I recently saw singer-songwriter Andy Davis perform at Rams Head On Stage in Annapolis. He performed as special guest before Dave Mason. Unfamiliar with his music, I first checked out his Web site (www.andydavisonline.com). The site opens up with some of Andy’s tunes and within a few seconds I thought, “Oooh I like Andy Davis.” When I got to Rams Head, I quickly realized that I was easily the youngest person there—and likely the person closest in age to 25-year-old Davis. Seeing as Dave Mason, made famous in the 70s performing with the band Traffic, has a following of “old hippies,” as my dad proudly told me (he himself, one of those “old hippies”) this wasn't much of surprise.

Davis’ music is a nice blend of pop and rock with some lyrics that could easily earn the title of “lovely” with an acoustic style that was refreshingly clean and some painfully romantic and bittersweet lyrics. My favorite song of the night was “Good Life,” an ode to the carefree days of college that I could relate to entirely considering my own nostalgia for my not so distant college days. Davis’ performance definitely hit a chord with me, enough that I bought his CD and have been listening faithfully to ever since.

Davis himself was engaging and funny. After asking the crowd if anyone had heard any of his music before and then learning (probably not too surprisingly) that most hadn't, Andy played a cover that the audience sang along to. “I'm so glad you finally knew one of my songs,” he said. I was quite impressed by the way the crowd was taken with him, especially considering how different his sound was compared to the rockers he preceded. He had everyone clapping, even snapping, and cheering by the end.

Before his last song of the night, Davis asked the crowd, “You know when you're at a concert and the band plays that one song everyone know and the crowd goes crazy….can we do that?” And we did. The show was fun and my main surprise of the night was that I hadn’t heard his music before.

Andy Davis’ album Let the Woman is available exclusively at Barnes and Noble.

Update: Andy Davis will return to the Rams Head on April 25th with Dave Barnes.

—Katie Redmiles