Davie Releases Soulful New Single 'By the River' via Bootzilla Records
The tender track marks Davie's second release for the newly launched label and offers a preview of a new album due in 2027.
NYC-based roots-soul singer-songwriter Davie has released his new single and accompanying video, 'By the River,' via Bootzilla Records, the label founded by funk icon Bootsy Collins. A tender invitation to meet in the places where love, memory, and hope remain even when the right words are hard to find, the track marks Davie's second release for the newly launched label.
'By the River' follows June's 'Soul,' the groove-driven celebration of freedom, joy, and community that arrived to commemorate Juneteenth and introduced Davie as Bootzilla Records' first signed artist. Where 'Soul' leaned into the communal energy of the blues, gospel, soul, and funk traditions that shaped Davie, 'By the River' turns inward, revealing a more intimate and vulnerable side of his songwriting. After years spent performing in London, Ibiza, and abroad, the song also reflects Davie's return to his musical roots, offering an early glimpse of a new album due in 2027 that brings folk and Americana further into his longstanding R&B and soul foundation.
At the heart of 'By the River' is a simple idea: sometimes a place can hold what we struggle to say. Davie uses the river as both a real meeting place and a repository for the moments that remain with us - first kisses, heartbreak, tenderness, reconciliation - ultimately returning to the invitation at the song's center: meet me by the river.
'When we love someone deeply, the feelings can be so raw and powerful that words don't quite capture them,' says Davie. 'That's what 'By the River' is about. The river represents a place shared between two people, a special place that belongs only to them. Even if we can't find the right words, I know you feel it too, so meet me there. It's the classic movie moment, where the protagonist asks their love interest: 'Meet me by the dock. Meet me by the river. Meet me at the place that's just ours.''
That invitation runs through the song as Davie moves between uncertainty and optimism. 'It might be a long shot,' he concedes at the outset, before asking whether two people can talk through what stands between them. By the chorus, the answer becomes less complicated: if you need love or a little tenderness, meet him by the river. Rather than promising that love will be easy, the song leaves room for the possibility that it can still be worth working for. The song's accompanying live video was filmed at Fox Studio in New Jersey.
Davie has spent years building a catalog that bridges gospel tradition and contemporary soul, earning more than 15 million streams across platforms. His 2019 mixtape Girls Raised in the South reached the Top 5 on iTunes' R&B chart, while performances alongside Lizzo and Selena Gomez, appearances at Austin City Limits and Lollapalooza, and the success of breakthrough single 'Testify' helped introduce his voice to a growing audience.
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