Musician Hunni Davis said that she hasn’t had this much momentum before moving to Anchorage and diving headfirst into the city’s folk scene.
“I was deep into grunge in middle school and high school, and I feel like I’ve found that same sort of feeling again through folk music and the folk scene,” Davis said. “It felt really grounding to be in.”
Davis grew up on country music, spending the majority of her years in Redmond, WA, before relocating to Boston, MA, where she and her partner lived for three years. They relocated to Alaska in June of 2023, and since then, Davis feels as though she can take her music to new levels.
“My music is definitely heavily folk and old country influenced — because it’s really fun to play and you can communicate a lot through not a lot of words — that’s what I really like about it,” she said.
Davis said that she writes music from her perspective as a trans woman. She said that having people who are like you, visible and creating art connecting the community is huge. She says hearing support from her trans sisters and music community in town is more empowering than she could have imagined.
After becoming friends with local musicians, including Shane Russell and Ashley Young, Davis was convinced to participate in Parlor in the Round earlier this spring — alongside Shane and Duke Russell, as well as Tomo Nakayama. She said the experience was “the biggest show that [I’ve] done” to date.
“It was wild, I just feel so new to the professional music scene … I covered one of Shane [Russell]’s songs on a banjo that I built, and it was really fun — especially to hear one of my songs being played by another musician. That made me tear up, because it’s also quite a sad song,” she said.
Right now, Davis says is looking for mentors to help elevate her sound. She has been receiving help from a family friend with producing her own music, and is eager to make more local connections in town with like minded artists.
“Genres are just boxes, and everything informs everything — when you get the fuzzy lines is where things get interesting and fun,” she said.
Between commercial fishing in Bristol Bay and taking care of her young child, Davis is eager to headline her first festival — Trapper Creek’s Bluegrass Revival, this Sunday, June 2.
“I want my music to be medicine.”
Sam Davenport is a writer residing in Anchorage. She's a leo and a plant-person, and loves spending quality time with her dog, Aspen. She is a Real Housewives fan and has been called a Bravo historian.
