The Davis Kathriner duo formally began at the start of 2017. Songs were posted back and forth between Ben Davis (in Brooklyn) and Danny Kathriner (in St. Louis) – sometimes as solo phone recordings, sometimes half-produced demos, sometimes just fragments – and over several months the sounds evolved as the songwriting pair reinforced and refracted the others’ ideas. By the summer, the songs had formed into roadmaps, brought into an unrehearsed recording session in the middle: Lexington, KY the chosen venue. With the guidance of engineer Duane Lundy at his Shangri-La studios, the Losing Habits sessions began.
The recordings bring together some formidable talents from a disparate range of musical worlds: collaborators include Laura Cantrell and singer-songwriter Lauren Balthrop on vocals, cellist-composer Erik Friedlander (The Mountain Goats, Martha Wainwright), guitarist and pedal steel player J. Tom Hnatow (Ringo Starr, Vandaveer, These United States), multi-instrumentalist Tony Scherr (Norah Jones, Bill Frisell, Sex Mob), bassist Blake Cox (Kelly Richey), pianist Lee Carroll (The Judds, Exile), pianist Dred Scott, and guitarist Steve Rauner (Nadine).