Randy Davis

Randy Davis was born in Sacramento and grew up with the Beatles and a generation of writers who made a guitar seem like a doorway. He settled in Huntington Beach in 1977, put his early original work on a demo tape and secured a publishing deal. That early encouragement made the idea of being a songwriter a real profession rather than a distant wish. A band followed. Randy connected with guitarist Rick Weller and bassist Greg Boyer, and together they built the first lousy little gods, playing Southern California stages and opening for established touring acts. The years brought different routes for the players, but Randy's commitment to original songs never entirely went quiet. The later version of the band introduced drummer Ken Kowalski and bassist/keyboardist Darren Smith, whose different musical histories transformed the material. Their current trio draws from Americana and alt-country without forgetting the force of rock, the pocket of R&B or the conversational power of the lyric. Tonight at Campus JAX is another chapter of a long musical life: less about where a career has been than what the next song might say.