Aaron Davis & the Mystery Machine

Multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and vocalist Aaron Davis has spent half of his life in Kentucky, the latter half in Wyoming, and another lifetime carving out a humble existence as an independent recording and touring artist in the country’s least populated state. Aaron is chiefly known as co-founder of alt-country/alt-folk band Screen Door Porch, for his eclectic solo shows and the accompanying project Aaron Davis & the Mystery Machine, and as studio engineer-producer-session player at his own Three Hearted Recording Studio in Hoback, Wyoming. In 2021, he was one of two songwriters in the state to be awarded a Performing Arts Music Fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts and Wyoming Arts Council—“a merit-based honor for an artist’s work in their field.” That spurred Davis’ tenth release, Catalyst, voted #6 Album of the Year by Wyoming Public Radio listeners. 

Aaron (vocals, banjo, harmonica, mandolin, guitars—acoustic, electric, resonator, lap steel) works the lesser-worn corners of the American musical fabric through an unconventional lens. Slide banjo? A detuned guitar made of metal? You bet. How about his unorthodox fingerstyle and “a particularly standout approach that mixes poetry, groove and roughness” (Lonestar Time). From "searing slide guitar" (Country Weekly) echoing gritty Southern blues to a patchwork of story folk and acoustic roots, pensive alt-country, and improvisational 70s-influenced rock, Davis has been described as a “truly phenomenal songwriter” (Americana UK) with “a combination that goes down as smoothly as top-shelf bourbon” (The Austin Chronicle) and “the lyrical prowess of Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy and the instrumental chops of a weathered bluesman” (Buckrail.com).