Profile by nicole falsetti

The O

d a o R d o Go

“ h lord, I am lost in a foggy life, and I cannot find my way. Won’t someone help me out of this constant strife,” says Garrick Davis, and then he looks to me and says: “I can’t remember the rest.”

Those were the first lyrics ever written by Garrick Davis. I looked to his dog and him sitting leisurely on the couch and asked why he had written those lyrics. His response:

etti s l a F ole I was woken up, fast asleep c i N y B

“Those first songs were a way of relieving my heart. It all came so natural. Maybe I wasn’t supposed to be happy in those times, or whatever.”

He shakes his hands in the air as if to brush off any negative thoughts. “Maybe I was supposed to feel some pain.”

A musician, a mentor, and an artist, Garrick is charismatic and very rarely on time, but on a Saturday morning, I was the one to show up late to one of our guitar lessons.

at a friend’s house, by a text message that read: “Nicole, I rang the doorbell a few times and there was no answer. I will wait in my car for ten more minutes, although hopefully no neighbors will call the cops when they see a big black man sitting in his car outside the Falsetti’s home.” There is always a certain amount of truth to a joke, but to my surprise, I had never heard Garrick speak of himself in such a condescending manner. It launched my investigation in getting to know his real story.

His unique style makes Garrick far from ordinary. For many, studying engineering or business is the leading career arrick is six foot, with crazy dreads and an incredibly path. Rarely anyone pursues their passions in hard fields contagious smile. His infecto make money, but Garrick tious attitude is like a stove bubbling over, uncontainable. does not care, he is resilient to He has a scar beneath the right every obstacle thrown his way; side of his eye that he received He told me one day, that it was because he was a track star in by cutting himself when he was three with a broken metal high school. Garrick believes sheath from a plastic toy sou- that if he had not of had such a fierce track career, he would venir sword he got from the Shriner’s Circus. He once told not be continuing to persevere in the music industry. When me that it is a common misconception for people to think asking Garrick why he does what he does, he confidently that he received it by getting stated, “I am living my dream into something dangerous in and my family’s dream.” his past. Being a black musiGarrick grew up in a small cian, he identified that race town in Casper, Wyoming. has ultimately been an obsta“When I was growing up, cle in his career.

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we lived in the black neighborhood. We had dirt roads where I lived, and the white neighborhood was all paved.

We lived close to the tracks.

The only white person I really knew was Doctor Roberts that delivered me”, Garrick explained. It wasn’t until later, in 1963, that his parents moved his family into an all white neighborhood, but that house did not come easy for his parents. With grand gestures and a smirk in his eye, Garrick stated, “They had to fight to the nail to get that house. My mother and father had put a down payment on that house.

In an all white neighborhood, they were basically breaking the barrier. The realtor came to them and said that if he

sold them the house he would really known me, you wouldn’t lose all of his business. So my have done this.” parents went through this Knowing that Garrick had whole ordeal to get the house.” experienced racial prejudices in the past, I was curious to know his thoughts on another s a young child, Garrick grew up idolizing the big kid that had been picked on or racially profiled. I picked the iconic rock stars: Jimi HenTrayvon Martin and George drix, the Rolling Stones, etc.

He followed the “legends” for Zimmerman case. When guidance and advice. Now he asking Garrick about it, he immediately understood. He reflects that the media was not the best influence on him. said, “he was being racially profiled; I have been really When Jimi Hendrix had a profiled-it is lame. But for a blonde babe, Garrick wanted the same. He truly did revere Jimi as a God. Garrick now recognizes that, that part of his life was a learning experience. He was dating a blonde girl in middle school. They “meant the world to each other” and she would always come over. When her father caught word that Garrick and his daughter were seeing each other, he gave Garrick a phone call. He told him “if you ever see my daughter again, I will kill you.”

Marie Davis, mother of Garrick, sat down on her cotton white couch. She was wearing a dressy black and white floral blouse. She looked to me and said, “I remember Garrick crying for weeks,” but the two continued to see each other in secrecy. Obviously not to efficiently, because her father found out and moved her from the school. Garrick wrote to her father, “If you had

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kid or anybody to be considered dangerous, I can relate to Trayvon’s situation in certain cases. When I am in certain places, I get looks. Luckily, nobody has chased me down so that I would have to turn around and defend myself.” He stops and looks towards the sky, “What other motive could George Zimmerman have other than to keep the black out?”

He pauses. “I don’t think he was that smart. It shows a real

lack of intelligence to be a racist. Trayvon might have saved someone else’s life while living as an adult. We just don’t get to see what he is capable of because somebody racially profiled him.” He looks down contemplating what he had just said. His eyes have changed mood and his hands are now held together at his lap.

Once seeking guidance

from the great legends of rock, Garrick became a mentor himself. He teaches guitar lessons in his spare time, to scrap a few extra bucks, in between doing shows all over the Bay Area.

When at one of his concerts, the Bob Dylan tribute, I noticed a certain stage presence Garrick had. He stood near the back for the first half of the set, shaking egg shakers and dancing all around the stage with an unmistakable smile on his face. Come Garrick’s time to perform his solo, the crowd was mesmerized. He formed a certain connection to this audience. I know this because, after the show, a whole host of people among the audience flocked to Garrick. When speaking with him, he looked down towards his feet, let out his signature smile, and spoke

in a reminiscent tone. “I started

doing this when I was twelve years old. I knew within the first year, that I was going to be doing this for the rest of my life.”

they were not listening to what I was saying”, he mentioned.

Shockingly, Garrick did

not start to call himself an artist until 2005.

He believed it would sound too “braggadocious” of him.

His widespread talent, in ut the question remains, songwriting, singing, guitar, for someone so talented and dedicated towards his profes- harmonica, producing, and so on, creates this multi-faceted sion, why has he not made it character that specializes in big? Well, when speaking to many different aspects of the his mom, I told her the story of when I had missed a guitar music making process.

On top of being a talented lesson, and he sent me that musician, he also has impectext. “He said that? Oh wow.

Wow. It is just so sad, because cable social skills. His ability to cheer people up just by his that means he really is consheer presence, is empowerscience of it. What he is basiing. He has the ability to move cally saying, is that he is not crowds just by his side-comacceptable”, Marie remarked. mentary to the crowd in beWhen Garrick started to tween songs during a perforwork his way into the indusmance. Garrick’s son, Zach try, he was twenty-one. “I think what was different about told me that the quality he looks up to most in his dad is me, was that I didn’t fit the assumptions of what I should “definitely his ability to socialize with people really easy. He be. People would look at my has this presence that is unmusic and think I was a jazz mistakable.” player. Looking back on it, it would have been hard for After a San Francisco conthem to market me, because cert, a family of European

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“Music is so powerful because it moves you.”

of sufficient funds and bad timing, he postponed it to this ful because it moves you, it moves you emotionally, it can spring. Garrick confidently tourists approached Garrick. make you go YEAH.” His eyes stated, “I am in the middle They told him that he needs grow wide and he throws two of a race, and I know someto travel and share his muclenched fists in the air, “it can times it is really easy to give up sic with Europe. Garrick has also make you go WOAH.” He because the music business is toured all over the world, so it smiles. “Its so awesome, there difficult” but more importantly did not come as a surprise that are so many different styles this is something he is really the Europeans really enjoyed good at it. Passion can drive a of music and it brings peothe authenticity of his sound. person very far. Garrick will ple together. What else does?

Garrick’s mom explained to Politics certainly not. Certain achieve great heights. His sucme, “ the people there are cess never came as a youth, but ideas bring people together apparently very receiving and but as long as you have music, it sure will come in his bright appreciative. They like it orig- they are going to be happier, future. He may not see it, but inal, but here we like to hear they are going to come togeth- there might be a few gems he music from artists we know.” will pick up on the way that er and that is why its so powEuropeans indulge in a variety erful.” will bring him closer to his of genres, that are performed success. “I am on the good Garrick is so well received live in cafes or restaurants. road baby, got to keep moving that he plans to tour Europe Europeans also recognize the on. Obstacles in me, people try this coming spring. He origpower that music has on an to bring me down. But once I inally planned to embark on individual. Garrick explained his journey as an international get my speed up babe, ain’t no to me, “Music is so powerway to turn me around.” artist this fall, but due to lack