The Davidson Trio - Cougar (2025) Hi-Res

The Davidson Trio from Birmingham, UK is led by Owen Davidson, a soulful vocalist with a five-octave range. He also plays bass for the group noting he was influenced by bass players such as Victor Wooten, Stanley Clarke & rocker Glenn Hughes. The group is filled out by Glenn Bicknell on guitar and Ellis Brown on drums.

The album blasts out on “The Medusa Touch” with a blazing guitar as Owen talks about a woman “who knows what drives me insane”. There is evil in your eyes”. On “The Deep” he says “It feels like a lifetime since you walked out the door”. “Cougar” slows things down with a funky groove noting that “there is something about you baby that just makes a man lose his head”. Owen’s bass and Ben’s guitar drop the hard driving “Hold On” into a powerful drum beat as Owen declares “I walked the streets. It was late at night”. “I was crawling in the dark.” ” I turned around seeing him standing there dressed in black caught me unaware. He had eyes that chilled me to the bone”.

There is a “Bad Moon” “rising in the skies tonight” in a bit of a horror tale. “Something’s looking at me. What could it be? Oh baby, can’t you see? The devil coming after me.” “Blue River” moves much slower in a solid, blues-based ballad with Ben’s guitar soaring as Owen delivers a soulful story of “the sweetest girl he ever met”. She had ways to make you fret. She had the kind of eyes that saw right through me”. “Then she went away, the life I had would never be the same”. “Whiskey could never ease that pain”. Ellis delivers a solid rock beat on “The Cure” which comes “if you just give me your number”. and “stay all night until the morning light and then I hit the road”. The album concludes with a cover of Muddy Water’s “Catfish Blues”.

The power trio works in the vein of great muscular trios of the past such as Grand Funk Railroad or Mountain and delves into the depths of blues rock. Owen’s vocals sometimes bring to mind Steven Tyler from Aerosmith.