Stephen Allen Davis
Songwriter / Artist / Producer / Screenwriter / Director / Human
Nashville
stephen allen davis: Creativity is source
Stephen Allen Davis
www.stephenallendavis.com
Stephen Allen Davis grew up outside of Nashville in Hendersonville, Tennessee. During his teens he was a nationally ranked tournament water skier and played basketball and football. But seeing The Beatles on Ed Sullivan, February 9, 1964, forever changed what he wanted to do with his life. From age 14, he organized his own bands and played in and around Nashville. During his senior year he had a football injury that took that sport and the skiing away and like life can do, something was to replace it.
In 1967, the summer he got of out high school he started playing bass in a band that worked in the infamous Printer’s Alley. He was underage and the drummer in the band got him a fake ID. Later on that summer the band, “Billy Osborne and the Tracers”, got a house gig in Indianapolis at the Sugar Shack. The six of them moved into two rooms at a downtown hotel. Stephen’s mother made him promise to return and go to college. He entered Peabody College in Nashville that fall.
Stephen talked with his uncle, Music City legend, Harold Bradley, about getting into the music business. He suggested contacting a publisher. Stephen got the phone book and found Music Publishers and called until someone said they would see him. That person was Norro Wilson, who ran Al Gallico Music. In his first meeting. Norro listened but nothing really knocked him out. Davis asked if he could play him one more song. He did not have it on tape but he could he play it on guitar. He played a song that was written one night in his bedroom at home. Norro immediately recognized this as a potential hit song. He contacted Gallico in New York and Davis played it over the phone for him. Gallico also felt the song was a hit. He said he wanted to take the song to Jerry Wexler for Percy Sledge. That song was one of Percy’s biggest hits, “Take Time To Know Her”. Stephen was inked to a publishing deal at $175 a month. The early part of 1968 also saw Steve Davis get his first recording contract with RCA Records.
Since then Stephen has written over 350 songs that have been recorded with total sales of over 30 Million Records. He has 18 BMI “Most Performed” song awards and has been nominated for Grammy’s twice. He has three BMI “Million Aire” award songs in his catalog. His songs have been recorded by a diverse group of artists. Everyone from Diana Ross to Tammy Wynette, Joe Cocker to George Jones and Meatloaf to Johnny Mathis.
Davis’ own self-released CD, “The Light Pink Album”, was hailed in 1995 by AAA Radio guru Dennis Constantine at KBCO-Boulder as the epitome of the new Triple-A format which Constantine was trailblazing. In 2011 Stephen did his first PBS special, “THE DESERT SESSIONS“ which was described as a cutting edge live performance that introduced a large section of the country to his music.
Stephen Allen Davis’s skill in writing great songs has transcended into also writing a novel and three screenplays, the most recent of which is “WELCOME TO MOUTHFULL”, a comedic look at the fictional backwoods exploits of JohnnyElvisCash, perhaps one of the most talented musicians to never quite make it out of Mouthfull, Tennessee. Currently in development for production on network/cable television, “WELCOME TO MOUTHFULL” should prove to be Davis’s most creative endeavor yet.
For more information on Stephen Allen Davis, please visit:
www.stephenallendavis.com
Partial Discography
Percy Sledge Take Time To Know Her
Joe Cocker Love Is On Fade, No Ordinary World,
Different Roads, Highway, Highway
Just To Keep From Drowning
The Way Her Love Is, I Will Live For You
Meatloaf Where Angels Sing
Faith Hill No Greater Love
Trace Adkins Thankful Man
Diana Ross The Best Years Of My Life
Ronnie Dunn I’m Not Ready Yet
Faith Hill No Greater Love
John Hiatt Take Time To Know He
Tammy Wynette One Of A Kind
No One Else In The World
Reba McIntyre Just A Little Love
The Divinyls A Long Time
Johnny Paycheck The Fool Strikes Again
Barbara Mandrell No Love In Tennessee, Only A Lonely Heart
Charly McClain Radio Heart, Just One Look In Your Eyes
Jo Dee Messina Stand Beside Me
Lonestar No Greater Love
Tom Jones Once In A Lifetime
Tanya Tucker The Child
Little Texas Amy's Back In Austin
Charlie Rich Beautiful Woman
Johnny Paycheck 15 Beers
Alabama Down On Longboat K
Memphis Slim Take Me Back To Memphis
Johnny Mathis I’ll Do It All For You
Lacy J. Dalton Forever And Forever
Tanya Tucker The Child