Rachael Davis has been singing on-stage since she was two years old. Being born to parents who never intended to keep her very far from music for very long seems to have made all the difference in the world. Before she was mobile Rachael would be set in a car seat and placed in the middle of a song circle, and with silver bells on her ankles she would shake her feet to the rhythm. At one-and-a-half Rachael was singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" to anyone who asked, and at two she started performing with her parents on stage.
Born in Lansing, Michigan, Rachael spent almost six years of her life in Chicago before her parents -- musicians as well -- settled in Cadillac, Michigan, where she was constantly nurtured and encouraged by family, friends, and other respectable musicians. When Rachael was eight she was singing on second stage at Wheatland Music Festival. The Irish singer Maura O'Connell was just backstage. When Rachael walked off stage Maura went up to her, and grasped Rachael's face with both hands and said, "Never stop doing it for the love of it!"
Rachael has spent most of her life involved with music in one way or another - whether as the lead in three of her high school's musicals, singing with her family-based group Lake Effect, or performing solo with a few friends as special guests. In lieu of her fourth year of high school, she attended Interlochen Arts Academy in Northern Michigan -- which also counts among its alumni, Peter Yarrow, Anne Hills and Jewel (Kilcher).
In the span of her twenty-two years, Rachael has literally shared the stage with Boston based singer/songwriter Vance Gilbert, folk divas Claudia Schmidt and Sally Rogers, Prairie Home Companion regulars Robin and Linda Williams, jazz legends Marcus Belgrave and Winston Walls -- amongst others. She has opened for Dar Williams, David Lindley, Garnet Rogers, Chris Smither, Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer, Richard Shindell, Susan Werner, Peter Mulvey, Eddie From Ohio, Nerissa and Katryna Nields, The Kennedys, Clive Gregson, Hugh Blumenfeld, David LaMotte and many more.
In September of 2001, Rachael moved from Michigan to Boston and within the span of seven months was awarded a Boston Music Award for Best New Singer-Songwriter. In 2002, Rachael contributed "Lonely When You're Gone" to the Respond II compilation, which also includes such luminaries as Joan Baez, Dolly Parton, Ani DiFranco, and Eryka Badu.
Her influences range from the jazz stylings of Ella Fitzgerald to the soulful pop vocals of Patty Griffin -- with many more in between. She is a contemporary songwriter but is equally at home singing anything from traditional ballads to Cole Porter to Joe Henry. In April, 2001, she released her debut CD, Minor League Deities, a collection of original songs featuring performances by many of the people whose musical and personal paths she has crossed throughout her life, including Claudia Schmidt.
Gerald Ross, of the recently re-united Lost World String Band, would often tell a three year-old Rachael to "Never get a hairdo." Of course, she didn't know what that meant then, but she not only understands it now, she heeds it. With good advice like that, it's impossible for Rachael Davis to lose sight of what is really the important thing . . . the music.
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