Greg Davis, often called “The Preacher of Punk,” is in a league of his own. Singer, songwriter, producer, guitar virtuoso, and founder of the seminal Country Punk band Blood on the Saddle, in which he successfully merged two musical genres (Bluegrass and Punk Rock) and has gone on to a career that spans over forty years.
Davis began his professional musical career in 1978 playing in southern rock bar bands as a Duane Allman imitator, specifically playing slide guitar with a Corocidin bottle in Atlanta, Georgia. During the 1980s, he played in a Hollywood Punk band, Dead Hippie, before heading to New Orleans, where he learned to play Bluegrass from a Memphis banjo player named “Jeep” on Bourbon St, in the French Quarter.
Back in Los Angeles, he formed Blood on the Saddle in 1983. The band released their successful debut album in 1984, followed by Poison Love (1986) and Fresh Blood (1987), and Cold Blooded (1988). On a break from the band, he played guitar for The Vandals during their first European tour in the summer of 1989 and played several shows with The Drivers, a side project, along with playing guitar in Candye Kane’s band in the fall of that year.
The band released More Blood (1993) and New Blood (1995) and continued to tour Europe extensively. Blood on the Saddle moved into the 21st century with the release of Flesh & Blood (2001) and another tour of Europe. During a tour break in 2004, in the basement of a Hollywood apartment building with Billy Hines producing, Davis recorded a set of songs performed acoustically. It’s all live single takes with no overdubs. Those sessions became his solo album Pure Blood, released for the first time in 2019.
Blood on the Saddle released Blood Alcohol (2005), The Blood, the Mud, & the Beer (2008), followed by True Blood (2013). Greg Davis continues to tour and record with Blood on the Saddle, bringing to audiences the sound of the Wild, Wild West of Punk Rock.
