Mikaela Davis // The Eisenberg Review Interview
Photo by Bobbi Rich.
On Graceland Way, Mikaela Davis continues to redraw the boundaries around what country rock can hold. A classically trained harpist who has spent years folding psychedelia and American roots music into her own vocabulary, Davis leans further into what she calls “canyon country,” building a record that feels grounded in tradition while remaining distinctly her own. Its title comes from the street where the album was tracked, but the music opens onto a wider landscape of place, instinct, and musical discovery.
Much of that evolution happens within the arrangements themselves. Davis and her longtime band explore new ways of weaving the harp into a country setting, particularly through the layered melodic interplay between Davis and her partner, guitarist John Lee Shannon. Rather than assigning each instrument a fixed role, guitar and harp move around one another throughout the record, sometimes doubling, answering, or quietly reshaping the same melodic ideas.
I caught up with Davis to discuss the making of Graceland Way, what draws her to country music as a harpist, the collaborative process behind the record, and how years of playing together continue to reshape the band’s collective sound. We also get into the visual world surrounding her music and her ongoing collaboration with Cleveland-based artist and designer Madalyn Stefanak.
