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SONGS
FROM THE MOBILE HOME
•
David Munyon
FROM THE SHADE OF THE BIG MAMOSA
• David Munyon
Here's something very special and way under the radar from a great underground folk artist. David's a very eccentric and extremely talented songwriter currently from Dothan, AL, who's better known in Europe than he is in the States. I first ran into him in Nashville a little over a decade ago--Greg Humphrey, an old friend of mine, was producing him and invited me over to hear his latest project. Heavyweight players were involved--when I walked in, Lee Sklar was in from L.A. and cutting a bass track. The material and sounds were fantastic, and I believe were intended for a memorable CD on Glitterhouse Records called Code Name: Jumper. (Scrolling down the page that the Glitterhouse link leads you to you'll find English translation, clips, and links to pages for his other albums there.) Munyon has also recorded a number of excellent CDs for Stockfisch Records, another fine German label. I caught a couple of his humble local gigs around that time, and was uniquely impressed. He wasn't like any songwriter I'd seen before. He'd sit down, put on his reading glasses and open a big book of three or four hundred songs, leaf through it like a Bible, and sing them from a deep quiet and undeniable place, for those who'd lend an ear.
Along with mentioning these fine German labels and previous more-produced CDs, in this review we present two recent solo acoustic CDs the artist cut himself at a local studio (Steve Clayton's Rayven Audio in Dothan) and is selling himself. The discs are apparently burned one at a time as the need arises, and they go for $20 apiece. David signs every one, and contributes money from each sale to several charities and religious organizations, even though he himself is never far from the poverty line. So we encourage serious songwriters and lovers of that art form to check out a couple of his songs on the Listen page and support the effort, as we do. (Mail order and contact information follows the review.)
Getting back to the story, the next time I saw Munyon was in Heidelberg, Germany, in the mid-90s. I was living there and playing in a duo with my brother Billy, and David and his wife Dixie came to stay in our rooming house in the Bahnhofstrasse (thanks to friends like Matthias, Birgit, and Norbert) which housed many arty and student types. David was doing an extensive tour of several European countries for Glitterhouse Records. He's very highly regarded In Germany, Holland, France, and places far flung from his roots. We did a gig or two together with him then, and again lost sight of him for a while. He appeared like a phantom at my door in Nashville a couple of days ago, and I was happy to hear his new songs.
David Munyon's a very complicated guy on the one hand, but an open book on the other. He's on a spiritual track, but not in any New Age way. His music is more than naked, he's more like a raw nerve. But if you wanna hear the real thing that goes right back to the spirit of Woody Guthrie, check out the music of David Munyon. • FG
listen to clips back to covers
To order,
send $20 per disc + $4.50 s&h
(payable to David Munyon) to:
David Munyon
533 Private Road 1507
Midland City, AL 36350
To email the artist directly: JDvdMnyn@aol.com
david munyon online realrootscafe.com
lvp-site.nl (Dank u Martijn and Michel for the photo)
glitterhouse.com (scroll down for English and other CDs)
stockfisch-records.de yogananda-srf.org
