Features : Background singer to the stars Lynn Davis returns to spotlight with solo track

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — After decades singing background to such legends of music as George Duke, Marvin Gay, Chaka Kahn and Stevie Wonder, singer-songwriter Lynn Davis is launching a solo career with a new track “Can I Come Over,” released Friday, Oct. 14 on different platforms.

Davis said this is the first track of an album, called “Lynn Davis: From the Vault,” which will be released in 2023 and will include about six or seven songs.

“We’ve been busy,” Davis said. “The songs are all R&B, a couple of them have a little pop flair to them. They’re all very solid songs and they will be similar in the fact that I’m the artist and my interpretation is indicative of my style, but I think we have some variety within this album that’s going to be amazing.”

The single, “Can I Come Over,” is a simple love story, Davis said.

“It’s about a woman and a man who have been in love and dating for quite some time,” Davis said. “He travels a lot, she travels a lot, and one night she was just wanting to go over, he just got back in town and he was on his way home.

“She was calling him on the phone and making her request, and he surprised her and came to her house. He surprisingly proposed and it was just beautiful. It was a quick love story, all accomplished in one night.”

Davis’ musical background stretches to 1979 when she recorded with the late George Duke a song that became one of their signature hits, “I Want You For Myself.”

Starting her career at the age of seventeen as one of the vocalists in the George Duke Band, Davis performed before hundreds of thousands of people and toured worldwide.

As one of the most recorded session singers in the music industry, Davis’ musical credits are extensive. She has written songs for Patrice Rushen, Tracie Spencer, Thomas Anders, and LaToya Jackson, just to name few. 

She has also sang background for legends in the music industry, including Duke, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and Chaka Kahn.

Davis called singing with these musical icons “a dream come true.”

“They were such gentlemen and it was so encouraging to sing with my heroes, the people who inspired me to want to sing everyday in my room,” Davis said. “It was so surreal. When I went on tour with Stevie Wonder I got to sing a duet with him for the entire tour. My career and life has been full of miracles.”

Davis worked with the Japanese pop singer Toshinobu Kubota in the late 1980s and 1990s and the Greek musician Yanni in the mid 1990s.

Davis said she sensed that the music industry was changing in ways she didn’t particularly like, so she stepped back from live performances, but continued to write and perform on soundtracks for movies and commercial.

“That everyday grind of doing background vocals, it changed because the music changed,” Davis said. “So the demand was different for the quality musicians I was used to, it was changing and I didn’t like it. There were a lot of challenges for women within this business. And I’m not a very compromising soul. I made my own way, God put me on another path and I followed it.”

Recently, Davis decided it was time to dig into the extensive vault of music she’s written over the years and embark on a solo career.

“I’ve always been a supportive element for years,” she said. “This is my first solo single and album. This is the very beginning of my solo career. This is the best time for me to go solo because I don’t have to deal with record companies. I’ve created my own record company, Bella Records, and I can be independent and own all my copywrites, my songs. This is absolutely the best climate for the kind of person I am. I was never the type of person who was comfortable with signing these 360 deals and signing all of my rights to my life, my image, my name over to someone else.”

Davis said she feels like the appetite for the music she sings is growing as well, so she built a studio at her home and called on her friends, legendary songwriters and producers, Dennis Matkosky and Matthew Wilder for help.

“There’s a lack of good music today, real music, it’s just not out there,” she said. “We keep complaining that there’s no good music out there, well do something about it. It’s time, and I felt like it was just time. When everything in the universe starts to align and the studio was built, I said let’s do it.”

Davis said she decided to release “Can I Come Over” now before the holiday season to reintroduce herself to audiences before the release of the album in 2023.

She also plans to release a Christmas Album in the next few weeks and she’s written a book that will be available before the end of 2022 called “Above Circumstances.”

“It’s sort of a testimonial more than a memoir, but it’s kind of memoirish,” Davis said. “It’s more of a testimonial of my days in the music business, my career. I’m really excited about that.”

Whether fronting her own band or supporting other artists, Lynn's passion for music in all its forms leads her to constant growth and experimentation with different styles.

Follow Davis on the following social media channels and platforms:

Websites:
Spotify
Lynndavismusic
YouTube
Apple Music
“Can I Come Over”

Socials:
Instagram
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