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In Studio A with Joshua Davis

"The Voice" finalist and Interlochen Arts Academy faculty member talks left-handed guitars and having his first full-time job at the age of 44.

Unless you were living under a rock in 2015, you probably remember the excitement surrounding the ascent of Northern Michigan's Joshua Davis on NBC's "The Voice."

"It seems like 30 years ago," Davis said, laughing.

It turns out that he had never even watched "The Voice" before he was cast on it. He was scouted by their casting agency and arrived for the blind audition without knowing much about the show.

His success came as a surprise. "I never expected my career to take that turn," Davis said. "It was a door that just opened."

He hadn't had formal vocal training prior to "The Voice, " so what he learned working with vocal coach Trelawney Rose was invaluable.

These days, Davis himself is teaching. He's on the faculty at Interlochen Arts Academy, where he works with students in the Singer-Songwriter program.

In fact, he said, "It's my first full-time job ever."

Davis says he sees his role as helping his students find and then expand their creative voices.

"The first thing I ask when a student plays me a song is, 'What's this about?'" he explained. And if the student doesn't know, they need to go back to the "emotional and conceptual umbrella."

Davis performed two of his original songs in IPR's Studio A. "House of Princes" is from the album A Miracle of Birds, while "Paper Boats" will be included on a forthcoming EP of music Davis wrote while grieving the death of his father.

Joshua Davis performs "House of Princes" in IPR's Studio A

Davis, who is left-handed, also talked about what adaptations he and his fellow lefties have to make when playing the guitar.

Some instruments come already made for lefties, like the Waterloo by Collings guitar he brought to the studio. Some music stores also carry a number of left-handed guitars, including Elderly Instruments in Lansing.

Other times, he finds older guitars that he likes and then has them flipped professionally. He also brought a Mule Resophonicto Studio A that had originally been right-handed but that the company (based in Saginaw) flipped for him.

Joshua Davis performs "Paper Boats" in IPR's Studio A

Davis will perform this Friday, Dec. 17 at 8 p.m. at City Opera House in Traverse City. Click here for tickets and more information.

Fair warning, though: there won't be any Christmas music in the show.

"A lot of great Christmas songs have been written by Jewish guys, but I'm not one of those Jewish guys," he said. "We won't be rocking around any trees - unless they're olive trees."

Stefan Wiebe engineered this edition of Studio A.

Joshua Davis records in IPR's Studio A
Interlochen Public Radio
Joshua Davis records in IPR's Studio A

Dr. Amanda Sewell is IPR's music director.