John Paul Davis

My name is John Paul Davis. I write poetry, build things on the web with code, make music and visual art. I love making things. This website is mostly about the things I make and do.

  1. New buds on the branches of a red maple in Van Cortlandt Park
    Imperatives
    Posted on in Photography
  2. Tenderly-crafted tunes with hooky melodies, plainspoken poetry, shimmering guitars, driving bass lines that lay bare the emotional peaks & valleys in ordinary human love

    Listen to the album on Bandcamp

  3. A lamppost, filled with light from the rising sun along the Pelham Greenway in Van Cortlandt Park
    A Little Borrowed Light
    Posted on in Photography
  4. On his first solo album Yorke sings hauntingly about climate change, political anger, & a sense of helplessness over skittery, angular beats, fizzy synths & gorgeous piano & guitar.

    Listen to the album on YouTube

  5. Ice crystals forming in a rain puddle in early spring in Van Cortlandt Park
    Winter's Final Message
    Posted on in Photography
  6. Grappling with loss & reckoning with healing, the band digs deep lyrically while pushing themselves sonically to try new approaches, yielding an album that uplifts & soars as it aches.

    Listen to the album on YouTube

  7. This tree trunks cast long shadows in early morning light in Van Cortlandt Park
    Days Before the Green
    Posted on in Photography
  8. The band switch instruments & avoid writing in their comfort zone, resulting in an album that sounds like nothing they'd done to that point, while still sounding like only R.E.M. could.

    Listen to the album on YouTube

  9. Trunks of thin, leafless trees in Van Cortlandt Park
    Long-Term Strategies
    Posted on in Photography
  10. "Repair is the dream of the broken thing," David Berman plaintively sings, a summary of not just this gorgeous album of outsider folk-rock but also of the band's rickety aesthetic.

    Listen to the album on Bandcamp

  11. Shadow of a tree on grass in Van Cortlandt Park
    Everything Means More Than One Thing
    Posted on in Photography
  12. Colin Meloy's imaginative, evocative songwriting is matched in scope & execution by the band's tight, fierce & masterful playing in this collection of tales of love & war.

    Listen to the album on YouTube

  13. Trunks of several leafless trees along the Bridle Path in Van Cortlandt Park
    Trees Wear Less When It's Cold Out
    Posted on in Photography
  14. Smith dives for musical transcendence & surfaces with a set of rousing rockers as she examines the ambiguities & demands of relationships - with other people & with music itself.

    Listen to the album on YouTube

  15. Shodow of a tree and its branches on asphalt
    Self-Explanatory
    Posted on in Photography
  16. The band step outside their sonic comfort zone with dynamics, melody & gorgeous layers whose daring match the lyrics' fearless exploration of addiction & recovery.

    Listen to the album on Bandcamp

  17. Early morning sun pokes through the treeline, casting long shadows along the east side of the Parade Ground in Van Cortlandt Park
    Everything You Can See Is In Motion
    Posted on in Photography
  18. The icon pushes her sound in a bold new direction with texture, atmosphere & unconventional song structures supporting the album's themes of romantic & sexual actualization & exploration

    Listen to the album on YouTube

  19. Mallards standing on a fallen branch in Van Cortlandt Lake
    Both Worlds Are Real
    Posted on in Photography
  20. Backed by his touring band, Lovett captures his genre-defying swinging, smiling, sassy & sublime live sound in these stories of sin, survival, & salvation.

    Listen to the album on YouTube

  21. The roots of a fallen tree in Van Cortlandt Park
    Bad Hair Day
    Posted on in Photography
  22. The singer-songwriter experiments with new colors in her musical palette & soulful singing while staying groove-oriented, exploring themes of love, loss, & life transition.

    Listen to the album on YouTube

  23. A small leafless tree lit by early morning sunlight near a bridge over the Henry Hudson Parkway in Van Cortlandt Park
    Birthplace of Fire
    Posted on in Photography
  24. Continuing to explore themes of indigenous rights, environmentalism & spirituality, the band pushes their sound in a lush, layered, driving, melodic direction.

    Listen to the album on YouTube

  25. Neon signs reading Be Kind Be Well Be Safe Be Love on a wall on 125th St in Harlem
    Be Kind Be Well Be Safe Be Love
    Posted on in Photography