Davey Harris in town to play at Mohawk

Screenshot of daveyharris.com

By Benjamin Joe

Funny thing. Buffalo gets snow.

Davey Harris was in our great city earlier in November, looking at digging out his vehicle from on-street parking. In the course of 30 minutes, the singer-songwriter talked about his life as “Davey Harris” the pseudonym he came up with and is recording under. He was especially happy to talk about his show coming this Tuesday at Mohawk Place, Dec. 28.

Harris has been traveling back and forth across the country in his alter-persona, his birth name is David Mutner, and posting about it on social media. He had famously been in the Tins for the past decade as the band’s drummer before the group – don’t say split – but went on hiatus in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Harris’s story has been documented as a part of this blog which rebooted earlier last year. The drummer turned guitarist and songwriter shared how he’d met up with a collective – VUCA – in Milwaukee and he was making videos with the same folks who put Alice in Chains on MTV – Jeff Fitzsimmons.

That energy has only continued and grown as the nation-closing virus leaves public memory. As he promotes his own performances on Twitter and Instagram, Harris has put out a slew of songs, including “PGDN” a frothy microwave bass number bemoaning the fate of our Antarctic neighbors and making no apologies for his political dance-beat lyrics and multi-track melodic instruments and vocal-styling.

Those who’ve been following Harris online have been in for an almost daily trip of future show dates, blips of recording and practice, behind-the-scenes look at the making of videos, Harris working out scenes in small sketches promoting songs and, of course, links to new music.

“It’s one of those things you create  – quote unquote – content and you don’t even know why you’re doing it other than, ‘I guess I’m supposed to share this?’,” Harris said.

“It becomes kind of affirming when anyone is either listening or watching, because it literally it’s you have a video or something and whether it gets one stream or one-hundred-thousand streams, sometimes it doesn’t feel like anything,” he continued. “Where there’s feeling, its where people are like, ‘Oh, I’m a human being and I’ve experienced what’s in your video.’”

All things aside, Harris has worked tremendously hard. His leap from the happy guy behind the drums at spots like Larkin Square and Nietzsche’s may not be over, but as a songwriter, his sense of a song’s “potential” has become more and more keen. He said it’s always “interesting” and “fun” for him to see how he can break down a super-sonic flurry of tracks and grab the essence into an acoustic guitar performance.

Harris loves Buffalo. He said he wants to revisit the “roots” that he and the rest of the Tins, Mike Santillo and Adam Putzer, had made in WNY. As he’s making this jump in his music, he said, he wants to make it with everyone who has become a part of his life.

“The past three shows have been pretty interesting, because I played two shows in California and then Brooklyn,” Harris said. “And I’ll make it four shows, because that’s how it came about. I played a show in Philadelphia then played a show in Brooklyn then I played a show in Long Beach California, then L.A.”

“Sometimes I travel to a place to play a show, and sometimes I play a show because I’ve traveled.”

The next show is being called “The Happy New Years Pizza Spectacular” at 7 p.m. at 47 East Mohawk St.

More about Davey Harris and his music can be found at daveyharris.com.

‘Smitten For Trash’ in love with life

by Benjamin Joe

The members of “Smitten For Trash” take stock of life close by the Essex Pub in Buffalo, NY. Photograph by Benjamin Joe

Robin Killgore and J.D. Crossman met in Buffalo, New York where Killgore was working as a bartender on Allen Street. There was an immediate connection and with that came two items:

1. Killgore and Crossman decided to start dating.
2. They formed a band called “Smitten For Trash.”

Crossman is the lead singer of the duo, once a trio before a cello player decided to call it quits, and the voice he gives to the music is a timeless mix of a Kurt Cobain/Courtney Love raw sewage emenating from his vocal chords. He sings about freedom, pain and alcohol while banging away at an acoustic guitar.

Killgore sings backups, but can usually be found playing the clarinet, and if she’s lucky, she says, a banjo. While she plays, Crossman continues his verbal assault on politics, society and with life-long advice for the underdog.

“So I can’t wait to remind myself that I’m no longer alone in this life,” he sings with Killgore on a track called “Remedy” in the duo’s album “Assault Charge Summer.”

Crossman said that first full-length album was done during 2019, well known and remembered for the protests raging across the nation and Buffalo being no different. While he and Killgore were not breaking into buildings or destroying federal propoerty, they did do a lot in the local scene in terms of playing shows and helping raise funds.

“We did do some protesting,” Crossman said. “But we stayed away from the very internal of it, because I really don’t feel like getting maced.”

Indeed, having spoken to them for five minutes and listened to their folky/blackgrass sound, one could see Crossman shouting out lyrically in some kind of outlying section of a major citizen push back against authority – urging the troops on like a modern-day drummer boy – and Killgore at his side playing the banjo and waring a gas-mask while protesters pass them with signs and bullhorns.

Buffalo will always be a part of the lives and music of “Smitten For Trash.” Killgore moved to the city from nearby Albion, and Crossman came from further out in New York state by Vermont, also for music’s sake.

“I moved to Buffalo because I’d always played music here,” Killgore said. “Growing up, I was in a band called ‘Robin and the Hood.’ That was about eight or nine years ago. Then I ended up moving here because I knew everyone from the house shows we’d play and all the friendships I made.”

These days Crossman, who works as an auto collision repair man, and Killgore talk about a responsible life of touring, seeking out places to play and utilizing the two players’ resources.

“We have a big tour coming up in the spring,” Crossman said. “We’re touring to Chicago with a band, ‘Taillight Rebellion,’ they live in Wisconsin. I’m excited. I’ve never been to Chicago.”

“We have a lot of things coming,” he continued. “’Smitten For Trash?’ We’re going to be going out on the road for awhile. A whole year. This tour we’re buying a van. … a fully-livable van.”

The plan is set to go starting in 2023. Crossman said the year will be about traveling sustainably, having a game-plan and with a sizable amount of back-up money to supplement what they make playing shows.

“I don’t want to have to live in squalor,” Crossman said. “I don’t want to have to do it anymore. I don’t miss it. And I shower now.”

Chemical intake is also on the duo’s mind. Many of the songs they sing are directly about “getting fucked up” and the feelings it brings about, good and bad, though truth-be-told mostly bad.

“We both came from really hard times,” Crossman said. “We both came from just poverty. Living like shit. And now we’re living way better.”

More about “Smitten For Trash” can be found on their band camp https://smittenfortrash.bandcamp.com.