Ethan Daniel Davidson

Ethan Daniel Davidson- guitar, lead vocals, Winnebago driver
Charles Huges - ivory (plastic) tickler
Jason Charboneau - guitar maestro
Paul Lamb - one who stands looking pretty (and plays bass)
Glynn Scanlan - skin banger

"Life has got a habit of not standing hitched. You got to ride it like you find it."
 – Woody Guthrie

Ethan Daniel Davidson has certainly ridden his life like he found it... Ethan was born in a commune in Lansing, MI to members of MC5's White Panther Party, and was then adopted by a wealthy Republican family. But, as Ethan himself so eloquently put it, "You can take the boy out away from the anarchists, but you can't take the anarchist out of the boy," so as soon as he could, he toured the nation and the world gathering fans and handing out almost fifty thousand free CDs.

On Free the Ethan Daniel Davidson Five, Ethan nimbly jumps from genre to genre, mood to mood, tone to tone. The one common thread through Ethan's music, though, is politics. Whether it's the politics of a country, a people, or just the politics of a relationship (like in "I Can't Drink You Pretty"), the songs go right to the point. Subtlety is not an option. Even the album's one cover song, "Your Flag Decal" by John Prine, attacks the American status quo.

Ethan uses his songwriting in a sometimes sarcastic and satirical manner, but it never takes a self-righteous tone. In the sense that he is incredulous of legal and social injustice, Ethan’s lyrics are almost reminiscent of Lenny Bruce: "Go down, Moses, and set me free/ Five dollar bill to go down on me/ On the sixth day let there be skin/ Forgive you, father, for creating sin." Sure, it can get offensive, but since when is bluntly stating your position a popular thing to do? That's how the world gets changed.

The better part of Ethan's life is spent traveling with guitar in tow; he is a troubadour, traveling the world by car and by boat, from Detroit to Colorado to Alaska (where he makes a home in a tiny village) to Israel to Europe. He meets wonderful people with remarkable stories and translates them into song, then goes back out again to sing those songs. Settling down is not in Ethan's vocabulary. To quote the man himself again, "Someday, I'll just up and walk across the country, and then back, and just keep going for a few years I suppose, and see what I see."