Back Door Slam

Back Door Slam is the name of the blues rock band started by Davy Knowles on the Isle of Man in 2003–04. The band got its name from a Robert Cray song of the same name. Originally a four-piece, with Castle Rushen High School friends Jamie Armstrong (bass guitar), Ross Doyle (drums) and Brian Garvey (rhythm guitar), the band was torn apart in 2004 when Brian was killed in a car accident along with their close friend Richie Brookes.

Deciding to carry on in Brian's memory, Davy, Jamie and Ross reformed the band, with Davy writing the emotional tribute to his friend & former bandmate, 'Stay', which was later to appear on a rare EP and on their debut album Roll Away. The trio recorded two EPs togethers, and played hundreds of gigs on their native Isle of Man before moving to London to live with Davy's manager, Bob Miller (Corinne Bailey Rae, Christine Collister). After a handful of gigs in the UK, Jamie decided to pursue a career in music production and left the band to go to University.

In 2007, with a spot secured at the SXSW Festival in Texas, Davy and Ross recruited former schoolmate Adam Jones to replace Jamie on bass. Adam joined Back Door Slam for what turned out to be two extensive tours of the US lasting until January 2009.

Career

Debut album

The band in this classic lineup, with Ross Doyle on Drums and Adam Jones on Bass released their debut album Roll Away on 18 June 2007 in the Isle of Man, with a 1 July release date in North America. The 10 song disc (plus 1 bonus track) includes live favourites "Come Home" and "Too Late", along with evocative love song "Too Good For Me", newie "It'll All Come Around" and the one cover - 1920s blues rocker "Outside Woman Blues" (originally by Blind Joe Reynolds but most famously covered by Cream on their album Disraeli Gears). Title track "Roll Away" is an acoustic, imagery-packed reminder of the boys' Celtic roots and testament to singer Davy Knowles' versatile songwriting abilities. The album was produced by Dave Armstrong of Running Media/DAM Productions.

Tour

Following their storming performance at SXSW 2007, the band then played 310 dates in support of their album Roll Away. The tour included support slots with Rusted Root, REO Speedwagon, Styx, Eric Burdon, Kid Rock, and Lynyrd Skynyrd with hundreds of headline gigs, festivals (Lollapalooza, Download Festival, Wakarusa, Austin City Limits Festival and Bonnaroo 2008). A live album was released of their performance at Bonnaroo. The band also toured with longtime jamband favorites Gov't Mule.

Breakup

On 27 January 2009, a letter was posted on Back Door Slam's website, announcing that the band had 'broken up' and its members were pursuing different musical endeavors. The text of the letter is as follows:

"Dear Friends and Back Door Slam Family:

After much thought and soul searching, we have reached the painful decision that we should part ways at this time. The decision was the hardest of our lives, but it's one we believe had to be made in order for each of us to move forward creatively and musically.

We will each continue with our own musical projects and hope to fulfill our own musical ambitions; Davy will be working on a follow up to the first Back Door Slam album "Roll Away", and will be touring the US to support and promote the record, and Ross and Adam will be embarking on new projects of their own in the UK and Europe, so please keep checking backdoorslam.com for news about each member of the band, and upcoming album releases.

We'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has followed Back Door Slam over the last few years and shown their support for the three of us. Davy, Adam and Ross"

Davy Knowles and Back Door Slam

Knowles joined Jeff Beck as solo opening act for dates of his US Tour early 2009. He then recorded a new album, Coming Up For Air, with Peter Frampton as co-Producer, (and also adding guitar, backing vocals & co-writing two songs), along with Benmont Tench (keys), Mauricio Fritz Lewak (drums) and Kevin McCormick (bass), which was released in June 2009. He is now on the road as Davy Knowles and Back Door Slam, with PK (bass), Steven Barci (drums) and Ty Bailie (keys). They opened for Chickenfoot in August/Sept 2009. In June 2009, Chickenfoot guitarist Joe Satriani described Davy as his "new favourite modern-day bluesman" in a Playlist article in The Sunday Times.

The Outsiders, Davy's solo album was released in March 2015.

Discography

• Roll Away (2007)
• Back Door Slam - EP (2008)
• Back Door Slam: Live from Bonnaroo (2009)
• Coming Up For Air (2009)

External links

• Back Door Slam's MySpace
• Davy Knowles & Back Door Slam Official Web Page
• 2011 Podcast about Back Door Slam