Robin Davis is not just a bluegrass picker, and his newest band Dreem Machine is not a bluegrass band.
He’s more than a one-genre pony, despite being a flatpicking wiz and a major player in the region’s bluegrass scene, who with other bands Six Dollar String Band and The Robin Davis Duo has played festivals statewide and have had their music played on bluegrass radio programs throughout the West. Davis and Dreem Machine have shelved the acoustic and picked up the electric instruments, blasting out rock tunes driven by a pulsing and pushing drum rhythm at a hot pace. The trio, who are guitar player and vocalist Robin Davis, bass player and vocalist Jimi Davis and drummer Matt Cottle, may dip into Robin Davis’ bluegrass catalog, but this is a whole different musical animal, a stoner and psychedelic rock playing power trio influenced by Van Halen, The Melvins and other rock bands from the classic and indie-rock canon.
Dreem Machine will perform Friday (Spet. 10) at 11th Street Station.
The band came together when Cottle met Robin and Jimi as they were performing bluegrass as The Robin Davis Duo at a Front Range venue in 2017. While the music of the duo is filed under bluegrass, it’s always had a dark and heavy element, leaning more toward hard rock than breezy folk.
It also turned out all three lived in Pagosa Springs, a casual coincidence that made forming Dreem Machine easy.
“I heard it and immediately was enamored with them. The drop D, the chunky riffs, and these hooks and lines that they were doing,” Cottle said. “I remember walking away going, ‘Oh my gosh, I’d love to play with these guys.’ And it turned out we were in the same circle. Robin and Jimi were excited to plug it in and turn it up, and it’s now been a couple of years and we have more original music. Yeah, it’s been awesome.”
While both Robin and wife, Jimi, remain prolific in their writing, much of which could be recorded by theirs, or any bluegrass band, it’s always had a rock element and could go into genres that aren’t twang-driven and acoustic-minded.
“A lot of the duo material was always begging for drums,” Robin Davis said. “But really that’s not a surprise because that’s the sound I had in my head when I was writing this stuff.”
If you go
What: Rock music with Dreem Machine.
When: 7 p.m. Friday (Sept. 10).
Where: 11th Street Station, 1101 Main Ave.
Tickets: No cover.
More information: Call 422-8482.
One similarity between charging rock music and driving bluegrass is the tempo; adding a drummer to a solid acoustic duo with a rock-minded guitar player is an apt fit, with the drums giving songs that are built for speed a solid backbone. Playing technical bluegrass, which can be fast and furious just as much as it can be laid back and light has also added to their ability. A drummer like Cottle digs their skills, and the ability to go fast or slow.
“They’re just proficient players, they’re so good at playing soft and tight, that instead of a band that starts loud and can’t be quiet, it’s a band that’s formed from these tight cool songs and then can be loud,” Cottle said. “So, we can always dial it back, but I got to be careful because if I let Robin cut loose, he’ll play faster than I can.”
With their past resume, it’s a sound that often takes people by surprise. Festival circle assumption has led people to believe the Davises play nothing but acoustic music. However, it’s a big musical world, one where people should not live on bluegrass alone.
“We do break some people’s hearts,” Jimi said. “I think of a story of someone who loved the Duo record, and the folksiness of that and then heard Dreem Machine and said, ‘What are you guys going?’ But that’s when we know we’re doing something right.”
Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager. Reach him at liggett_b@fortlewis.edu.
