User:IamDeanDavidson

~ This Wikipedia is a VERIFIED Wikipedia Account of IamDeanDavidson singer/songwriter Dean Davidson. For all updates go to www.deandavidson.com

DEAN DAVIDSON: Born in Philadelphia, PA on October 15, 1960 to Benjamin and Christine Davidson. One sibling, Natalie Davidson and one daughter, Nicole.

MILESTONES IN A MUSICAL CAREER OVER A THIRTY-SEVEN YEAR SPAN. A mother’s undying support and early musical success  On to national recognition,  Personal loss,  New beginnings

EARLY MUSICAL SUCCESS

Dean and his neighborhood friends in the mid 70’s in Philadelphia’s “Mayfair” section divided their free time between the local Ginos Fast Food fast food chain and bouncing up and down Frankford Avenue with the music of Aerosmith (Dream On), Lynyrd Skynyrd (Free Bird) and Led Zepplin -- their constant companions. Their own “dreaming on” always focused on creating songs that would take them beyond the Philadelphia back-yard scenes and propel them onward into the wider world of music. Their daily farewells were typically, “Someday, Boy, someday.” After all, the fact that, Sylvester Stallone who had earlier attended their own Lincoln H.S. and startled the world with his award winning movie, Rocky, held out hope for living out their dreams. Dean’ s father, a hard-working, blue collar factory worker, did not encouraged and stifled Dean’s dreams to make a career in music. His mother, Christine, early-on, recognized and supported his dedication to his music. While working the election polls at the high school, she persuaded two local artists, Doug Walters (lead vocalist and guitarist) and Larry Hesson (keyboard and vocalist) to give Dean an audition as a drummer with their young bar band, “Kapture”. Upon hearing Dean play two songs, “Burn” from Deep Purple and “Perpetual Change” by Yes, they invited Dean to join their band despite his young age of fourteen. The band brought in bass guitar player Jack Pescatore and the band started to rehearse on a regular schedule of four times a week in Deans basement, where they would pound out a song over and over until they owned it. Dean’s uncle, Joe Maio, assumed the role of band manager and chaperoned Dean for their gigs in local bars and night clubs. These smoke filled rooms were where Dean cut his teeth in the music world of entertainment and from which he returned home at 3:00 a.m. to catch a few hours of sleep before showing up for school at 7:30 a.m. Sometimes Dean would come home from a gig at 5:00 a.m., grab something to eat and go right to school. Dean stated, I remember the kids in class would ask me why I smelled like stale beer and cigarettes, and I'd say I was playing at the pub all night. Now tell me, how cool was that for a fourteen year old. Dean admits that on many school days he was pre-occupied with learning new songs for the up-coming weekends. While many classmates had different goals from 1974 to 1977, Dean says, “At the time I was just having fun, and did not fully realize I was getting my road legs that prepared me for the real, world-wide musical gigs in my future.” After high school, a short-lived marriage at age 18 produced a daughter, Nicole.

ON TO NATIONAL RECOGNITION

As a drummer in 1981, Dean joined the original heavy metal band “World War III” and introduced the Philadelphia area to something new in music. Excellent reviews led to an independent record deal until the music ran its course and Dean moved on to gigs as a lead singer and self-taught guitar player. When he moved to California in 1984, staying with his friend, Rich Geertson, Dean wrote many songs for his old childhood band created in the eighth grade, which later became the platinum rock group, Britny Fox on Columbia Records. Officially launching Britny Fox in 1985, Dean set up camp in Summerdale, NJ near the very popular night club, The Galaxy. He recruited two of the original members from the rock band, Cinderella (band) -- Tony Destra and Michael Kelly Smith. The three friends survived start-up time by joining a friend’s company and painting in the daylight hours, rehearsing and playing nightly, and planning how to introduce “Britny Fox” to the world. They usually ate at the Taco Bell or Lupe’s Diner across the street from the Galaxy after band rehearsal. This is where they would hash out there ideas, and have most of there band meetings. Finally, “Britny Fox” became the headliner act to go on every Saturday night at midnight in this sole, original music, night club in the tri-state area. It did not take long to build up a large following and for the door man of the Galaxy, Brian Kushner soon became the bands manager. Brian Kushner invited many record companies from New York to the club to hear Britny Fox live. After a showcase night with RCA Records on February 7th 1987, drummer,  Tony Destra died in a car crash early morning of February 8th a half mile from his home at the age of 32. With a replacement drummer, Adam Ferraioli, the band opened the show for Cinderella (band) and showcased for Columbia Records’ John Mrvos A&R rep, at the Wildwood, NJ Convention Center. This landed Britny Fox (album) a record contract with Columbia Records Sony Music Entertainment which released two MTV hits, "Long Way To Love" and “Girlschool” which sold 50,000 units per week, pushing the band to 800,000 copies and a Gold record in two months. Britny Fox on tour played at 10,000 + seat venues every night for two years, and released a second album, “Boys n Heat” featuring the hit, “Dream On” as an MTV video directed by Michael Bay filmography Transformers (film). Following these releases, the band toured Europe playing with Alice Cooper and on to Japan performing at Tokyo Dome opening for Jon Bon Jovi discography. Guns & Roses Alex Rose, said “Britny Fox’s remake of “Hair of the Dog”, was the best version he’d ever heard”, and singer/songwriter, Ryan Adams stated, Britny Fox was a great rock band. In 1990, Dean wanted to be more diverse with his song writing and get into more flavors of music. Also Dean stated: The life style in the glam rock scene got old for me and I just wanted out from all of it. This led Dean to leave the band that he created and developed. He started a new band, “Blackeyed Susan” and manager Larry Mazar landed a major deal for Dean with Mercury Records. Dean worked with Producer Randy Cantor, the writer of the single, “None of it Matters” with a video directed by Jeff Stein and a very young, Josie Bissett before Melrose Place Episodes the band caught the attention of many radio stations and fans. A second single on the album, “Ride With Me”, caught the ear of actor, Mickey Rourke filmography and landed a spot in his movie, Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man. Dean’s band toured the United States almost endlessly for over a year. Until the end of 1992, Dean was back on the road with “ Blackeyed Susan” with all new band members. Jeff Cease, former guitarist of The Black Crowes, and now, main guitarist for Eric Church joined him and moved to South Jersey and toured a short run of 60 dates. In 2001 Dean signed a record deal distribution with Navarre, with a new band "Love Saves The Day" Produced and Recorded by John Rollo at London Recording New York City. Executive Producer Gene Foley. The Album pre-release started selling very quickly at retail stores and live shows. Release date was set on 911 september 11th 2001. On an early morning Sep 11th 2001 Davidson excited about the release of his new band that was available everywhere, came to an end when that morning America was attacked and the World Trade Center crumbled with America. The Engineer / Producer owner of "London Recording" record label closed it's doors after the 911 attack.

PERSONAL LOSSES

The early 1990’s saw a big change in music. Mercury Records and many other major labels closed their doors and dropped dozens of music acts because of the invasion of the Seattle Grunge Movement. This brought the dramatic end of the glam, metal, MTV generation. Dean continued to adapt to changing tastes and by the end of 1992, was recording bands and solo artists from his recording studio in Marlton, NJ. Dean began to write more of his own songs that clearly tell a story that enable listeners to relate to their own lives. In 2005, Dean recorded the acoustic americana album, “Drive My Karma”, Engineered by Phil Nicolo. He brought into this venture, his good friend, Kenny Aronoff on drums and Rob Hyman of The Hooters on keys and vocals. The album was generating much interest from different labels and was set to be released when in June, 2008, Dean’s fiance, Laurie Merritt, became ill and died after a very short bout with Leukemia. Dean, totally distraught and exhausted, shelved the album and its production. "Drive My Karma" will be re-released with two music videos in 2016.

NEW BEGINNINGS / TV CARTOON SERIES "SOUTH OF GEORGIA"

Shortly thereafter, The singer songwriter Dean Davidson, a consummate musician has been working on a TV series adult cartoon South Of Georgia with his partner TC Ridge. Dean finally landed an animation artist J Read through a close friend. Also Director / Producer Grey Fredericksons will be executive producer for South Of Georgia animated adult cartoon TV series. Grey Frederickson has directed Francis Ford Coppola classics such as The Godfather 1 & 2, Apocolypse Now The Outsiders (film). Animated cartoon series "South Of Georgia" in Pre-Production 2016.

MUSIC

Dean Davidson New Solo Album to be announced.

Music Genre: - Americana (music)  - Acoustic rock - Alternative folk Websites coming soon at www.deandavidson.com  Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

By Tom Humphrey