MEET THE REST OF THE BAND

Morgan Rael: Steel Pan, Lead Guitar, Harmonica and Percussion
Danny Silber: Keyboards, Harmonica, Percussion
Paul Dirks: Bass, Backup Vocals
Ryan Diehl: Drums

Barefoot Davis Biography

World famous sailor and author, "Capt. Fatty Goodlander" sums it up best; "I've spend many a wonderful night playing music and getting in trouble with Barefoot Davis Murray at Latitude 18 on St. Thomas. My two favorite songs of his are "Junk In The Trunk" and "South Kacalacky". He's the real deal... the kind of guy Jimmy Buffett WANTS to be!"

 

Barefoot Davis Murray, a native of Brookfield, Massachusetts, is well known in the Virgin Islands as the long-standing fleet captain for the Caribbean 1500 Cruising Rally. He's logged over 100,000 ocean miles between the rally and six transatlantic crossings. Along the way, the rhythm of the sea has led Davis on yet another voyage. A musical beat now pulsates along with the seawater flowing through his veins. As a singer-songwriter he pens and performs an original mix of seafaring and Caribbean-themed tunes.

Davis' launch into the music world came almost decade ago. "I had always wanted to learn to play guitar. One night I sat with "Lightnin" Phil Robinson after the Caribbean 1500. I handed him a Heineken and asked him to show me a couple of cords. When I played what he had shown me he told me that I had rhythm." Encouraged by that, Davis began his musical journey.

Davis headed for the States to train for the Worrell 1000 - an arduous 1000-mile offshore sailing race from Miami Beach to Virginia Beach - aboard a 20' beach cat. He picked up a second-hand guitar for $200 and learned two cords, then three cords, and soon a whole song. Davis started writing his own songs and soon his reputation as a musician was known up and down the east coast. "Everybody knew I played and wanted me to play for them during the Worrell, but sometimes I'd have a hard time just squeezing off one song. My hands were so sore after a day of racing."

"I call my music 'Island Country'," he says. "The lyrics for all of the songs I've written have come from a particular experience, or something that was special to me, or about someone I met". Davis' first song, "Walk with me in the Sand" was written for a couple of sailing friends. Another, "Rum is the Answer? What is the Question!" grew out of a popular phrase a day-sail captain on St. Thomas coined when he wanted to get the crew's attention. "South Kacalacky" is slang for South Carolina," he explains. "The song came about when I helped Glen Davis build his new catamaran Daydreamer up there. At night we'd head over to Roger Bellows music shop, go into his back room and pick. I came up with the core of the song, and Roger and his friends put a lead on it and embellished it. That was a lot of fun."

Some songwriters agonize over writing their tunes, but Davis has a natural knack. "I woke up one morning and there was a song in my head. Everything was there. So, I sat down and wrote it. It was about a fictitious person, a boat bum who played music and drank too much. That was 'One-Eyed Dan' who saw twice as much as any man. We end up burying him at sea at the end of the song."

About his island-style inspiration, Davis says, "the Caribbean is an atmosphere conducive to music. No propane heaters. No frozen fingers. No TV news. No stateside politics. I'm in my element and I like the comfortable sound of life here."

The move from picking with friends to center stage came when round-the-world single-handed sailor and songwriter, Donna Lange, invited him up on stage with her. "That was back in 1999. Donna was my neighbor at Sapphire Marina and she'd sing for her supper at the Toad & Tart. She invited me up with her one night - it was the first time I played in front of people."

Between sailing trips, Davis would always come back to St. Thomas where he played at the local open-mic nights hosted by island legend, Nicky Russell. "I've been really fortunate living on St. Thomas and getting to jam with a lot of really great musicians."

Today, Davis heads up the Barefoot Davis Band. "My main man is Morgan Rael. He plays the lead parts, on harmonica, or percussion, or guitar, or steel pan - sometimes even two instruments at once! We easily incorporate guest musicians up on the stage as well."

2007 sees Barefoot Davis launching his first CD. 'Daydreamin' in the VI features 10 of his most popular songs, including "Walk With Me In The Sand", "Rum is the Answer" and "One-Eyed Dan".