show:
Some more photos of Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band at Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
