New music alert

Baton Rouge-based band Benjy Davis Project opened a window to their world with the November 4 album release, Dust, melding elements of folk, country, and pop into a sound that practically begs to be played on a cross-country road trip.

The folk-anthem style is reminiscent of sun-bleached memories and over-grown prairie grasses tucking in the dusty back-roads at sunset while the warm breeze carries wisps of hair across your face in a place where everyone knows your name.

Benjy Davis Project consists of Benjy Davis (lead vocals, acoustic and electric guitar, and namesake of the band), Mic Capdevielle (drums, percussion, vocals), Jonathan Lawhun (electric lead guitar, banjo), Matt Rusnak (bass guitar), and Michael Balasso (piano, B3 organ, Wurlitzer, harmonica, vocals). The Project, discovered by Rock Ridge Music A&R Consultant Bobby Capps, signed with Rock Ridge Music label in 2008.

DUST was produced by David Z., whose resume includes work with Prince, Fine Young Cannibals, and Jonny Lang, is the pinnacle of in-the-moment performances, and a glimpse of what is yet to come for the Project as they hone their sound for the fans waiting for the music to find them.

“These sessions were more raw, more real,” Davis said. “These songs were much easier to write. I wasn’t thinking as much as feeling the songs out. I wasn’t making any lyrical changes or edits or anything that would take me elsewhere.”

This writer’s favorite song is the Mason Jennings-esque track number one, The Rain, with it’s lulling ambient beat and stark lyrical truths sung by Davis’s dry, piercing vocals infused with a slight southern lilt.

Check out their website at http://www.bdpmusic.com for more info.