We write
great emails.

If you’d like to stay in the loop with the arts and creativity in Aotearoa, get ‘em in your inbox.

If you’d like to join a movement of people backing the arts and creativity.

Delaney

Davidson

Delaney Davidson

Delaney Davidson’s Biography

Last Updated:
18/05/2019, 4:37 pm
Discipline:
Musician
Awards:
Arts Foundation Laureate 2015
Highlight:
Singer-Songwriter, Noir Protagonist, Promotional Coyote, One-Man Band, Production Svengali. Part wandering minstrel, part traveling salesman, one foot on the stage and one in the road. Six solo albums out and always one on the way. Tours and performances in seventeen countries, across oceans and continents. Awards here. Collaborations there. A non-stop whirlwind.

Artist Laureate of New Zealand 2015, three times winner of the NZ Country Music Song of the Year Award, awarded NZ Country Music Album Of The Year, finalist for the coveted NZ Apra Silver Scroll Award, and Winner of One Man Band Competition in Zurich. His seminal influence and work with Marlon Williams on their “Sad But True” series aswell as his visionary production on Tami Neilson’s acclaimed album’s “Dynamite” and “Don’t Be Afraid” have also earned him great praise from the media and huge respect amongst his peers.

Delaney Davidson is a New Zealand Singer Songwriter, Musician, and Visual Artist. Forging his own identity as a figure of the European Tour Circuit, he has been a strong part of the Voodoo Rhythm Family of Switzerland since 2003 and has started to build a name for himself in the USA.

Initially inspired by the songs of Hank Williams and the Birthday Party, and the performance styles of distilled Johnny Cash and dead-pan Buster Keaton, Delaney synthesizes this into his own persona. A wry sense of humour, some theatre of unease, and a voice classed as “not conventionally beautiful” all combine to breathe life and space into the niche he has carved out for himself, winning him critical acclaim across the world for his original take on things.

The guitar and harmonica of his simple live show have become his trademark, a small battered suitcase as his props table for the magic show, looping sounds over each other to achieve the full drive of a juke band. Howlin Wolf meets Suicide. Reverbed vocals and the slap back beats he builds with his Ghost Orchestra capture the sound of Chicago’s Chess Records.

Generally dealing with the darker side of things, Davidson’s lyrical content ranges from classic murder ballads to songs with a deeper insight into the human condition and a sympathy and acceptance of the quirks of life and human foibles. Combining the older style of beerhall musician and the traditions of pantomime and audience involvement his live show is renowned for its sublime dance competitions and bawdy sing-alongs.