Davina and The Vagabonds‘ new album Shoot for the Moon will be released on May 31 with a special hometown show at St. Paul’s Ordway Center for the Performing Arts. It’s a great album, a great opportunity to see an engaging performer and to check out the Flint Hills Family Festival. We had the pleasure of chatting with Davina Sowers in December 2020 and are thankful she could tell us more about the upcoming album with 5 Questions!
I love the start of the album, Shoot for the Moon, what is the inspiration and what gave you the courage lead with the AM radio feel?
It’s such a warm inviting sound for me. The searching/scanning for THAT song. The song that calls to you at that very moment. To me that song is Shoot for the Moon. “You better hold her steady – She’s gonna shoot for the Moon and you’re invited too!”
The version of Let Me Call You Sweetheart I know best is when Alfalfa sings it in The Little Rascals. What I love about your version is that it starts with that Alfalfa-musical-saw feel and ends with your rich updated vocals. How do you choose which covers to play and how to interpret them?
That specific song was sung to me growing up. My dad would sing it. He was my adopted dad and was born in 1902. He taught me a lot of those songs. That one sticks out to me the most. So sweet and loving. As for the interpreting… It’s one of my favorite things to do. Keep it honest as is was originally written, while truly making it your own. You gotta love a song to pull that off and that song means the world to me. The saw was a given to me. It gives me the same feels as I got when my Dad played records on his Edison. This strange, can I say creepy ring that lightly sits on every note. Gorgeous.
I love the dramatic start of Ho Hum, there’s an edginess and sinister sound. Please tell us more about that song.
Sometimes when you sit on my couch (just in one spot) you hear/feel the grain silos and trains scooting down Hiawatha in SMPLS. It’s a hum that last for hours and hours. I love trains and grew up in a railroad town, but that hum. Whew. It made me a bit crazy. I would sit and stew in my frustration of not working during the pandemic in that spot. I was so unbelievably stressed about how I was gonna make it through. The anxiety was real. Then I would laugh. I spent YEARS complaining of how busy I was before the “Big Break” – The music business isn’t for the faint of heart. So maybe it’s just a grandiose arranged song based on my anxiety and curse of ambition.
On the opposite extreme is Life Lessons. Even without listening to the lyrics, the song is sorrowful. With the lyrics, whoa. Does singing it feel empowering, vulnerable or both?
It’s important to sit with sorrow. Empowering, Scary, lonely, hopeful, hopeless, sadness. It’s all in there for me and this song. I probably won’t be singing that live very often. But I felt I needed to write it and record it.
Please tell us about album release show in St Paul.
THIS RELEASE!!!! AHHHH! I know that I’m nervous about it, but in a heart filled good way! It’s on May 31st at The Ordway. I roped them in to allowing me to do my release during their love filled Flint Hill Family Festival. The festival is a celebration of the artist in every child. That is so so so important. I was a weird kid that grew up way too quick and I think it’s such a wonderful way to allow children to be children with creativity.
For the show, The Vagabonds and I will be running down the whole album on that beautiful stage with some amazing local guest musicians. ( Jillian Rae – Fiddle- Violin / Violist Kirsti Petraborg / Hammond B3 Organist – Toby Marshall ) A lot of these songs have NEVER been played to an audience before. I love the vulnerability in that. Truly one of the reasons I love being on stage for those little moments of “Hold on Tight!”
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