The man and his muse... - Dan's musical journey.
An heir to the outrageous culture challenging folk music of Phil Ochs, the spirit of Bob Marley, and the art of Leonard Cohen, Daniel performs with harmonica and acoustic guitar like Dylan. But he brings a freshness and originality that come from the current stream of... who knows what?! Always good words, sometimes up, sometimes down, and a broad vocal range to pull off most anything.
In high school in St. Paul, MN, Daniel's interests were journalism and video production. He took that into college, majoring in Cinematography at Columbia College in Chicago. This eventually proved not artistic enough for him and he started to get interested in drawing and animation, all the while writing poetry and philosophy. He was in search of the ultimate art form by theorizing that music and motion pictures were great for communication and were the future, something like a music video but more meaningful. Well, this took him into the music realm and, after dropping out of school in Chicago and going back to his home town in St. Paul, continuing to work food service, living with his dad, drawing in his free time, and getting bored, he moved to Austin in December '01.
In Austin he was presented with another view on the world and, post September 11th, he became politically conscious. Seeing the urgency the situation and feeling the calling of world change he decided that poetry, words, were the way to say something. And what better way to say it than with music. So he picked up the guitar that he had learned to play some seven years earlier and decided to really learn to play and sing. And really nothing has changed. His guitar playing and singing have matured and so has his view on the world.
Since about 2002/2003 he's written at least a hundred songs, many of which you can hear recordings of on this site!
He has a band called "The Lovers", a seven piece with friends and his lady, Starr. They play fun and interesting psychedelic folk-rock. Two other songwriter/singers keep the show rolling along.
In July of '07 he got the opportunity to go on "The Journey for Humanity and Accountability" with Peace Mom and movement pioneer, Cindy Sheehan: a tour from Texas to Louisiana and all the way up the east coast in an effort have the Democrat led Congress hold the Bush/Cheney administration accountable for their crimes against humanity and the U.S. constitution. Currently Cindy is running for Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi's congressional seat in San. Francisco on account of Pelosi declaring that impeachment, though possible and provable, is not an option for the Bush clan. It's clear to anyone that "high crimes and misdemeanors" are the norm and not the exception in Washington nowadays. And that's the problem.
You can always catch Daniel at a march or rally were his songs fit well. Sometimes they're even a bit radical for that setting, but isn't that how we know we're having an effect? Listen to the tunes and see if they change anything for you.