As an independent artist, Andy Davis of Mt. Pleasant doesn’t have a major record label backing his work, and the money that goes into his music career comes mostly out of his own pockets.

“To be able to do that, and continue to see things progress, is really unbelievable,” Davis said.

That progression continued on Oct. 23 at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, as Davis won Male Entertainer of the Year at the 2022 Josie Awards, the nation’s largest independent music awards event.

Building on his previous win in the Modern Male Country category at the 2021 Josies — a night that included two other nominations plus an on-stage performance of his band’s tune “Tonight” — Davis said the past year has been a whirlwind.

“After the awards last year, it was really motivation for us to just keep grinding and really try to see what we’re capable of,” he said.

The Andy Davis Band has expanded its touring radius, adding shows farther south into West Virginia and farther west into Ohio, “where we’ve really been doing well,” Davis said. “We really pushed this year, and this award couldn’t have come at a better time for me and my team. We needed a spark and we couldn’t have gotten a better one.”

Davis and his wife Victoria also discovered the joy of family in the past year with the birth of their daughter Kyah June.

“That has made things so much more different than in years past,” he said, thanking his bandmates and members of his musical team.

“The people who’ve gone through the good and the bad with me have earned this as much as I have,” he said.

In the next few weeks, Davis said he has plans to debut a new single. The band is working on material to follow up 2020’s “Blue Collar” album with a new record he hopes to release in the spring of 2023.

For now, though, Davis is content to sit back for a moment and take it all in.

“Entertainer of the Year is the biggest award you can win at the Josies,” he said. “It’s been a heck of an experience, especially to be doing it onstage at the Grand Ole Opry.”

For more on the Andy Davis Band, see InTheDeerStand.com.