wrapped gifts and glad tidings - while both subverting and respecting the home's own colorful legacy! Archives - SB Magazine

Jordan Davis , Home Town Star

SB Magazine — Thu, 01 Dec 2022 20:20:53 +0000

By SCOTT ANDERSON

Shreveport native Jordan Davis is a mainstay on country radio with song “Buy Dirt,” his collaboration with five-time Entertainer of the Year Luke Bryan. Davis was nominated for the 2022 CMA Awards for both Single of the Year and Song of the Year. Jordan Davis wrote the song with his brother Jacob Davis and brothers Josh and Matt Jenkins. Jordan has played the Grand Ole Opry and arenas across the country. But there is one venue he still longs to experience — Shreveport’s Municipal Auditorium. “I don’t think I have ever even seen a concert there,” Davis said. “I’m sure my dad would tell me I am wrong. But that’s such a special room.”

Before a recent concert in Omaha, Nebraska, the 34-year-old singer-songwriter reflected on his childhood in Shreveport and the city’s rich musical heritage that helped shape who he is today.

His upbringing “was about as ideal as you can get.” “Me and my brother were talking about it the other day,” he said. “We played all-day wiffle ball tournaments in the summer in our neighborhood. We rode our bikes down there. We spent our weekends at Cross Lake, and my dad would get the boat out. We went to minor-league baseball games all summer.”

Jordan’s mother, Luwanna Davis, still remembers those days in the Broadmoor neighborhood, close to A.C. Steere Elementary School. “We found an older home and were fortunate enough to purchase it,” she said. “We raised our three kids there. We talked about moving out to Ellerbe Road. When you get your kids to a certain age, you think about upgrading. But that was a long way to town.”

“We had sweet neighbors. When Jordan or (his older brother) Jacob wanted to ride bikes to someone’s house, I would call their folks and let them know they were on the way. And they would call me to tell me they were on the way home.”

Jordan’s All-American upbringing didn’t include shows at the Louisiana Hayride, but like Hank Williams Sr. and Hank Jr., country music and songwriting were a family tradition.

“My uncle was singer-songwriter,” Davis said. “Country music was always part of the family. I didn’t get into it until after college when I saw Don Williams at The Strand. But you can’t love country music and not know how Shreveport impacted the genre.”

Jordan’s family not only loved country music when he was growing up, but all styles of music. It’s another element
of his upbringing he credits to his hometown. “I don’t think I would have grown up in such a musical household without living in such a rich musical city,” he said. “From an early age, my dad would talk about the Hayride. He was a big Elvis Presley fan. He had so many Elvis stories, about him being in Shreveport. As I got older, I was close enough to pick up Pat Green in my middle school years. And being in Louisiana, the Southern rock’n’ roll — the Allman Brothers and Tom Petty. Being around a musical family, there was always some I was dipping into that I’d never heard.”

Davis said he remains a fan of many of the artists his father introduced to him, including Elvis, Kris Kristofferson, and Jim Croce. Looking back, he recalls the one artist he would have liked most to see in the historic Municipal Auditorium. “My dad was big John Prine fan,” Davis said.
“He got me into Prine early on. Seeing someone like that there would be really cool. There’s such a storyteller vibe to that room.”

But his greatest influence to become a songwriter was even closer to home. “I really think it was my uncle having such an influence on me and my brother, Jacob,” Davis said. “We always knew you could make a living writing music. We knew it was a path for us, and that we had a gene for it.” Jordan graduated from C.E. Byrd High School in 2006. Marilyn Prothro, assistant principal at Byrd, has followed Davis since his days as a Yellow Jacket. She saw him in concert most recently in June at the Brookshire’s Grocery Arena in Bossier City, when he opened for Brooks & Dunn.

“Jordan was an all-around great guy,” she recalls. “He excelled in football and baseball. He always had a smile. He always helped everybody, and he always had lots of friends. He’s still that same kid he was in high school.” That, too, is part of the family tradition, Prothro said. “His whole family is like that,” she said. “He comes from good people. His brother, Jacob… he’s amazing too. And their younger sister, Gentry. I tell them, ‘You boys are amazing, but Gentry’s got my heart.’” Stephanie Spring was Davis’ English and drama teacher at Byrd. “He was a good student, but definitely loved to make people laugh,” she said. Prothro and Springer both celebrate Jordan’s success, even if they didn’t see it coming. “Oh my goodness no,” Prothro said. “I mean, I knew he’d be successful. He’s a fantastic kid. But this is so exciting.”

“I am not surprised he’s in a creative field,” Springer said. “I didn’t know about his passion for writing and music. But it’s not surprising that he found success in it.” Luwanna saw a quiet confidence in everything her middle child did, even if she didn’t see stardom back then. “You knew he was artistic, but this direction that he’s taken, I would have never ever thought that,” she said. “Jordan was a leader, but he wasn’t a forceful leader. People just wanted to be around him and do good because they liked him.” After Byrd, Davis moved to Baton Rouge to go to LSU. He got a degree in environmental science, one of his mom’s requirements before he pursued his dreams. “The rule was you have to get a degree, then go be a rockstar,” Luwanna

said. Jacob moved to Nashville in 2010, and Jordan followed his brother there in 2012 with his dream of becoming a songwriter.

“He loved his brother,” Luwanna said. “The boys were two years apart. They were always best friends. Whatever Jacob did, Jordan wanted to do too.”

But performing was something of an afterthought, Jordan said. “I never dreamed I’d be an artist,” he said. “But after six years and no money, I needed to figure something out. I was bartending at night and writing songs in the day. I said, ’I don’t know how to do this, but I’ve got to start playing shows. I am going to do this artist thing and see if it works out.’”

It did work out for him, with the help of people like Stephanie Wright at Universal Music Group, even if the beginning was a little rough. “I went in and played her a song,” Davis said. “She said, ‘I want to see you play a concert.’ I’d never played a show before. I didn’t tell her that. I told her I had done a show. She knew, though. She said after that first show, ‘You’re really green.’ But she still believed in me.” Another one of those believers was Robert Filhart with ASCAP. Luwanna recalls having dinner with Filhart on the first trip she and Gentry took to visit the boys in Nashville.

“I told Robert, ‘I can’t believe Jordan has moved here’,” she said. “There was no glimmer of hope he was going to be OK. Robert said, ‘Mrs. Lou, have you had to pay any of his bills?’ I said, ‘No, but I don’t think he eats right.’ Robert said, ‘He stopped out there, and he’s chasing a dream — living in Nashville, writing songs and getting into rooms with good songwriters.”

Davis said that to this day he remains more of a songwriter than a performer. But he has found the right people to develop both sides of his talent.

“Nobody will ever say I am a great guitar player, but I can get around on one,” he said with a dry laugh. “Every songwriter is an artist. It’s always been there. I just had to find the right people to bring it out in me. Now I am too far in it to turn around.”

Davis released his first album in 2018. The record produced three number one hits: “Slow Dance in a Parking Lot,” “Take It From Me,” and “Singles You Up.” The album propelled him into the national spotlight. But the name of the album came straight from his roots. “My first album is called Home State,” he said. “It comes from my upbringing in Shreveport, those high school years, and the stories that come from those years. As I was naming the album, Louisiana kept coming to mind.” Home State put Davis on the fast track to country stardom. But as that train was pulling out of the station and picking up steam, the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 put the brakes on and slowed things down a bit.

“I was fortunate enough when it hit
that I was already a few singles in,” he said. “It didn’t affect me as much from a professional standpoint. I think, for me, it put me in a weird headspace. I’d never been home that much. It was a weird transition, even for my wife for me to be around that much. Not to mention dealing with a pandemic and the shutdown. It was tough for us.”

To cope with the pandemic, the social unrest at the time, and an unprecedented election cycle, Davis turned to writing again. The result was his follow-up EP, Buy Dirt. The title track is a collaboration with Luke Bryan, a contemporary he listened to on the radio growing up. Their friendship grew through the years as they ran into each other at awards shows and golf courses. The lyrics reflect their shared values about life, Davis said, and he is proud of the results. “I am hoping to win a CMA with that one,” he said. “To be able to have a song with him is really cool.” Buy Dirt also features Davis’ short version of Prine’s song “Blow up Your TV.”

“The best is John Prine,” he said. “He’s the reason why I fell in love with the art. If I had never found him, I don’t know that
I would have pursued music. He passed before I could meet him. I start ‘Buy Dirt’ with my way of thanking him for the influence he had on me. It made me feel good to pay homage to him.”

Davis enjoys collaborating with other artists, including Julia Michaels, and his recent release, “Midnight Crisis” with Danielle Bradbery, who won The Voice in 2013.

“Danielle is unreal,” he said. “She is a great person. ‘Midnight Crisis’ is one we both love. I loved getting to work with her. It was really organic and never felt forced.” He looks forward to more collaborations in the future, even crossing genres. “Julia (Michaels) is more on the pop side, which is cool,” he said. “I look at artists outside country music. Alicia Keys is one of the most talented musician-singer-songwriters to live. That would be a dream collaboration. But you’ve got to have the song. If you have the song, you’ll find who fits it right.”

And Davis believes having the right song means having a great story, no matter what genre you sing in. “The story is the key
to any great song,” he said. “What’s cool about the people from Elvis Presley to Kris Kristofferson is their unique way of telling a story. John Prine tells story totally different than Elvis. It could be the same topic, but it’s the way they go about it. That’s what I try to carry on. I try to tell stories in a different way that can resonate with listeners and reflect where I am coming from.”

And Davis will always be coming from Shreveport and his north Louisiana roots. It’s why he calls his fan club The Parish.

“I don’t think there is anybody else more proud to be from Louisiana than me,” he said. “I am a very proud Louisianan. I am proud of my hometown. I try to carry a little of that everywhere I go. It has given me so much. Not just the childhood and so many friends and memories but growing up in a city that’s so rich in country music history. That’s just a way for fans to get to know me a little better.”

And he still stays true to those roots in his work. “I’ll be sitting in a songwriting room with someone, and they’ll write, ‘We’ll be flying out past that county line.’ I’ll be like, ‘I’m from Louisiana. We don’t have counties. I can’t sing that.’”

The post Jordan Davis , Home Town Star appeared first on SB Magazine.

A Curated Christmas

SB Magazine — Wed, 30 Nov 2022 14:28:37 +0000

By Adam Bailey

Minden, LA. Nestled in the heart of the Historic Residential District is the recently-opened Huffman Manor Inn—a four-room boutique B&B known for its personalized experiences, home-cooked breakfast, historic architecture, and warm hospitality. This quaint bed-and-breakfast aims to celebrate the season with festive decorations and lights galore.

Truth be told, this 5,600-square-foot Georgian-style home remains in its original splendor—evoking the classic architecture of the times, but with modern amenities for a comfortable experience. And even before the Thanksgiving plates have been cleared, property owners Jim and Kimberly Huffman have already hung the garland, decorated the trees, and thrown open their front door to what they hope is an endless cavalcade of holiday guests.

“Forget the 12 days of Christmas,” says Jim. “For me, it’s more like 112 days here. Think Clark Griswold in Christmas Vacation—but much, much bigger. I want people to see my house!”

The way Jim and Kimberly see it, they are simply carrying on a tradition that comes with owning a piece of property in a small-town historic district—originally designed by prominent local businessman Samuel Grigsby for his wife, Sallie Drake, in 1910. Needless to say, over the years, this grand home has seen its fair share of entertaining, intimate gatherings, and dinner parties. “Oh, where should I start,” says Kimberly of the countless stories she has unearthed since purchasing the property in August of 2022. “You’ll need to hear the story about stomping the gizzard. Or the one where Mr. Grigsby built a brick viewing box so his wife could enjoy watching tennis.” If only the walls could talk.

But, as cache as that saying goes, they walls have spoken—literally! “We found several boxes of the original wallpaper in the attic. We also found an old silver coffee urn in the rafter, just sitting there.”

According to both Jim and Kimberly, it was the history of the house—along with the idyllic setting overlooking Main Street—which instantly appealed to them from the very start. “I grew up in an historic district in South Alabama,” recalls Jim of his child home in Mobile’s De Tonti Square. “I’ve also lived in Charleston and Memphis, both cemented in history and culture. Minden has a significant and beautiful historic area, and both Kimberly and I were instantly drawn to that. From the shopping to the restaurants to people.”

Still, as with any historic home, there was work and restoration to be done and prior renovations to undo. “The property had been in the same family for over a hundred years, and it really hadn’t been touched much in that time,” Jim acknowledged. Its new owners discovered that some of the walls were more structurally unsound than they had expected, and the floors were in horrible shape. “When we bought the home, honestly, it was in need of some attention. It had seen it all—from being a family home to a restaurant to an event center in its more-than-100-year history. It was sorely in need of a renovation.”

Being in the hospitality business as his full-time job, and with several renovations under his belt, Jim, along with Kimberly, weren’t at all intimidated by the scope of the project. “When we left the closing table, we immediately started the process of stripping back the layers to get it closer to its original finishes,” says Jim. “It was a pretty big, dusty mess when we first got in there.” They started with all the essential structural requirements before tackling each project, room-by-room, and have completed much of the renovation work in a series of steady phases. “It is proof that patience really does pay off,” notes Kimberly.

Renovating a period home is rarely a quick process, but both Jim and Kimberly had a shared vision of a blissful transformation, no matter the challenge, and were prepared to take the long view. And, after sympathetically returning the home to its earliest incarnation, it has been masterfully updated while remaining true to its elegant period details (all the while adding a few modern updates, such a charging stations and Wi-Fi).

“I love the wallpaper in the entry foyer,” Kimberly says. “And even though we still have a ways to go, I’m most proud of the way that everything is coming together.”

Today, both Jim and Kimberly now find that the house is ready to shine for this upcoming holiday season. Entering through the front door you can’t help but feel a sense of calm. Scents of cinnamon, pine, and clove emanate from all the Christmas decorations.

The colors, elegant art pieces, and lavish furniture make you feel as if you walked straight into a luxury home magazine. “Did I mention that I just love Christmas,” Jim says with a grin. “I mean I really love Christmas.”

Decked halls, Christmas trees in every guest room, and wrapped gifts are surrounded by an elegant mix of antiques and eclectic art. An assortment of elaborately themed decorations complements the fresh garland that pops against the pristine palette, and a plethora of assorted Christmas décor perfectly makes any guest feel right at home. “And the best part? A steady stream of guests mingling all season
long, Jim confidently projects. “They’ll always be something going on here this holiday season. We will try to add a little element of surprise at each and every turn.” “And why not? Kimberly adds. “This house is really meant to be shared with everyone.”

The post A Curated Christmas appeared first on SB Magazine.