Thinking of himself more as a songwriter, it took several years before David was willing to showcase his voice publicly, but he began to perform and gather a following in Atlanta. Using soul greats Bill Withers and Anita Baker as models, he developed his own vocal style, a rough, raspy Southern baritone that worked well with his poetic, storytelling compositions.

David signed with Atlanta-based Brash Records and in late 2004 released his debut album, Three Chords & the Truth. An impressive series of stories set to mostly acoustic backing, the disc found David moving effortlessly along the spectrum that began with the contemporary blues sounds of Keb Mo and ending with the accessible acoustic soul of Arie and P.J. Morton. Lyrically, the disc was mostly about early love relationships, although it occasionally moved into more complex territory, including urban social issues ("Krooked Kop"), personal spirituality ("The Water/The Fire") and a sad family tradition of marital infidelity ("Cheatin' Man"). Musically the disc was even more impressive, with David's laid-back vocals covering a baker's dozen of solid, melodic blues, soul, folk and even reggae tracks.

David received a strong response from the indie soul community, and Three Chords catapulted into a leadership position in that movement, at the level of Morton, Eric Roberson and Frank McComb.  He solidified that position two years later with Red Clay Chronicles, an album that was even stronger than his debut and that featured two simply outstanding songs: The bluesy first single, "Stop Playin'," and the duet with Arie, "Words." The latter became one of the year's most played indie songs and won for David the 2007 SoulTracks Readers' Choice Award for Song of the Year.

David's ascent led him to the door of Universal Records via Arie's own Soulbird label.  His Soulbird debut was Acey Duecy, a compilation of 11 tracks from his first two albums and a nice introduction of his music to the general music world.

In 2010, David signed with hot indie soul label Purpose Records (distributed by E1 Music) and began working on a new album. He gave his audience a teaser with a live EP called The Setup that captured the fun of his live shows.  In March of 2011, he issued his full album, As Above So Below to positive reviews and scored a hit with "4evermore," a duet with Algebra. 

by Chris Rizik