One of the proudest moments in my professional career helping other artist came when I found out that Kelly Ray Davis and Rodney Crisp
had signed to Sony. Also known as the soon-to-be supergroup Crisp & Davis, these guys have been a part of the NashvilleHype! family of artist for many years. They’ve worked tirelessly on their career and have attempted to seize on every opportunity thrown their way. As a result, in their neck of the woods (West Virginia) they can regularly draw 4,000 to their shows and have had a couple of songs beat out all others on the big local country stations to be #1 songs – for weeks at a time (no small feat in this day and age).
And here in Nashville? Well, let’s just say that the guys have finally reached the cream of the crop – there’s not one songwriter that doesn’t want to write with them, and who isn’t secretly praying they make the cut on what’s sure to be one of the hottest records to come out of Nashville in years. It’s funny how things change, and I hope that gives you that are reading this a little hope as well – because it was only a few years ago I was practically the only person in town willing to talk to the guys, take their calls, or answer their emails. Things can change with talent, hard work, dedication, a little luck, and some good advice from someone who knows his stuff but doesn’t have a vested interest. And now the guys are hotter than Alan Jackson’s hoochie’s coochie.
Like Victoria Banks and Stormy Montana, I’ve not had the guys on NashvilleHype! in a while – so I wanted to catch up and see how things are progressing – which I was able to do recently with Kelly.
What have you been up to since we last had you on site?
Writing our tails off getting ready to cut our first record for Sony BMG Nashville.
Any moment in the past year stand out?
Today when I woke up… I was just thankful to the Good Lord for giving me another day.
Who are some of the people you’ve worked with?
There is a big list here so I’ll try to keep it as small as possible. Joe Scaife is our producer. As far as songwriting within the industry, I write regularly with Anthony Smith, Jason Matthews, Bobby Pinson, Rivers Rutherford, Chris Stapleton, Rhett Akins, Marv Green, Jeremy Stover, Henry Paul, and on and on. I don’t want to cut anyone out, it’s just a huge list but should give you a general idea anyway. As far as artist goes, man there isn’t enough time to even start to list them. Lets just say that we’ve shared the stage with a hell of a lot of household names.
What was your best show?
ALL OF THEM! I just love being up on stage and playing for a great crowd, and if there’s one thing C&D always seems to have, it’s a great crowd.
Any new instruments?
I bought myself some new gitfiddles this year.
What’s your favorite instrument?
The guitar of course ;-)
What’s your take on how the industry is performing?
It is what it is.
Have a favorite artist? someone who knocks your socks off?
Anthony Smith, The Jompson Brothers, SplitNixon, Rick Huckaby, and Leslie Craig to name a few.
Any regrets so far?
Regrets, Um? Thats a tough question Paul. I have some past regrets with my life in general, but not one that I can think of in my music career other than the fact that I don’t see or contact my old rock band mates that got me into this lifestyle in the first place.
What Charities are you working with or supporting?
C&D don’t have one certain charity that we work for, however, we play for tons of charities. I think the last one we played was with Jeff Bates, which was a charity for the blind.
What’s next for you?
Cutting a master record in march for Sony, getting a smash single off of that record, and then taking our show across this great country that we live in. Lord willing we’ll win over some new fans in the process.
Anything else you want to plug, talk about or mention?
YES! As a matter of a fact I do, I wanna plug you Paul King! You are a great fella and I’m damn proud to call you my friend! I wish nothing but the best for you and NashvilleHype!. I’ve been in the NashvilleHype! family for so long that I think I need to move on up to chairman or something… (laughing) but in all reality, you are truly a stepping stone for a lot of up and coming artist! I just hope that the artist that don’t fully understand how much passion and work that you put into their careers by your great articles and plugs here at NashvilleHype! is not taken lightly or over looked in anyway!
(note: I would normally think to edit this out but … he said it and I appreciate Kelly saying it.)
Great article, Paul! I like what Kelly said about you the last paragraph of this article. I think you do a lot of great things for a lot of people and glad it doesn’t go unnoticed.