Bill Edwards and Davey O – November 3, 2023

Bill Edwards is both a master of the songwriting craft and a seasoned and compelling performer. He started his career in the singer-songwriter scene in Buffalo, NY in the 70’s, and his journey has led him through bluegrass to country-rock, to classic country and Americana. 

All along the way, the constant has been songwriting. Bill won the Country division of Billboard’s® national songwriting contest and his songs have been recorded by other artists and featured on TV and on the silver screen. He’s held staff-writer positions in Nashville and studied the craft at the feet of masters. 

Bill can more than hold his own with both acoustic and electric guitar, with fiddle, mandolin and lap steel.  He sings with an expressive voice that brings his songs to life like no one else’s. Years of shows for audiences small and large have honed his performance skills, whether solo or with a band. 

Bill continues to write songs that’ll move your heart or move your feet, or both.

It’s no surprise that Buffalo, NY born and bred songwriter Davey O. has been described by Buffalo News critic Jeff Miers as having “a journalist’s eye for detail and poet’s ear for the well-turned observation”.  Embarking on a two decade journey that has resulted in a collection of justly-earned, highly introspective songs, Davey crafts pure Americana that is not of the social and political consciousness, but drawn from the deep well of experience and human emotion – no hackneyed story lines, no insincere polish, just an unflinching poet’s look at life. The characters woven seamlessly into stories of which the song itself becomes the soundtrack for the movie playing inside the listener’s head.

Armed with a steady, rhythmic pulse on his Gibson guitar, a battered straw cowboy hat and a no apologies rust-belt work ethic, Davey puts rubber to asphalt, entertaining attentive, diverse audiences at listening rooms, coffeehouses, nightclubs, festivals, colleges and universities throughout the Northeast, Midwest, Midsouth and Atlantic U.S. – performances that result in engagement and communion between performer and audience through story and song.

The hard work has paid off with recognition by way of a New Folk Finalist Selection at The 2013 Kerrville Folk Festival, an Official Showcase Selection at the 2011 Folk Alliance Conference and coveted opening act slots for Ellis Paul, Dan Navarro, Lucy Kaplansky, Amy Speace, Tracy Grammer, Eilen Jewell, Suzanne Vega, Eric Andersen, Cheryl Wheeler, Sloan Wainwright, Kim & Reggie Harris, Seth Glier, Watchhouse (formerly Mandolin Orange), Pierce Pettis, Vance Gilbert, The Kennedys, and Poco.

Since June of 2020, Davey has been releasing new music in a digital only format via “The Share Project” , with all proceeds of these downloads donated directly to his local food bank, FeedMore WNY. In August of 2023, Davey released a new 6 song EP, “Some Days”,a collection of songs recorded in his home studio, remixed and mastered by Neale Eckstein at Fox Run Studios in Sudbury, MA.

Davey currently resides in the Buffalo suburb of Amherst, NY with his partner Sheila, and their cats, Lola and Bigsby.