Review: Davy Knowles ‘The Invisible Man’

Review: Davy Knowles ‘The Invisible Man’

By Hal Horowitz

Those who knew UK (actually Isle of Man) born and bred ex-Back Door Slam guitarist/singer/songwriter Davy Knowles as a Rory Gallagher-inspired blues rocker might have been confused in 2023.

That’s when he released the meditative, introspective, acoustic folk album ‘If I Should Wander.’ It was a lovely jaunt on a side-road, albeit radically different than the blues-based music that made him an up-and-coming roots rocking artist since BDS’s 2007 debut. However, the laid-back set displayed another side of Knowles’ talents as an artist unafraid to color outside the lines, at least temporarily.

With that out of his system, Knowles returns to more familiar sonic territory with ‘The Invisible Man.’ These eleven tracks find him fronting a three-piece, keeping the approach relatively sparse, and mixing darker material with a more pop-oriented style, both informed by his blues, and to a lesser extent Celtic, roots.

Even though this is a trio recording, Knowles, as producer, overdubs guitar parts to bolster the sound. That’s similar to what Gallagher accomplished on his studio albums and it’s effective here too. The material shifts from easy grooving melodic rockers like “All My Life” (I’ll spend all my life/Trying to make it right/All my life I’ll hold you tight”) and the opening “Good to Know Ya” with an advice giving theme (“You’ve got to make your bed, lay your head/And thank your lucky stars you’re alive”) to darker, harder-edged fare.

The former nudges him slightly closer to commercial territory, perhaps in an attempt to widen his audience, while staying true to a roots template. But the latter, not surprisingly, hits harder and provides the highlights of a collection existing Knowles fans will appreciate.

Both styles combine on “You Love the Rain,” a crackling, melodic riff rocker which admonishes a friend not to focus on the negative (“If we take a look around we’re all the same/So forgive me when I say/I’d like to see a little kindness for a change”). It’s close enough to old Dire Straits territory to understand how that band was one of Knowles’ early influences.

Tunes such as the rollicking “Running Out of Moonlight” with its chugging, pulsating guitar riff and the Cream/Robin Trower-inflected, “Tell Me What You Want Me to Be” where Knowles cranks up his wah-wah pedal, show Knowles tightening his grip. The creeping swamp groove with stinging guitar of “No More to Weep,” features a lick Gov’t Mule would appreciate. The lyrics, sung by a man facing death, reassessing his life, “When that bell rings for me/What can I say I’ve done?/Lived a life, pure and sweet/Had my moment in the sun,” illustrate Knowles’ ability to craft a stirring concept around a durable, tensile melody.

His love of everything Gallagher results in the shaking “Around Here,” a slice of Rory-ized rocking that ebbs and flows with the ferocity of the Irish legend’s playing. Ditto for the slinking title track, the disc’s most powerful ballad, that has Knowles wondering why his romantic interest seems to be unaware he’s around.

The closing love song, “Wonder You Are,” slows the tempo on a country blues with strong Mark Knopfler effects, especially as Knowles unwinds on National Steel.

‘The Invisible Man’ confirms Davy Knowles’ talents as he plugs back in and delivers diverse, expertly crafted originals, displaying his singing, songwriting and especially guitar slinging capabilities.

“The Invisible Man”