Today we’d like to introduce you to James Davis.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
It’s hard to say where Mayhayley’s Grave begins. One could say that the band is about five years old, born in a strange little tin shack by the railroad track right off Historic Adamson Square in Carrollton, but the story goes back further than that. One could say that it goes back to an oddball kid waiting for his dad to come home from his third shift job at CBS records hopefully with a box of tapes and records with various printing imperfections or crooked labels those were discarded and his dad would sneak those home. It could be about that same kid growing up behind the town funeral home and seeing parking lots full of grieving people, different ones often three or four times a week shuffling past as he would wait for his chance to zig and zag in between the cars on his skateboard. Something about growing up behind a funeral home in the south. But it goes back way further than that.
The grave of Amanda Mayhayley Lancaster was established in 1955 and the 80 years she was on this earth were thick with all manner of tales legends and testimonies! Stories about her are still a favorite of West Georgia old-timers. Miss Mayhayley was a world-famous oracle, soothsayer, fortune-teller, obey-woman, wise-woman, and most prominently referred to as “that witch in the woods”. Seems that even though she was certainly feared, she was also revered respected and sought out by all walks of life from sharecroppers to heads of state and everyone in between. Seems that among other things she had an uncanny knack at finding anything that has been lost, be that uncle Herchel’s gold watch, a widows wedding ring or the missing body of a murdered thief! Miss Mayhayley pushed the boundaries of what was thought to be achievable by a woman in those days. She taught school, practiced law, ran for state representative and was even a frequent editor of the Atlanta Journal. She had a finger in every pot it seemed. She struck a very auspicious profile with her military attire, eyepatch, victorian high-boots, feather boas, and burlap accessories! No one had the mettle to tell her she couldn’t do whatever the hell she wanted! This was never more evidenced than when services would start at Caney Head Methodist Church in Roosterville Ga and Mayhayley would saunter in with a pack of about seven dogs and sit with them in the front row every single Sunday! This was a woman not to be trifled with and certainly one of the most, if not THE most, colorful character in our Georgia history!
In that neighborhood, I grew up in with the funeral home in my backyard, I was surrounded by a brilliant menagerie of old timers and they would all tell me stories about The Oracle of the Ages, Miss Mayhayley Lancaster. These tales stuck with me in general, but what really became part of me was how she was exactly who she wanted to be and didn’t let anything or anyone stand in her way. No small task for a woman in the turn of the century rural south! Before Mayhayley’s Grave was a band, it was a concept. Music was always a big part of my life and I had a strong desire to make SOMETHING happen. I had been promoting a wide variety of acts all around the south from washboard rhythmical Americana to world beat music laden with African harps and musical saws. I was finding inspiration everywhere I looked but wanted something unique or I stood a strong chance of just sounding like one or more of the brilliant acts I promoted. “Mayhayley’s Grave… Mayhayley’s Grave… the notoriously haunted grave of that woman… there’s something about that. There’s something there for me.” I started thinking about what my dream avenue for expression would be and so much came flooding in, ghosts, seances, circuses, carny-barkers, snake-oil shows, sideshow freaks, dark southern gothic tales – How could I get all that wrapped into one?
Well, it seems to be that it takes an entire community of musicians and performers that are looking for something way more than a few people jamming in a room! It takes dirt. It takes guts. It takes more than a modicum of danger. It takes FIRE! What started to develop was an ever-amassing orchestra surfing a wave of debauchery and jubilance! It sounded like a gypsy caravan crash-landed into a punk show but in 1920’s Bourbon St! It sounded like William Faulkner wrote a bunch of songs for Tom Waits and then they were performed by Cab Calloway fronting Gogol Bordello! It sounded DIRTY. Dirty like you were getting away with something illicit! So was born the Southern Gothic Swing sensations Mayhayley’s Grave! Our audiences have come to expect a raucous good time, a frenzied dance-floor, and often things like Fire-breathing Sword-swallowing and freakier sideshow antics!
I’m consistently surprised at how well received we are by what one might consider more tame audiences. We have become the go-to band for Serenbe’s tour of homes., we have done a plethora of municipal gigs for “the good people of the world”, jazz festivals, toy drives, a wedding or two and grandma, will be busting lose the kids will be dancing and laughing and cousin Scarlett will be trying to make out with the bass player in-between sets. A little something for everyone as it were. And maybe a little history lesson about a certain clairvoyant. I’ve never been more fulfilled, and sometimes out of the corner of my eye, I think I see the Ruffles of a feather boa and the tip of a military cap from a gaunt spectral figure on the side of the stage.
Has it been a smooth road?
Well, a wrangling a big band together and trying to maintain a balance of talents schedules expectations and egos (not the least of which, my own) presents its challenges on a daily basis. And getting a big band paid properly is often a struggle. When a three-piece band plays a bar and splits a few hundred bucks, it’s a pretty good night. When you have thirteen people on that stage… well, we all just have to love what we are doing. We ain’t in it for the money as much as we’re in it for the family. (Money’s nice though!)
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Mayhayley’s Grave story. Tell us more about the business.
No matter what festival what show what bar or event we play, we ALWAYS come out of left field. I love the reactions of people who are seeing us for the first time! I think I feel most proud in those moments. Specialties? We do have a total fetish for movie songs! You could close your eyes and find yourself at the wrong end of Clint Eastwood’s six-shooters or dancing in the air with Beetlejuice and Lydia! I love the instant connection people have with cinematic music!
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
The music industry is a rather enigmatic beast. Who really knows how to tame it? I think that we fall somewhere outside of the normal parameters of what’s happening with it these days. In five years we could all be on the flip side of failing global systems. At some point, I have a feeling we’ll be traveling town to town performing on the back of horse-drawn gypsy wagons! Or, maybe I just hope that.
Contact Info:
- Address: 529 Clifton Terrace Carrollton GA 30117
- Website: www.mayhayleysgrave.com
- Phone: 678-988-9375
- Email: mayhayleysgrave@gmail.com
- Instagram: @mayhayleysgrave @twinflame73
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/mayhayleysgrave
- Twitter: @mayhayleysgrave @twinflame73
- Other: Spotify.com Pandora.com Itunes.com cdbaby.com reverbnation.com
Image Credit:
All photos- TwinFlame Photography
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