It is hard to pinpoint a typical country artist in today’s industry, but there sure aren’t many with an Environmental Science degree from LSU and even less with a beard as impressive as Jordan Davis! Hailing from Shreveport in Louisiana, the glowing lights of Music City in Tennessee came a calling and he headed there after graduation to sign a deal with UMG where he now sits under the MCA label. Following an instant and almost meteoric rise off the back of his debut album “Home State” life has recently changed for Davis as now in addition to a pair of dogs, he has his six month old daughter Eloise to keep him busy.

It’s an odd time we’re all in, but I’ve enjoyed it spending time with the family and getting to see the little one grow up has been really cool, like a silver lining of all this. I’d miss everything! I’d miss her rolling over, I’d miss her eating solid foods for the first time and it’s been really cool to see those things!

Then back in March, he very nearly played a festival in the UK which would have been his second set of appearances over here but unfortunately the state of the world changed! After flying from Nashville, landing at Heathrow in London and checking in at his hotel it took around half an hour before he learnt he would be heading back home without playing a show! The all too brief touch-down and turn around, fortunately was not his first visit to these shores as in October last year he made his maiden voyage across the pond to join Old Dominion on their most recent UK Tour:

That was actually my first time over to the UK so the tourist side was amazing, I was able to see things I’d been so stoked to see my whole life! One of our big things is we love to have a good time and I was coming into it thinking I needed to play all singer-songwriter stuff and I’ve actually been trying to change that narrative. Saying Hey don’t go over there thinking you’ve gotta go over there and play this writers round show, you’ll have a blast! You love to party just as much as we do, I’ve been kinda saying that and can’t wait to get back over with the full band to do our show! It was amazing over there what we were doing with our trio but it’s gonna be unreal when we start doing it with the full band.

His debut album “Home State” was release over 2 years ago back in March 2018 has amassed over half a billion streams which produced number 1 songs like “Slow Dance in a Parking Lot” and “Singles You Up” but now we begin the next chapter with his new self-titled EP (Listen HERE) which is out now which he shared:

I hope this EP creates a bridge for fans between albums…a nod to where we’ve been and a preview of where we are going. Every time I step in a writer’s room it is an opportunity to create something that resonates, that lasts, and that hopefully makes a difference. That’s what I hope these songs will do.

The record is a sextet of pure gold hits! There is no other way to describe it, these are tracks that near to be heard, sang along to and played in any circumstance! There are songs for big arena’s, songs for that long drive down a sparse road or for that socially distant BBQ which producer Paul DiGiovanni has done an exquisite job creating this effect. Three of the tracks were unleashed prior to the release, “Almost Maybes” the most recent preceded by “Detours” yet the most intriguing and exciting track on the six song extended play is it’s final offering: “Cool Anymore” which was actually the first to gain exposure when being released in November. The duet with Grammy nominated pop/dance/r&b/singer-songwriter or however you want to place the incredible Julia Michaels is unreal. Possibly best known on this side of the Atlantic for her 2017 top 10 hit “Issues” and her collaboration with Clean Bandit “I Miss You” which hit the top 5, Michaels is currently one of the most sought after and highly regarded performers or songwriters in any genre who was someone that Davis was desperate to work with:

So me, Emily (Weisband), Nicolle (Galyon) and Ross (Copperman) sat down together, Emily had the idea from when I’d been telling a story about somebody that I was kinda hoping and Nicolle jumped on that and took the idea for a song. We started talking through the idea, then I brought up that I want to collab with Julia Michaels! I don’t have a song for her yet so why don’t we try and write that today? We wrote “Cool Anymore” and left with a different second verse for that song written for that day. I called my management said I wrote a song today, I wanna get it over to Julia and see if she likes it? If she wants to change anything but I just wanted it to be her, I wanted her to make it her song. She got back with that she loved the song and sent back over a new second verse which she re-wrote. It was fabulous like all of Julia’s stuff and said she would love to sing on it! So it happened from there! I actually saw her backstage at the CMT Awards after she had won an award for her collaboration with Keith Urban and went up and said hello to her, gave her a hug and as I was walking away she says “Hey, I wanna sing on that song!” so I kinda played it cool but turned around to my wife and said “YES it worked!”

I had written a couple of other songs, that was like maybe this could be it? But when we finished “Cool Anymore” I think the message of the song, I think It speaks to who Julia is! What you see is what you get and it was just the perfect matchup!

Since working on the album along with juggling family life, this downtime has still  allowed him to be able to think about a full project, which he is even hoping to be able to get out possibly at the end of this year. The dilemma of trying to release music again when he can’t play live shows, is obviously kinda tough but that was definitely the plan at the beginning of the year to keep playing and keep getting it out there! As for the current plans, which we all know is uncertain but he was brutally honest explaining how he hasn’t heard anything, but doesn’t see rushing to get a lot of people in a condensed space in the immediate future so extensive US touring is hard to consider. However one place he is not even considering but actively wanting to return to is the UK and this was what he had to say about touring plans:

Oh, I can’t wait! I was hoping it would be this year! We were looking at trying to get over potentially the end of this year but that isn’t gonna happen now. It’s definitely one of the main talks for us next year! Doing a headlining tour over here and wrapping that in to a headlining tour in the UK. I felt like we had a great response and I think that we can do it!

Jordan Davis:

Almost Maybes (Jordan Davis, Hillary Lindsey, Jesse Frasure)

Church In A Chevy (Jordan Davis, Josh Jenkins, Matt Jenkins)

Ruin My Weekend (Jordan Davis, Matt Jenkins, Josh Jenkins)

Little Lime (Jordan Davis, Josh Kerr, Jacob Davis)

Detours (Jordan Davis, Dave Turnbull, Jacob Davis)

Cool Anymore (ft. Julia Michaels) (Jordan Davis, Emily Weisband, Nicole Galyon, Ross Copperman, Julia Michaels)

To keep up to date, visit jordandavisofficial.com and make sure you follow Jordan on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.