GULF SHORES, Ala. — The Benjy Davis Project will perform Friday, Aug. 8, at 8 p.m., at The Hangout in Gulf Shores. Admission is free for all ages.

With recent sold-out shows at New Orleans’ House of Blues and Nashville’s Exit/In, this summer’s second leg of Benjy Davis Project’s national “DUST Concert Tour” (supporting their current CD, “DUST”) demonstrates that the accolades and support earned by this cohesive band of incredibly talented indie rockers are fully deserved.

The current midwestern swing includes stops in Chicago, Colombia Mo., Iowa City and Cedar Falls IA and Oshkosh Wisc. This month, Davis will perform a special singer-songwriter concert (solo) with Tab Benoit, David Egan and Maggie Warrick in Baton Rouge.

A new CD is in the offing, and an exciting new venture announcement from the band’s label, Real Records, is coming soon.

In the continuing climate of a fourth-quarter-profit-priority in the music industry, the Louisiana-based group perseveres with integrity and purpose, in an artist-driven approach to expanding their audience, by taking their music directly to the people.

Indeed, 2007 was a year that saw the Benjy Davis Project vaulting beyond a valued college fan base.

This year’s return engagement at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in April attracted thousands of new fans, and terrific media notice, from USA Today’s photo coverage to the Times Picayune review: “The Project has gone about the business of becoming a credible college rock band the hard way, grinding it out on the road and writing the sort of autobiographical anthems that Southern teens want to sing along to.” Such triumphant dates encourage a move to the next phase for this band.

We’ve heard a lot about music that matters. And, we’ve heard a lot about marketing it. These are challenging times.

“When I first heard the band, there was an excitement to their sound I hadn’t heard since the ’60s.” says manager Jim Bateman. “Their music is a fresh, unique blend of deep-rooted influences, combined with songwriting that reflects real life and spans generations. This band will break through to the mainstream. It’s just a matter of time.”

The relationship with Real Records continues into its sixth year, along with a vital connection to the artist-friendly national distribution company, Select-O-Hits (founded by the Sam Phillips family and based in Memphis).

Project Manager Steve Harrison, observes, “For our part, we’re a tenacious lot; we leave no stone unturned to distribute the music of our family of artists, regardless of the commercial climate. Benjy Davis Project are family, now, and they’ve only just begun. 2008 will see creative marketing turns for this dynamic rock group whose songs represent nothing less than indelible Americana at its finest.”

Fans are shopping for “DUST” at local retail stores, but they are also accessing Benjy Davis Project with ease, online. Shop.mtv.com, insound.com and other sites feature an All Music Guide review by venerated music critic Bill Ruhlmann who notes, “Six years and four albums in, the Benjy Davis Project has become a cohesive unit, playing folk-rock arrangements that find the members interacting intuitively. The point of the band is to support Davis’ voice and songs, of course, but the group has become a distinct unit in a familiar style. It’s easy to cite antecedents.”

Among the recent adherents is the Dave Matthews Band, and the Davis group also has elements of Southern rock, whether the sound is flavored with a banjo, a violin, a mandolin or a Hammond B-3 organ, the point is always to support the voice.

He sings in a slightly gruff tenor with an elastic sense of rhythm, the better to add conviction and vulnerability to his lyrics, which are personal and straightforward.

Inescapably, this Louisiana native confronts the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in such songs as the lead-off track, “The Rain” (“And now you’re standing on what just became your FEMA parking lot.”) and “Graves” (“I’ll build the houses, if you dig the graves”).

But his main subject is the ups and downs of love. Throughout, he creates an appealing character, and his backup band adds real punch to his songs.

BDP’s previous Jazz Fest performance got the attention of Borders stores executives. Wanda Fisher, Borders group senior marketing manager, remarks, “That concert blew me away. I hope to sell many, many CDs of the Benjy Davis Project in our stores.”

Up the road from Jazz Fest is Baton Rouge, hometown of the Benjy Davis Project. By any standards, it is an active music town, with comprehensive news print coverage on local and national acts, and a dynamic radio station, WNXX, 104 the X, Baton Rouge’s voice of new rock.

The station’s popular jock, the Fish, comments, “I just like these guys. They’ve got something to say, they touch every young emotion, and they rock. We’re happy to have them in-studio which always turns out to be a positive experience. They know the ropes, they appreciate their friends, and that means a lot.”

Across the miles in the Los Angeles valley, KCSN (voted the No. 1 L.A. radio station by Los Angeles magazine) resides on a University of California campus, but boasts an enormous, sophisticated audience from all quarters.

Rock jock Thomas Wolfe weighs in: “Much of the new music out here in L.A. is too pop oriented and not too original. I was pleased enough to play an entire set of their music, and you can hear them regularly on my show.”

Media exposure and music reviews are now far reaching. The Toledo Blade’s music critic, Rod Lockwood, said, “Mixed with the sophisticated arrangements that feature complex harmonies and bouncy melodies, “DUST” builds into a strong release that would sound just right on the radio. Songs like ‘The Rain,’ ‘I Love You’ and the ballad ‘Good Enough’ show off an unabashed sensuality and fearlessness that is refreshing.”

The Advocate (Baton Rouge’s daily newspaper) music critic John Wirt adds, “Authenticity is captured more on ‘DUST’ than any of their previous CDs. The new songs meld rock and country into undeniably catchy pop. Audiences throughout the nation have been receptive to the gifted, unassuming young band from Baton Rouge.

And, back in Los Angeles, Studio City Sun’s music reviewer, Bill Bentley, asks: “Looking for a band that has a singer who can fill the air with hope and, at the same time, catch the darkness in his hands, Benjy Davis has been doing just that the past five years. There are at least six songs on ‘DUST’ that you’d bet your car keys were smash hits.”

Benjy Davis Project’s touring includes a well paced 120 dates a year, allowing time for promotion and recording. Venues range in size and personality, from Jazz Fest, to Tupelo’s annual Elvis Festival, where the band hosts Habitat for Humanity workers, to the venerable Stubb’s Bar-Be-Que in Austin, Texas.

“DUST” producer David Z (Grammy-winning Etta James, Fine Young Cannibals, Jonny Lang) says, “I have striven to find artistic and musical originality my whole career and discovered it was very rare. In a world of imitators and posers, Benjy is a true American poet and the band are real artists.”

For more information about the Benji Davis Project’s performance at The Hangout, call (251) 948-3030.