I believe Rebecca “DawgGone” Davis woke up one day and said, “Fuck it, I’m doing it.” I’m sure she thought for years about writing, recording, and releasing her own songs, but life has a way of either creating ready-made excuses to ignore that voice calling us from over the distant hill or else throwing up outright roadblocks in our path. There’s career, relationships, and the natural morass of moments we all get lost in, at least from time to time.
Middle age clarified things. A breast cancer diagnosis and double mastectomy REALLY clarified everything. There wasn’t any more time to waste. Davis wrote and released the track “Middle Age Woman – Hip Hop Style” in collaboration with German music producer Hellmut Wolf and scored one of the more improbable indie hits in recent memory. She wasn’t an one-hit wonder, either. Instead, Davis followed it with one success after another until she’s now, in 2022, a songwriter and performer with over fifteen indie hits to her credit.
The ten song collection Raybans in the Rain takes stock. It’s essentially an overview of her best songs from the last three years and change and, while it doesn’t move the goalposts for audience expectations or break new ground, it does put her work in a proper frame for both new listeners and longtime fans alike. “Raybans in the Rain” has a lot going for it, but I believe leading off with this track does one thing some may miss. It underlines her worth as a humorous songwriter/satirist with a penchant for incorporating her personality into every work. However, in the larger scheme of things, the title song shows her tremendous growth since the aforementioned “Middle Age Woman”. Label her strictly a novelty act at your own peril.
BANDCAMP: https://dawggonedavis.bandcamp.com/
She’s unafraid to be silly, however, and it’s an endearing quality. “Boulders Weeping – Cry No More” has an anthemic quality though and has Davis letting it rip vocally. She isn’t a “good” singer, but she’s a compelling vocalist who will seldom turn listeners away. I do believe shoring up her vocals with backing singers is a good move and reinforces the song. The arrangement for “Darkest Hour” fails her a little as it comes across as a little meandering, but there’s nothing wrong with Davis’ vocal or lyrical content. It’s one of her best singles and positioned well on this album release.
She’ll blast you back in your chair a little with a furious techno rush when “Weight of the World” begins. The driving beat has an almost hypnotic feel and physically engages with listeners. “Butt on Fiya” is arguably one of Davis’ biggest songs, and that’s not a reference to her backside, but rather how she meshes the personal, comical, and musical together here with such success. This early song showed she was onto something, and she’s built on that since, but there’s more to come. Rebecca “Dawggone” Davis’ Raybans in the Rain is a brief look at her past before she sets off for the future.
Chadwick Easton