Hit Pick

Singer, songwriter and guitarist John Davis was born and raised in south Georgia, a few miles from the Okeefenokee swamp, among what he calls “unredeemed Baptists, bootleggers and riff-raff.” Davis, who moved to Colorado in 1997 and quickly became a favorite at Swallow Hill Music Hall, revisits his roots on Dreams of the Lost Tribe, his fine debut album. With echoes of early Tom Waits and Randy Newman, it’s a pastiche of Southern musical styles: the irresistible scene setter “Okeefenokee,” with its lazy, sitting-on-the-front-porch-sipping-iced-tea groove; the hard-driving, bluesy “Hurricane”; the haunting ballad “Eloisa”; the cool, jazzy “Dirty Old World.” Recorded in Broomfield with an eclectic assortment of local players, including close collaborator Sean Kelly — he’s a bassist with the Boulder Symphony Orchestra — Dreams of the Lost Tribe is a rich, sophisticated work that manages to evoke both William Faulkner and Robert Johnson. Join Davis at the Swallow Hill Cafe on Friday, June 21 for a CD-release party. He promises an evening of “caterwauling and pawing various guitars and telling outrageous lies.” Arrive early for a catfish dinner.