John Davey

Summer Nightwind is the fourth studio album by songwriter John Davey. It was composed in the months preceding the birth of his daughter. “Late Bloomer” is the first single. It establishes the paradoxical relationship between the life of the imagination and the embodied experience of day-to-day routine, a theme which plays throughout the album. The title track is an homage to the American West and the memory of Davey’s older brother. “Summer Nightwind” depicts A Truck, A Horse, A Man and closes the chapter on adolescence.

“AM Angel” and “Jesus is a Friend (of the Working Man)” are set to the rhythm of manual labor and the natural movement of people across land. They return Davey to the gospel of his youth, a denominator of both country music and rock ‘n roll.

The give-and-take of an intimate relationship plays out in “Laugh Track” and “Sacred Heart”. Both are accompanied by the narrator’s promise to be a presence to contend with.

The final set of companion songs on Summer Nightwind are the character sketches “Sad Prince” and “Employee of the Month” which examine anti-heroes in two dramatic coming-of-age sequences. These are set to the backdrop of a stripped down indie rock so familiar to listening ears in John Davey’s era.

“Our Ladies Anno Domini” is the jubilant, tongue-in-cheek end of the record which enters with laughter and a halfcocked appreciation into the spirit of the Feminine. The only song on Summer Nightwind which was planted before the northern migration, the refrain gratifies and sets the stage for a second listen.

The sound of Summer Nightwind was conceived of by Davey’s longtime collaboration with drummer Bud Clowers and his baritone guitar. The album was produced by John Davey and Ryan Staples at Dead River Sound in Marquette, Michigan and elevated by performances from Mark Wayne (pedal steel guitar), Luke Arquette (bass and electric guitar), Liam Joyce (drums), and Pete Gummerson (organ). It was mastered by TW Walsh (Pedro the Lion, Sufjan Stevens, Damien Jurado) in Massachusetts.