arts&life

music/on the cover

Ramblin’ Man
Gets Grounded

PHOTO BY ALLAN BARNES

GARY GRAFF SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

Ethan Daniel Davidson

talks about his new

album, his dad and

philosophy.

28

July 27 • 2017

S

tanding on stage at Third
Man Records in Detroit’s
Cass Corridor, Ethan Daniel
Davidson gazes over a micro-
cosm of his life.
In front of him, Orthodox rab-
bis share floor space with hip
rockers; Detroit Pistons alumni
rub elbows with members of the
city’s business and philanthropic
community. Their common
ground tonight is Davidson’s
music — specifically, his seventh
and latest album, Crows, which
came out mid-June.
With a guitar slung over his
shoulder and a potent band of
Detroit-area musicians behind
him — including his wife,
Gretchen Gonzales Davidson, a
veteran of the groups Slumber
Party and Kill Rock Stars —

jn

Davidson is comfortably in one
of his elements, and perhaps the
purest of the 47-year-old’s many
and varied endeavors.
“It’s sort of become a hobby
with a capital H, I guess, rather
than a profession,” the father of
three says earlier while on a busi-
ness trip to Chicago. “My life has
changed so much, being involved
in all of my dad’s sort of stuff
after he died, having kids. There
just isn’t the kind of time for it
[ full time].
“But what hasn’t changed is
the healing properties of the
music. That was always the thing
for me, anyway. The music was
a salve. It was medicine. And I
feel good about it in a way that
I didn’t for most of the past 10
years.”

Davidson has always done
music by choice, of course. The
son of the late Detroit Pistons
and Guardian Industries owner
William “Bill” Davidson did not
necessarily have another path
handed to him, but options were
certainly there for a career in the
business and financial realms. He
studied at Hillel Day School as
well as Lahser High School, the
University of Michigan, Harvard
and the University of Chicago,
and there were expectations.
“People would say to me,
‘You’ll follow his footsteps and
do what he did,’” Davidson says,
and his father encouraged him to
study finance and accounting.
But there was an even greater
appetite to forge his own path.
“When you live under the

shadow of a really big tree, you’ve
got to get out from under that,
otherwise it’s going to be impos-
sible for you to grow,” Davidson
explains. “I think there were
people over the years who said,
‘This Ethan guy is kind of a jerk
’cause he went off and did his
own thing.’ But you have to dif-
ferentiate yourself from your
parents. It doesn’t matter if your
father is Bill Davidson or Bob
Smith. I think you’ve got to get
out there and find out who you
are and what you’re capable of. I
would rather earn stuff than just
walk into it.”
Music became Davidson’s
passion during high school,
when he began playing guitar
and joined the Lahser High
School rock band — where he

continued on page 31