by C.J. Hill
One year has passed since Garrick decided to figure out how to record music on his own using his Macbook and imagination. The initial purpose was to get back to creating music, as the most recent years were spent mostly on learning to navigate a decidedly complex business, leaving songwriting as merely a frustration. The idea of creating a new record album burst forward when new ideas started to flow as a result of changes in his personal life which led to a sense of "self" never experienced previously.
Inspired by a friend's suggestion, Garrick began experimenting with the recording process to engage in songwriting as therapy. This eventually evolved into producing studio quality tracks developed by way of countless hours helped along by a friend who is an audio engineer who in hearing the potential became involved as the non-emotionally driven counterpoint to Garrick's recorded musical vision. Musicial contributors on the upcoming album include not only traditional FunkyBand personnel like drummer Grant Slam, percussionist Julia Harrell, bassist AJ(Artis Joyce) but also Cello Joe and perhaps most noteably Garrick's 17 year old son Zach who graces more tracks on this production than anyone else aside from his father. He has grown as a musician and is given much freedom to experience the value of creating his own voice through inspiration by "those who came before" in the same way Jimi Hendrix initially inspired Garrick's guitar playing.
Other special appearances on the album include Garrick's parents. Ernest, 81, who before starting family was an accomplished and sought after drummer, plays percussion on his legs, "trading eights" with GD on a joyful track called "Happy June". Garrick's mother Marie, an effervescent personality and opera-trained singer joins her son on the outro to the title track, helping to create a wall of sound chanting "know your self, be your self, love your self..." in the final soaring crescendo alongside crushing guitars, drums and all.
Thus, the key to the potential success of this record lies not only with the songs but with the community of Garrick has drawn in to bring a no-more-excuses attitude and life to the music and it's ability to reach out and draw others in. The philosophies espoused within the aural jewels are pertinent, valuable and as conciously inspiring as soundtracks to life. Clear, logical, compelling. Themes about relationships are intermeshed with issues of family, direction, roles, values, experience, spirituality.
In time Garrick came to realize that much of his life has been spent keeping up with the Joneses, not fully focusing on what is and will always be inside of himself. This something many others can relate to. This is why many people lose touch with their "inner child" and trade this for "the good life".
The privilege an Garrick the artist experiences to perpetuate his art is to live openly, conciously and express through his medium of music. Anyone around while he's working will be blasted by infectious laughter and a true sense of peace.
The opening verse of the title song "Expose Your Self" questions:
"Why hold on to the secret that is burning inside you?
You turned away from your heart and broke your own rules.
You sold your self."
Though it is Garrick's hope to inspire positive thoughts and actions in others, it is as a result of "heartbreak", disappoinments, personal developments and changes that an acceptance of the "dark" and the "light" of life "are what they are" and help to provide the strength of character necessary to make a difference for the betterment of our own selves, situations and eventually if not immediately, our society.
"Expose Your Self" simply reads "Be real with your self, be real with others". The logic in this is apparent, expressing a sense of self value normally reserved for children with nurturing parents. We lose this sense of self for various reasons, including a quaker-esque humility that many times squelches ambition and individuality to "fit in". To be our best "self" does not include submission to other humans to fit in. To hold back from who we are is to establish a lie. To do this holds others back from believing in their own magnificence.
This is why you should care about this record. This is why this project should and will matter to you. The truths reverberate throughout the music and events connected with Garrick's efforts to stay the course in spite of the difficulty and adversity along the way. Garrick knows that his purest objective is to create beauty and connection with others.
His is an example worth telling your friends and children of. That you tell them and others to not lose their hope, faith or belief in what is right for them because it's too difficult. Garrick Davis sings about it and lives it, now!
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