Kevin Davison of New Minas, Novascotia can add country artist to his laundry list of titles right next to Paramedic, County of Kings District 8 Councillor, and most importantly, Hockey Dad. His last major release came in 2009 and he’s been recording songs for Only Human since about 2014 after his community was so touched by the second track on the EP, “When the Sirens are Gone,” that they raised over $7000 for him to travel to Nashville to record the song. In 2024, the title gives the feel of a pro-cop stadium country anthem letting us all know that without police officers pulling us over for going five over or making an illegal lane change, society would collapse and we’d be sorry that we ever questioned the boys in blue. But it’s actually a really emotional song about suffering with PTSD from being a paramedic. What he’s saying is that when a paramedic leaves work and gets home, unlike most people who use their down time to unwind and relax, a first responder who witnesses horrific injuries, family strife, and death on a daily basis relives the worst moments of their day when they go home and without properly addressing it, which is hard to do given the essential nature of their job which might preclude them from regularly going to therapy or counseling, it takes a serious toll on their home and personal life. And this song doesn’t come across as some emotionally manipulative tear jerker carefully thought through in a board room with walls lined by shiny gold records because Kevin himself was a paramedic and he experienced all of this himself. And in 2014, he wasn’t very far removed from the trauma that replayed in his dreams. Its authenticity sets it apart from other songs of the sort in a way that the listener can only really feel.
Of course it wouldn’t be a country project without some love songs which is what the rest of the EP is but the songs are good and they work better on an EP than they would together on a full-length album anyway. Each of them takes a bit of a different perspective but they’re all relatable and well-written. “Gravity” opens us up with a bubbly, sentimental instrumental and lyrics about being so drawn to a woman at a function that the desire to chat her up almost feels as inescapable as a physics law. Some of the lyrics allude to Newton and he compares his attraction to things that have a literal gravitational relationship like the moon and the ocean and he even touches on how that feeling conflicts with the nerves he experiences from the idea of going up and approaching her. He experiments with a similar writing strategy on “Wonder Woman” where he describes more of a reverence he has for his partner given her effortlessly graceful nature and powerful energy which commands nothing but the utmost awe and appreciation. In sticking with the theme of relatability, he touches a little bit on how his perception of her causes him to struggle mildly with his own self image and he often wonders how someone like him ended up with someone as wholly beautiful as his wonder woman.
“She Makes Me Want To” is another cheery song that describes the sort of emotional opening-up one experiences at the start of a relationship. He never saw himself as the sentimental type to enjoy sunsets or write love songs, but this woman has put him more in touch with the part of him that appreciates those things. He’s more expressive and he feels comfortable living in his feelings. It’s a song about him being eager to experience love with someone to the fullest extent possible and crediting that person for loving him so much that he felt comfortable being in touch with his soft, lovey-dovey side. It almost takes one back to the beginning of their first relationship when they were so excited to get out of this hard shell that they’d built for years and settle down with someone that they instantly do a 180 and become someone they’d never imagined becoming before for no other reason than that’s what their partner made them want to do.
The album brings the spirit of love down on the track, “I’m a Mess,” which is about him being cheated on. In the first verse, he finds her stuff in his bathroom and is reminded of her once again and he throws it all away and the chorus is resentful because while he’s reeling from his lover having an affair, she already had a man to go to when they broke up because she was cheating. The second verse, which is probably the best display of storytelling on the album, describes him drinking a bottle of Jim Beam to cope and picking up the phone to give her a piece of his mind so he can finally have some closure. Despite the song being about getting cheated on, there is a subtly triumphant tone to it because it’s not actually about just living in the hurt of a broken love, it’s about him taking the initiative to give himself the closure that he deserves. And building on this sort of optimism in the face of heartbreak is the final track, “When You Need Me,” where he extends a helping hand to a former lover, partially in hopes of reigniting their love as he admits several times in the song that he isn’t the same without her.
Only Human is a rather fitting title for this EP. You learn a lot about who Kevin Davison is as a person when you listen to it like his battle with PTSD and his positive outlook on life and love. He tells compelling stories, he sings his heart out, and he takes you back to times in your life when you felt something like infatuation or heartbreak, or you couldn’t escape something that sticks in your head. With witty lyricism, upbeat production, and impassioned vocal performances, Only Human is quite the addition to a discography that left off at the beginning of the Obama administration and the title fits him perfectly as a person. He hasn’t released music in so long because he’s living a normal life, serving his community as a paramedic and a local politician, proudly posting videos of his daughter sniping pucks past goalies, and bragging about his son as he grows up. He’s living the life he wants to live and he’s letting his personal experiences within such a fulfilling life inform his art rather than creating art with the intent of profiting handsomely. His latest EP shows that he’s not done making music for his fans, and he’s gonna do a good job when he makes his music, but he is only human and his music is just one part of a busy, likely stressful, but overwhelmingly complete life that he lives.
Written by Bret Ozee