Artist: William Davis
Song: “Ghost”
Album: Hope the Blues Don’t Get You EP
Genre: Folk, Singer Songwriter
Folk songwriter William Davis lets his songs do most of the speaking for him. The young artist’s first release is an EP written about his late best friend, and the tracks on it are quiet, with his warm, moving vocals and finger-picked guitar creating a haunting atmosphere for these emotional tracks. A stand-out from the songs released so far is “Ghost”.
Davis shared the story behind the song with me:
“I wrote this when my closest friend Mark died in 2020. We had dreams of sailing, like doing a big crazy trans Atlantic sail. He passed before we got around to that. But when he died, I ended up moving to where he was living in Providence and living on a 23 foot sailboat that never even moved because long story short the boat was not sail worthy and I didn’t even know how to sail. It was moored out in the bay south of Providence and I had to row out to it from a local park with my dinghy that was a pool raft from Walmart that I would hide in the bushes when I came to shore. I really just ended up sweating profusely inside this tiny boat that was rocking all the time, and wondering what im gonna do with my life and how I would make it up to friend for not being there for him before he passed of an overdose. But the song came out in a way of me dreaming about taking off for that sailing trip and feeling like he would be right there with me in a spiritual way, which is why the chorus is you’re ghost is all aboard with me. I still want to sail one day, but it feels very challenging to get set up for that. It’s nice to dream about though.”
The guitar melody is a well of melancholy, allowing Davis’ vocals to deliver lines like “Hi there ocean thanks for having me, you see my partner has gone to sleep” with no frills or over-emoting. There’s regret in his lyrics, wishing for to have changed his past actions, coming from a place of pain and grief that anyone who has lost someone can relate to.
This one can certainly get a few tears dropping from your eyes. Listen to it in our Check This 2024 Playlist.
The Indy Review 