Matthew Davidson

Last updated
Matthew Davidson
2023 3 31 Travis Denning Six String.jpg
Matthew Davidson
Background information
Born (1998-02-18) February 18, 1998 (age 26)
Origin Shreveport, Louisiana, U.S.
GenresCountry, Pop/Rock, Blues,
Instrument(s) Guitar, vocals
Website http://www.matthewdavidson.net/

Matthew Davidson is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter originally from Shreveport, Louisiana and now based in Nashville, Tennessee. He is currently touring with Conner Smith after touring for five years with Travis Denning. He has performed at the Grand Ole Opry, on Today with Hoda and Jenna, and on Broadway in downtown Nashville at venues such as Dierks Whiskey Row, The Stage, Legends Corner, Second Fiddle, Jason Aldean's, and Tootsie's. He graduated in 2020 from Belmont University with a Bachelor of Music in Commercial Guitar.

Contents

Awards and experience

Davidson was the winner of the 2011 Robert Johnson Blues Foundation/Gibson Guitar New Generation Award. His debut EP "Step Up" was released in 2012 and produced by bassist Joe Osborn. It was followed by his 2014 EP "Cross My Heart". Davidson was nominated for "2012 Best Emerging Artist" by OffBeat (music magazine) in New Orleans in their annual "Best of the Beat" Awards.

Davidson performed as a guest soloist with The Shreveport Symphony Orchestra in May, 2015. His original song “Read My Mind” was selected as a semi-finalist in the 2014 International Songwriting Competition.

Davidson and his band opened for Austin Mahone in 2014, Fifth Harmony in 2015 and Rachel Platten in 2016.

Photographer Robert M. Knight invited Davidson to join “The Brotherhood of the Guitar” (BOTG). The BOTG is a project launched by Knight and sponsored by Ernie Ball. The BOTG’s purpose is to shine a spotlight on a select group of unsigned up-and-coming young guitar players from around the world. Davidson was the featured BOTG member in the September 2013 issue of Guitar Center magazine.

Davidson was selected by The Grammy Foundation to attend both 2014 and 2015 Grammy Camp in Nashville, Tennessee, hosted by Belmont University. The camp offered high school students a week-long immersive music experience, focusing on all aspects of commercial music and taught by industry professionals. Applicants were selected based on submissions of performance and interview videos.

In 2013, he placed in the Top 10 in an international guitar contest sponsored by Capitol Records and The Beach Boys.

Davidson won his first electric guitar in the 2007 James Burton Guitar Showdown. He was the youngest of eight student guitarists selected to play with Kenny Wayne Shepherd at his 2009 Artbreak Concert. He has played at the B.B. King Museum and the B.B. King Homecoming Concert in Indianola, Mississippi, and the Delta Blues Fest in Greenville, where in addition to his own set, he sat in with Honeyboy Edwards for a few songs. Davidson has played at the Pinetop Perkins Homecoming Celebration and the famous Ground Zero in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Davidson performed at the Dallas International Guitar Festival and in the Youth Showcase at the 2011 International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tennessee, jamming at the B. B. King Blues Club while he was there. Other venues where Davidson has performed are The Strand Theatre (Shreveport, Louisiana), Temple Theater (Meridian, Mississippi), The Ellis Marsalis Center in the Musicians' Village, New Orleans Mint in New Orleans, and the Shreveport Municipal Memorial Auditorium, home of the Louisiana Hayride. In 2013, Davidson was invited to join Kenny Wayne Shepherd on stage at the 59Twenty Music Festival in Meridian, Mississippi.

He was selected out of several hundred applicants to be the guitarist for the 2011 Kidd Kraddick Rock Camp Band. As part of this camp, Davidson had the opportunity to perform live on the air on the nationally syndicated radio show "Kidd Kraddick in the Morning".

Davidson has had the honor of sharing the stage with Joe Osborn, Jerry Beach, Brady Blade, and Patrick Stump from Fall Out Boy. Davidson's musical taste was largely acquired from listening to his father's CD collection of music by The Beatles, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, John Mayer and Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Early career performances

The Matthew Davidson Band made their debut on June 25, 2010. They played at The James Burton International Guitar Festival, the State Fair of Louisiana, Independence Stadium, the Krewe of Centaur Parade, the Natchitoches Jazz/R&B Festival, Holiday in Dixie, AlleyFest in Longview, Texas, Fort Worth Mayfest, Grapefest in Grapevine, Texas, The T-Bone Walker Blues Fest in Linden, Texas, Crossroads Music Company in Winnsboro, Texas and the KTBS 3 Independence Day Festival. They were honored to be selected as the Grand Marshals of the Krewe of Aesclepius Mardi Gras Parade. The Matthew Davidson Band performed at the Dallas House of Blues, the Hard Rock Cafe in Dallas, on Red River Radio and headlined the Mississippi Blues Marathon in Jackson, Mississippi. They performed at the 2011 King Biscuit Blues Festival in Helena, Arkansas, the 2012 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, the 2012 Natchitoches Christmas Festival, the 2013 Baton Rouge FestForAll and the 2013 Louisiana Seafood Festival in New Orleans.

Independent albums

TitleDetails
Cross My Heart
  • Release date: April 8, 2014
  • Label: Magnet Music
  • Formats: CD, Digital download
Heartbreaker
  • Release date: Sept. 10, 2013
  • Label: Magnet Music
  • Formats: Single - Digital download
Step Up
  • Release date: August 18, 2012
  • Label: Magnet Music
  • Formats: CD, Digital download

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shreveport, Louisiana</span> City in Louisiana, United States

Shreveport is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the third-most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge. The bulk of Shreveport is in Caddo Parish, of which it is the parish seat. It extends along the west bank of the Red River into neighboring Bossier Parish. The 2020 census tabulation for the city's population was 187,593, while the Shreveport–Bossier City metropolitan area had a population of 393,406.

Boogie-woogie is a genre of blues music that became popular during the late 1920s, developed in African-American communities since the 1870s. It was eventually extended from piano to piano duo and trio, guitar, big band, country and western music, and gospel. While standard blues traditionally expresses a variety of emotions, boogie-woogie is mainly dance music. The genre had a significant influence on rhythm and blues and rock and roll.

The music of Louisiana can be divided into three general regions: rural south Louisiana, home to Creole Zydeco and Old French, New Orleans, and north Louisiana. The region in and around Greater New Orleans has a unique musical heritage tied to Dixieland jazz, blues, and Afro-Caribbean rhythms. The music of the northern portion of the state starting at Baton Rouge and reaching Shreveport has similarities to that of the rest of the US South.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marcia Ball</span> Musical artist

Marcia Ball is an American blues singer and pianist raised in Vinton, Louisiana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sam Chatmon</span> American Delta blues musician (1897–1983)

Vivian "Sam" Chatmon was a Delta blues guitarist and singer who was a member of the Mississippi Sheiks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sonny Landreth</span> American blues musician

Clide Vernon "Sonny" Landreth is an American blues musician from southwest Louisiana who is especially known as a slide guitar player. He was born in Canton, Mississippi, and settled in Lafayette, Louisiana. He lives in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Randolph and the Family Band</span> American gospel band

Robert Randolph and the Family Band is an American gospel band led by pedal steel guitarist Robert Randolph. NPR has described the band as one with an "irresistible rock 'n' roll swagger". Rolling Stone included Randolph upon their list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. The band has released six studio albums and has been Grammy nominated four times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kidd Kraddick</span> U.S. radio personality and voice actor (1959–2013)

David Peter Cradick was an American radio host and television personality, known as Kidd Kraddick. His nationally syndicated morning radio show, The Kidd Kraddick Morning Show, is based in Irving, Texas, and aired throughout the United States, syndicated by Kraddick's company, YEA Networks. He was also seen on the nationally syndicated Dish Nation television show weeknights around the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kidd Jordan</span> American saxophonist (1935–2023)

Edward "Kidd" Jordan was an American jazz saxophonist and music educator from New Orleans, Louisiana. He taught at Southern University at New Orleans from 1974 to 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Snooks Eaglin</span> American musician

Fird Eaglin Jr., known as Snooks Eaglin, was an American guitarist and singer based in New Orleans. In his early years he was sometimes credited under other names, including Blind Snooks Eaglin, "Lil" Snook, Ford Eaglin, Blind Guitar Ferd.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenny Brown (guitarist)</span> Musical artist

Kenny Brown is an American blues slide guitarist skilled in the North Mississippi Hill Country blues style.

<i>The Kidd Kraddick Morning Show</i> American morning radio program

The Kidd Kraddick Morning Show is an American ensemble morning radio show that originates from Dallas, Texas. The show is heard weekday mornings on flagship station, KHKS, and on dozens of other radio stations around the U.S., airing either a Top 40/CHR, Mainstream Adult Contemporary or Hot Adult Contemporary radio format.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anders Osborne</span> American singer-songwriter (born 1966)

Anders Osborne is an American singer-songwriter. He tours solo and with a band, and often plays in North Mississippi Osborne (N.M.O), a group formed by Osborne and North Mississippi Allstars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Big Sam (musician)</span> American musician and band leader

Sammie "Big Sam" Williams is an American trombonist and band leader from New Orleans, Louisiana. He has been a member of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and leads Big Sam's Funky Nation.

Oscar "Buddy" Woods was an American Texas blues guitarist, singer and songwriter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eugene Bridges</span> American singer and musician

Eugene Bridges, usually credited as Eugene "Hideaway" Bridges, is an American blues and soul singer, songwriter, guitarist, and bandleader who has released seven albums and has performed widely in the US, Asia, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cedric Burnside</span> American blues musician and songwriter

Cedric O. Burnside is an American electric blues guitarist, drummer, singer and songwriter. He is the son of blues drummer Calvin Jackson and grandson of blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist R. L. Burnside.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johnny Sansone</span> American singer

John "Johnny" Sansone, also known as Jumpin' Johnny Sansone, is an American electric blues singer, songwriter, harmonicist, accordionist, guitarist and piano player. He was nominated for seven music awards in 2012, including a Blues Music Award which he won. To date, he has been involved in the release of twelve original albums.

Lance Lopez is an American blues rock and Texas blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter. Lopez has been influenced by Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Jeff Beck has described Lopez as "a very exciting and intense blues guitarist". Lopez has spoken over the years about being mentored by both Billy Gibbons and Johnny Winter. Lopez was aged 16 at the time he met Gibbons, and they have remained friends throughout.

References