Matthew Davis is a progressive banjo player and composer from Alma, Nebraska. He won the National Bluegrass Banjo Championship at Winfield, Kansas, in 2016, after placing second in 2014 and third in 2015. He co-founded the bands Circus No. 9 and Westbound Situation, made four solo albums, and won a Steve Martin Banjo Prize in 2020.
Why Davis matters
Davis plays both three-finger and single-string banjo, studied jazz, and wrote for a chamber-style string band. Writers say his music still stays rooted in bluegrass. The FreshGrass Foundation gave him a Steve Martin Banjo Prize in 2020.
Life and career
Davis grew up in Alma, Nebraska. He taught himself piano first, then switched to banjo at 12, after his grandfather gave the family a tenor banjo. He soon moved to the five-string. He taught himself from Earl Scruggs records, books, and online videos, with early help from melodic player Mike Metzger.
He placed second at Winfield in 2014 and third in 2015, then won in 2016, entered from Murfreesboro, Tennessee. He went to Mike Marshall’s Acoustic Music Seminar in 2016 and 2017, where he met future bandmates. With mandolin player Thomas Cassel he co-founded Circus No. 9, where he sang lead and played banjo. He also joined fiddler Grant Flick’s chambergrass quartet, Westbound Situation, with bass, cello, fiddle, and banjo.
In 2018 he won the RockyGrass banjo contest, which he said might be his last contest. That year he was a teaching assistant at Béla Fleck’s first Blue Ridge Banjo Camp. He studied jazz at the University of Michigan. His fourth solo album, Outlander, came out in August 2019. In 2020 he received the Steve Martin Banjo Prize, left Circus No. 9, and returned to Nebraska.
Playing style
Bluegrass Today wrote that Davis shows command of masters like Earl Scruggs and J.D. Crowe and can improvise in free form. He calls his music original bluegrass and new acoustic banjo. He names Scruggs, Alan Munde, Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, Ryan Cavanaugh, J.D. Crowe and the New South, Charlie Parker, and Ravel as influences. On Outlander he played a custom Ome North Star banjo that Béla Fleck once owned.
Essential recordings
Sounds from Home (2014) By Request (2016) New World (2017) Outlander (2019).
Awards and honors
National Bluegrass Banjo Championship, Walnut Valley Festival, second place (2014) National Bluegrass Banjo Championship, Walnut Valley Festival, third place (2015) National Bluegrass Banjo Championship, Walnut Valley Festival, first place (2016) RockyGrass Banjo Contest, first place (2018) Steve Martin Banjo Prize (2020).
Watch and listen
Davis plays Alan Munde’s Peaches and Cream at IBMA in 2019.
Westbound Situation plays Kogi, with Davis on banjo.
What to learn from Davis
Listen outside bluegrass. Davis names Charlie Parker and Ravel next to Scruggs and Crowe. Learn single-string style along with your rolls, so you can play lines a roll pattern can’t reach. Start with Alan Munde’s Peaches and Cream, a tune Davis names as an influence.
Sources
Interview with Matthew Davis, Banjo Newsletter (2019) Matthew Davis, Steve Martin Banjo Prize, FreshGrass Foundation (2020) Track premiere: Nantucket from Matthew Davis, Bluegrass Today (2019) Matthew Davis, Ektorp, The Bluegrass Situation (2019) Circus No. 9 to Bonfire Records, Bluegrass Today (2022) Matthew Davis, Spotify Walnut Valley Festival winners archive, alphabetical (PDF)
Related players
See the banjo players hub and the bluegrass banjo guide for more pickers. Davis learned from Earl Scruggs, Alan Munde, J.D. Crowe, and Béla Fleck. Steve Lewis placed second to him at Winfield in 2016. Davis is not the same player as five-time champion Gary “Biscuit” Davis.