Album Review – Ward Davis – “Here I Am”

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Outlaw Country (#580), Traditional Country (#510), and some Contemporary Country (#530) on the Country DDS. AI = Clean

Drawing inspiration from his faith, his sobriety, and his somewhat recent divorce, Ward Davis assembles eleven songs under the heading Here I Am that have you re-evaluating your own sense of belief, recalling the most harrowing moments when life had the better of you, and how the sum of all your decisions dropped you into this moment. Never let the Outlaw visage obfuscate your view that these are the songwriters who often most fearlessly plumb their way into the innermost depths of human emotion.

Though mostly known to the outside world though his collaborations with close friend Cody Jinks—both as a songwriter and as a touring partner on select acoustic shows—the Ward Davis catalog also boasts cuts from the likes of Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard, Sammy Kershaw, and Trace Adkins among others, and collaborations with folks like Jamey Johnson and Kendell Marvel. It also boasts arguably some of the greatest singer/songwriters country songs released in the last 15 years.

Not counting EPs and live albums, it’s been five years in between his now three full-length albums from Ward Davis. He’s the first to tell you that he’s a songwriter first, and that this album didn’t come together as cohesive or conceptualized work necessarily. More specifically, some of these songs have been floating out there for years, while others are more recent. But that doesn’t mean Here I Am doesn’t present a unified message.

Whether you believe in God or not, it doesn’t take much to convince you that the devil, or whatever you want to call it is lurking around every corner in the form of life’s temptations. As you get older, you start to see the devil everywhere as you can peer through the lies of sin to their ultimate conclusion. Some use that vision to cease their self-destructive ways. Some see the sin, and choose to partake anyway.

“Downright Awful Stupid Beautiful Lie” is the perfect way to start off this lesson. Often the worst of the lies and deceit are the ones we play on ourselves to get what we want in the near term. “To Tear Myself Apart” is a bloodletting of a self-evaluation by Ward, brought to the brink of madness by the expert moans from Dan Dougmore’s steel guitar. Interestingly, it’s two songs Ward Davis didn’t write in “Stray Dogs and Alley Cats” and the title Track “Here I Am” that Ward decided helped best complete the thought this album broaches. And he was right.


If you want the best of Ward’s divorce material, his 2023 EP Sunday Morning is still his master work on the subject. But “Found” from this album comes in a very close second, really reeving on your heart strings as it speaks to searching and reaching for something that’s no longer there. Ward pours his guts into the project, with the only wild card being the vengeful “Hurt You,” which first appeared via Cody Jinks in 2021 and the album Mercy—arguably the album’s most popular track. But this song just feels so shallow, and not obvious that it’s shallowness is the ironic point.

Since Ward Davis only presents himself as a songwriter—not as some sort of performer who must adhere to a sound—he can explore different versions of country to capture the mood he hears for each track. Helping him in this endeavor is the legendary Jim “Moose” Brown as producer. Though the majority of the songs might be fair to call “Outlaw” as a default, “Find You in a Crowd” gives you an ’80s traditional country vibe. A great duet with Julianna Rankin in “Nothing On You” is super traditional down to the double chuck fiddle start off. “Stray Dogs and Alley Cats” is pretty traditional too.

So far, the most well-received song from the album is the final one, “Wouldn’t Wanna Be Me Right Now.” The steel guitar is present, but it feels more contemporary country than anything. So does “Somewhere Lonely.” Though Ward seems a little less interested these days in trying to do the hustle to get others to record his songs, his history in this hustle means he carries no prejudice of sound. Whatever or whoever fits the song, he’s okay with, as long as the song itself is respected.

The thing about certain performers and pop stars is that as they age, the seasons of life strip them of what makes them appealing to the popular masses. Songwriters might be more relegated to the wings, shadows, and finer print of the music business. But as the wisdom compiles on a songwriter like the wrinkles and gray hairs—and if the devil doesn’t get his way and becomes their undoing—they can grow finer with age like Ward evidences on Here I Am.

8.2/10

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Purchase/stream Here I Am


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