Mick Davis and Thin Love capture the magic of new songs

"Rock and roll is not broken, and it doesn't need to be fixed," says veteran Newfoundland musician Mick Davis.

Mick Davis is perhaps best known as the lead guitarist and vocalist for The Novaks, and for his country cover band, Mick Davis and the Skinny Jims.

But Davis also works with equally well-seasoned drummer Barry LeDrew and bassist Craig Follett, performing under the name of Mick Davis and Thin Love.  

"It's a rock and roll band, but to me that encapsulates a lot of things," said Davis of the trio.

Primarily a live act

Mick Davis and Thin Love mostly work as a live act, but Davis brought LeDrew and Follett into his studio to help him work on some new songs he had written. The result is the new album, Touch the Moon.

The group thought they would lay down some preliminary tracks, with the intent of finessing them over time, but they changed their minds when they heard their first efforts.

"We were sort of like, 'oh geez, we're good,'" recalled Davis.  

"We'd never heard ourselves [played] back before."

All three contribute vocals, with Davis as soloist and Follett and LeDrew on backup.

Follett and LeDrew first heard Davis's songs in the studio, learned them quickly, and recorded them in a few hours.

That freshness, according to Davis, is the album's secret sauce.  

"There's a fervour and a magic happening when you're writing a song, and hearing and recording a song for the first time."  

Join Mick Davis and Weekend AM host Heather Barrett for a First Listen.  

Do you have a new album of music that Weekend AM should know about for First Listen? Email us [email protected] and tell us about it.

You can hear First Listen Sundays on Weekend AM from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. (5:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. in most of Labrador) on CBC Radio One.