Premiere: Davina and the Vagabonds' new song 'Little Miss Moonshine'
May 21, 2019
The Current is excited to preview Davina and the Vagabonds' new single "Little Miss Moonshine." The new track comes three years after the group's last record Nicollet and Tenth and is a message to other artists who have tried to copy their style.
"They say I should be flattered, that a song doesn't really matter, but this voice is mine, not yours Moonshine," Lead singer, songwriter and pianist, Davina Sowers, sings. "I know it's hard to make the grade in your own backyard, but stealing a song won't get you very far. You gotta dig your own grave and find your own star."
In their signature style that blends genres like jazz, soul and pop music, Sowers makes it clear that copying her work is not OK. For her, creating music isn't about making money, it's about expressing how she feels and who she is as a person. As a musician who has worked hard to grow her career, she knows just how difficult it can be starting out for the first time, but says it isn't an excuse to use another person's work as your own.
Davina says of the track, "My songs always begin with an emotion, so it started out as an 'I see you and I see through you' song. I do what I do because I am who I am, not because I wanna make a buck or because it's the next cool trend. There's nothing smellier than dishonest music and fake people. Even if you're doing music from eras past and paying homage to music that you, yourself have been influenced by, it needs to come from the heart and from your own truth. Then, through the process of writing it, I started reflecting, and I ended up giving advice to these types of people and having a little empathy; it was hard when I started out, too. You can get lost in what you think others want and it's not necessarily who you are."
Davina and the Vagabonds upcoming album, Sugar Drops comes out Jul. 19. The band is also on tour and will play a show show at the Guthrie Theater on Aug. 5. More information is available on their website
Simone Cazares is a student at St. Catherine University. Originally from Miami, Fla., she survives Minnesota's cruel winters by immersing herself in the Twin Cities music scene.
