It was April of 2020, and the world felt like it was falling apart. A pandemic had shown up on earth’s doorstep and with little to no warning, country music artists from around the world found themselves floating in an unknown of epic proportions and unending questions about their career and their future.
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That is, except for the Davisson Brothers Band.
They decided to take it all in stride…and get to work.
So, they fixed that squeaky door and hammered that board back into its respective place and painted that siding that had long been fading on their family farm in West Virginia.
At the very same time, roughly 10,209 miles away, Australian country star Amber Lawrence was also trying to keep her mind off the array of questions with no answers swirling in her head, choosing instead to stay busy writing, recording and hosting her own show on iHeart Radio.
But soon, a song would bring them together forevermore.
That song is “Greatest Show on Earth.”
“We wanted to bridge the two worlds together into a song,” explains Chris Davisson during a recent interview with American Songwriter. “I mean, everyone was, and still is going through the same thing.”
“What’s it going to be like when they open those gates at that first show back?” Donnie Davisson adds. “What’s that going to feel like?”
This shared vision of a hopeful, not so distant future, eventually brought together the Davisson Brothers, Lawrence and Nashville-based singer-songwriter Rob Synder to write the powerful song that puts a lyrical vision on life after the pandemic.
Right from the start, Lawrence had a title.
“As soon as she said ‘Greatest Show on Earth,’ I was like ‘yep, that’s it, we have the title,” remember Chris Davisson. “To be honest, I had ten ideas for titles in my notes. (Laughs.) But I knew none of mine were going to beat that.”
“That title powered the whole writing session,” Donnie Davisson further remembers of the uplifting song, which took a mere two hours to write. “Someone would write half of a verse, and then someone else would have a line that beat the first one. Everything was clicking.”
Granted, on the surface, these four songwriters couldn’t be more different. The Davisson Brothers and Amber Lawrence had actually became friends and fans of each other back in 2018 during the time the band’s first single, “Po Boyz” hit the top of the Australian radio charts.
And since then, the Davisson Brothers Band has actually seen great success down under. Besides their number one radio hit, they also have snagged a #1 video on CMC and were even invited to perform at CMC Rocks.
But as air travel overseas was generally halted over the spring, the Davisson Brothers Band was determined to somehow link up to their beloved friend in Australia through “Greatest Show on Earth,” a song for the world that the Davisson Brothers hoped would infuse all who heard it with positivity and a determination to keep going.
Just last month, the lyrics of the song was paired with an equally uplifting music video that brings everyone together via the magic of Zoom paired with unifying moments on social media of people doing their best getting used to their new normal.
“It’s still hard getting used to ‘the new normal,’” admits Chris Davisson quietly.
Indeed, the Davisson Brothers Band assumed things would be back to normal by now. Much like the rest of us who call the earth home, they thought the pandemic would be a short-lived phenomenon. They teased ourselves into thinking that it would disappear with high temperatures, or someone would find a vaccine. And most certainly they would be out playing their rowdy brand of music in front of their fans by now.
But, that still hasn’t happened.
But when it does?
“Oh, it’s going to be the greatest show on earth,” Chris Davisson says in his Southern growl, letting out a big laugh at the end of his hopeful proclamation. “This is going to be the ultimate sing-along. It’s going to bring us all together.”
“Every time I sing it, I picture a whole bunch of people in a field, all together hugging each other and watching live music again,” adds Donnie Davisson. “It’s going to be good.”
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