Double Scoop Country

"The album Sad But True is actually the secret history of country music songwriting volume one,” jokes Delaney Davidson, enigmatic Kiwi songwriter, self-described as “part wandering minstrel, part travelling salesman”. He and simpatico songwriting cohort Marlon Williams teamed up to write the album after a chance meeting that Davidson swears is true –it just also happens to be a conveniently brilliant anecdote.

“Marlon and I were double-booked to play the same concert by accident,” he begins. “Someone I knew had a residency on Wednesday nights, and was going on tour. So, he asked me if I'd do it for him. I turned up at the show and Marlon was there as well – it took us ten seconds to realise we were both booked to cover for him. We introduced ourselves and talked about whether we would do alternate weeks, but in the end we decided to do it together. So we worked out what songs we both knew and liked and realised that we both loved the same songwriting.”

After discussing how they would work out their performance, the pair decided to take a chance on the knife's edge of spontaneous and very public musical experimentation. Luckily for the pair, their unrehearsed duets worked so well that they continued out the few weeks of the fill-in shift together.

“After the shows were finished, we decided we still wanted to work together. Marlon had a job working in the local dairy making ice-creams – he makes really good ice-cream. In fact, the dairy where he worked had an international reputation as an ice-cream maker. Luckily, he made the right choice in the end, and chose making music, over making ice-cream, which is fortunate for me and our album.”

What was revealed to both Davidson and Williams by their sudden collaboration was not just their mutual love of the same kinds of music – Americana, country music, sad and lonesome storytelling music – but their fortunate and rare computability of temperament as musicians and creatives.

“I think we both have real respect for each other's style of writing. We both are quite…” he pauses to choose the right words, “ego free in the way we have a real respect and love for the song itself. That's basically the most important thing to us – the song, how it ends up.”

That's not to say the pair are interchangeable – in fact, as Davidson explains, there's a partnership of complementary songwriting territories.

“We have a very different modus. Marlon likes the fictional side of songwriting; he creates people and personas that don't exist. He creates whole worlds that the songs are set in, sometimes very geographically specific places. Whereas me, I tend to be more broadly focussed on the human condition. I like to say things that I think will mean something to people. I like to ask people what they think life's about, or why they think things happen. I think the two approaches are a great combination, and very often, they work together.”

Prior to his collaboration with Williams, Davidson had billed himself “the loneliest man alive”; it's perhaps a great motivator for songwriting, but in the life of a touring musician difficult to believe – there seems to be semi-constant company both on and off stage. But it's quality, not quantity, for Davidson, and with Williams perhaps he's the loneliest man no longer.

“It's a weird paradox. If you are a one-man band you do a lot of travelling; it's not just a shtick I adopt, it's a definite part of my life. I have good friends all over the world but it's not the same as being with people who have known you for a long time – there's only so much you can share. A relationship's strength comes from trust and the knowledge that you'll continue to be around.”

Delaney Davidson will be playing the following shows:

Thursday 22 November - The Public Bar, North Melbourne VIC
Friday 23 November - The Spotted Mallard, Brunswick VIC
Saturday 24 November - Old Bar, Melbourne VIC