Davy Knowles is all the proof you need to show the blues are a worldwide genre.

Hailing from Isle of Man, situated between the United Kingdom and Ireland, Knowles’ world changed after hearing Dire Straits’ “Sultans of Swing” on the radio.

“Oh, God, yeah. Can’t get enough of it,” he said of music from the London natives. “Anything by Mark Knopfler. I was such a big fan. 

“That was the gateway to everything, really. He’s got elements of everything in his writing and his playing. There’s country. There’s jazz. There’s blues. There’s, you know, all-out rock. 

“There’s acoustic, mellow. There’s all of it. I love it.”

That song started Knowles on a journey that will include a stop at Baker Street Centre on Saturday, Feb. 22.

“It’s kinda like a bit of a throwback to no pretension, no great big production or anything like that,” he said of his shows. “Just honest, spontaneous, kind of old-fashioned, what I imagine would have happened in the ’70s rather than any pomp or glamour. Just a good, hardworking kind of bluesy rock show.”

Standing out

Back on Isle of Man, Knowles’ introduction to the blues, which originated in the Deep South of the United States, came the same way that many of us are introduced to music.

“My dad was a big fan of this style of music, and so I grew up listening to it,” he said. “It was really the British blues groups that I started listening to with people like John Mayall and The Blues Breakers, Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, and Rory Gallagher and all of these guys. Then from there, I kinda traced it backwards. I love ‘The Beano Album’ with (Eric) Clapton and John Mayall. The first track on there is a Freddie King number, there’s an Otis Rush number, and all of this. So, it kinda stemmed from that.”

With the music in his head, Knowles picked up a guitar. However, learning from an instructor did not work as well as learning on his own.

“People throw about the self-taught moniker, and I always kinda cringe a little bit at that because I had so much help from other musicians,” he said. “There was, ‘Hey, let me show you this’ or, ‘How do you play that? How do I do that?’ It was this big community. 

“I do think music is a very social thing, playing with other people and just feeding off of other people. So, I had lots of teachers in that respect.”

As he was learning, Knowles and some classmates formed a band, which could heard playing the area, although they may have stood out a bit.

“For our age, it was pretty unique there,” he said of himself and friends playing the blues on the island of 84,000 people. “But there were plenty of other musicians on Isle of Man, and it was a great music scene on the Isle of Man coming up. It was fab. And most pubs put live music on, and you could go in there as a kid and go play and be paid for it. 

“And I was playing with bands, kinda my dad’s age, from when I was about 13, 14. So, it was it was a great scene. But, yeah, we were we were the youngest by a stretch.”

Coming to America

The training on the go proved beneficial when Knowles and his band Back Door Slam, named after a Robert Cray song, released Roll Away in 2007, and it reached No. 3 on the Billboard blues chart.

“It all happened real quick, to be honest,” Knowles said. “We came from having a gap year after high school to getting a record deal with a U.S. label, and they shipped us out here. And it was come and work, and it was like coming to Mecca, really, for us. This was Ground Zero, where it all kicked off. I still get this kinda childlike pang when you look out and you go, ‘Oh my God, I’m actually doing this. I’m actually here and I’m actually playing, and I actually get to call this my living.’ I feel tremendously grateful for that.”

Back Door Slam dissolved after their debut, with a different iteration, Davy Knowles & Back Door Slam releasing Coming Up for Air in 2009, which reached No. 2 on the blues chart.

Knowles has since dropped the Back Door Slam title, releasing five albums as simply Davy Knowles.

Each solo album has been a bit different, with the biography on his website describing 2016’s Three Miles from Avalon as ’70s classic rock, the 2017 EP 1932 as acoustic Delta blues, and 2023’s If I Should Wander as folk.

“I think the edges are pretty blurred, and have been for a really long time,” he said of genres. “A lot of people think there’s two schools of thought. There’s people who say they love blues, and really maybe what they like is classic rock. Then there’s blues purists who think that it should stay the same. And you know, I think all of it is valid. And whatever way you choose to enjoy music is valid. But, I’ve never been a purist, and I’ve always I enjoy all sorts of different types of music. All you can do is kind of absorb as much as you can. Hopefully, what gets squeezed out is something you can call somewhat your own. 

On his latest release, last year’s The Invisible Man, Knowles feels like he’s gone back to the music that got him started.

“I think this is a bit of a return to those kinds of early influences,” he said. “The Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac and Free and all of that. But one thing I really learned from the album previous to that (If I Should Wander), which was an acoustic one, was I feel best when I am singing and playing something that I’ve written from a place of total honesty, where I’m not really wearing anyone else’s shoes. This is subject matter that I have gone through and relate to, and I feel like I do best there.”

Fort Wayne highlights

When asked about any advice he’d give young musicians out there, he admitted he prefers to give encouragement. But that encouragement is a philosophy he follows — staying true to self.

“First and foremost, you have to make music that you enjoy and you can relate to yourself,” he said. 

“If other people like it, well, that’s a hell of a bonus. But I don’t think that should be the driving force. Otherwise, things tend to sound a little contrived, writing by numbers. 

“Above anything, just the big thing, if you think success is the goal, then I think you’re gonna be really disappointed. I think happiness within yourself is the goal.”

And when he returns to Fort Wayne, he finds happiness beyond the stage.

“It’s always been hard on the wallet because I visit Sweetwater,” he said with a laugh. “Between Sweetwater and the Wooden Nickel Record Stores, I feel like I come out of Fort Wayne with less than I went in. 

“It’s wonderful. We always have a really good time there. It’s always been a wonderful place to play.”