JORDAN DAVIS REACHES DEEPER INTO THE MOMENT

Jordan Davis is having one of those seemingly fairy-tale careers. “Singles You Up,” his very first single, was a double-platinum country #1; “Slow Dance in a Parking Lot,” also from his 2018 debut album, Home State (MCA Nashville), became a career- and year-defining #1. It’s hard to top that kind of impact, but Davis’ 2021 life-philosophy Luke Bryan duet, “Buy Dirt,” also went to #1 and was nominated for Song and Single of the Year at the ACM Awards.

The onetime LSU environmental-science major spent his time after arriving in Nashville in 2012 honing his writing skills and trying to create enough space in his songs for people to project their own lives onto his recordings.

He unexpectedly chose Boys Like Girls guitarist Paul DiGiovanni to be his producer. The pair have crafted a sound that’s polished but organic, honest but big enough to hold its own on the radio and streamers. That sound is a lot like Davis: disinclined to show off, sincere, seeking to reach a little deeper into the moment.

As a follow-up to the nearly 100 million streams to date for “Buy Dirt,” Davis has found a way to expand what today’s country can hold for young people entering the next phase of their lives.

His latest, “What My World Spins Around”—from a project due later this year—considers the things he’s loved and what really matters.

You had the biggest country streaming song this year with “Buy Dirt.” Tell me about writing it.
We woke up, read a little devotional, drank a little coffee—and it kind of fell out. We were on a songwriting retreat, but it was crazy. I wrote it with my brother [country singer Jacob Davis] and two of my best friends in town. We knew it was special, but it just came so easy.

It’s about our faith, our families and our friends. Taking care of those three things, then letting the chips fall where they will. We were all raised with these pretty basic values. Even now, my mom hates when I cuss in songs. She’ll call me up, and say, “Now, Jordan, you used the D-word!” I’ll say, “Mom, I’m a grown man—with kids. Are you really calling me up about this?” She says, “Yes, Jordan, I am.”

That’s amazing. Plus, Luke Bryan, who doesn’t do a lot of features.
I met Luke a couple years ago at a golf thing. We smoked a cigar after the round and didn’t talk about music at all. Mostly, we talked about his kids. But I was feeling so overwhelmed on my second or third single. Finally, I asked him how he handled all the stuff that comes at him, and he was very generous; he gave me his cell and told me to text him anytime. When we had “Buy Dirt,” I sent him a text: “Luke, I know you’re busy. We actually thought about pitching you this song, but I’m going to keep it. Would you consider singing on it?”

That’s scary, putting it out there like that.
However long the song was—he got back to me in that amount of time. He said he wanted to think about it. He made me wait a little longer than I’d have liked, but five days later, he texted back, saying, “When do you wanna cut it?”

Wow.
He said he had to really think about it because he didn’t want it to feel like a forced thing; he wanted it to feel natural. It took two or three takes. We grew up the same way. Our parents taught us to overlook the bad and just focus on the good in people. That’s a big piece of it.

Luke Bryan had to be a big deal for you.
Luke was on the radio when I was growing up. He hates when I say that; says it makes him old! But how many campfires did I sit at hearing his songs? Then you move to town. In 2012, I was trying to buy tickets to his show... or standing in a line during [songwriters festival] Tin Pan South, hoping he might jump up with The Peach Pickers ’cause they’re all from Georgia.

And now you’re ever-linked.
He’s been great, done everything we’ve asked—the video, an awards performance… We went on a big duck hunt to celebrate the #1. That’s where you really get to know people: 5 o’clock in the morning in a duck blind, drinking coffee. You’ve got nothing but time and conversation.

You tease “Buy Dirt” on the Buy Dirt EP and video with an homage to John Prine.
It’s a piece of “Spanish Pipedream.” I said to my wife, “Babe, that’s ‘Buy Dirt.’” That’s what this is.... That song and that chorus are butter for me. And John Prine is one of the reasons I got into songwriting in the first place.

How so?
Even going back to Home State, I’ve tried to be really honest in all of it. If John Prine said things in the simplest way, you knew it was the best way to say it. “Donald & Lydia” and “The Great Compromise”—I was eight years old and had no clue what he was talking about, but those words just held me. I fell in love with John first ’cause he was one of my father’s favorites. Don Williams, Jim Croce too. When I got to middle school, Usher was our guy and Southern rock from The Black Crowes and The Allman Brothers. But it was always John.

You ever meet him?
I’m so mad I didn’t go to Arnold’s and wait for him to walk in one day for meatloaf. I probably would’ve told him, “Thank you so much for the music, for the influence you had on my life.” Even though I never did meet him, it was so cool of Fiona [Whelan, Prine’s wife] to bless our using “Spanish Pipedream.”

It’s pretty cool-sounding in front of “Buy Dirt.”
That’s what the song would’ve sounded like if he’d recorded it today. We wanted it to sound like it was on vinyl, to have the feeling of that time—to be a bridge.

Boys Like Girls isn’t exactly country. How’d you land on Paul DiGiovanni? Were you a fan of his band?
I was, but that’s not why I wanted him; what first drew me to Paul was his programming talent. It was different from stuff I’d heard from other people. We started writing songs, and since Paul could make tracks and do demos, it just flowed. We were meeting with other producers when I was getting started, and nothing was quite clicking. [UMG Nashville Senior Director of A&R] Stephanie Wright said, “Why don’t we use Paul?” Right—why not? At the heart of it, what he does with my voice and how we build the songs, it made sense. So I went to his old house and said, “Hey, man, you wanna produce me?” We never looked back.

You’re also not averse to growing up. “What My World Spins Around” moves on from your being a young buck to young adulthood.
It’s true. I’m not going out and throwing down every Friday and Saturday night; I’m putting kids to bed, doing bath time. I’m very blessed in my career but even more blessed in my personal life. “Buy Dirt” is the first [manifestation] of that. All we have is our family and friends. I started to turn that corner. That came from me making up my mind that I’m going to write what’s truly on my mind.

Kids make a difference, don’t they?
They really freed me up in so many ways—a totally different point of view of the world. A friend of mine who’s a songwriter said, “You never know how selfish you are until you have a kid. Then everything changes.” I used to put a lot of pressure on myself about songwriting, like it was the most important thing. Pre-kiddies, that’s all I knew. Luke and I were talking about that, and he said, “You know, there are other things people want to hear about, like life.” He’s right.

You’re out with Brooks & Dunn now. Then Luke Combs...
Kix Brooks is from my hometown. They’re legends, so I’m super-psyched to hear them every night. Then Luke, who’s about to get into Daddy world! His life’s about to change. He’s about to jump into parenthood, and that’ll be fun to watch. As a person, an artist and a songwriter, so much of what he does is like what we do. Getting out there and playing for his fans is going to be a great way to spend the fall.