I have been riding a massive Ward Davis kick for the last few months, and I frankly don’t see it slowing its roll anytime soon… but there are worse things to be obsessed with.
So here I am to bless your Whiskey Riff feed again with one of my all-time favorite covers from Davis.
“Good Ole Boys Like Me” is a classic, originally recorded by the great Don Williams. The single was a hit in 1980 when it was released on his album Portrait. The song, written by Bob McDill, charted at number two on the Billboard Hot Country charts leading it to be covered by numerous artists in the years to come.
One of those artists being the phenomenal Ward Davis.
Last April (on Willie Nelson’s birthday), Davis stopped into a local watering hole in San Antonio, TX, called the Pig Pen Neighborhood Bar.
You can tell from the video footage how intimate the venue is by the way he interacts with the crowd from the beginning.
Davis starts off by giving the story of how McDill came up with the lyrics for the tune. He was driving down the road one day, and a song came on the radio, and as a ‘good ole boy’ the lyrics mildly offended him.
“And so he went home, and he wrote a song about other good ole boys.”
Davis says before he starts the song.
Ward Davis does this cover justice, to say the least. His vocals are spot on and so soothing as he sings the lyrics. It lets each word shine as he strums his guitar.
You can tell the listeners are drawn into each word by how quiet they are. At the end, the small crowd goes wild.
Dive bar performances hit different, and Ward Davis is an artist that thrives in these settings. His stories and comments between tunes allow the audience to connect with him and chime in on his conversations.
I hope 2023 has big things in store for Davis; he’s a hell of a performer and deserves all the recognition from the country music community.
For fun, here’s Don Williams’ version.
