NEW ALBUM!
Hello Everyone and Anyone,
So I am currently working on a new album and it is titled "Love Life Freedom." I will be releasing it sometime within this year, hopefully within the next few months. I have been creating album art, and am in the studio as we speak tracking. Living it up in sunny San Diego make music with an old friend, and an amazing engineer at Panland Studios. I may also have a possible band mate addition to Deeper Than The Ocean, but we will see! Keep in touch, check back and help spread the word about me! Check me out on Facebook and help me get some likes! I also have my older albums for free download at my Bandcamp website, and also here on my website. It will say "Buy" and "Name your own price" but I assure you that you can download them for free if you want! Thanks for the love and support everyone, it means more to me than I could ever put into words, Love, Dan SHOW MARCH 1st in Rochester, NY @ The Flying Squirrel Community Space
I am in the process of making the flyer and creating the event via Facebook for my March 1st, at 7:00 PM performance The Flying Squirrel Community Space here in Rochester, NY!
http://flyingsquirrel.rocus.org/ It will be a free show so that's fun :) I will be asking for donations to raise money for the production of my new album, "Love & Life" Which should be out this fall, but there is no obligation, or expectation of any donations to be made. I just want to have a good time! I am also putting together an art show of some local Rochesterian art work which will be hanging up for all to see, and possibly purchase. I will have some on my art work hanging as well :) There will also be a performances by: Charit Way https://www.facebook.com/CharitWay?fref=ts 2 Legged Death Machine (accompanying me) http://2leggeddeathmachine.bandcamp.com/ Please share this! Add it to your calender! and most importantly, bring your beautiful self to hang out for the night. San Angelo, and San Antonio, Texas!
So I went from my friends house in San Antonio, TX to San Angelo, TX, about a three hour drive. The show in San Angelo was pretty awesome! A lot of good feed back, and a pretty fun set. I have been using my computer to play back up tracks for my music, like this Our Only Hope Live, Our Only Hope Acoustic you can hear the difference! Well at The Deadhorse Saloon in San Angelo I even got out my electric and my amp and busted out some solos! It was pretty fun. I sort of had the vibe that the place usually gets bands that are a little heavier than my music, so I decided to spice it up a bit. I had fun, and it's always exciting for me as a performer to step out of my comfort zone and try new things in front of people. I also stayed at with a cool guy so that made San Angelo more exciting as well. After that I woke up and drove right back the way I came, three hours back to San Antonio for a show at The Raven Hookah Lounge. The show there was awesome! I played with a band called Second Lovers from Houston, TX and they rocked! Check them out! Got their contact info and will hopefully set something up with them next time I'm in Houston. I got a really warm response from the crowd and sold some CD's! It always feels good to get my music out there to people. Makes me feel like I'm doing something right :) Tonight I'm back at my friends Danny's house here in San Antonio and we are getting prepared for a little house party this evening. I will be performing for his friends, family, and neighbors! It should be a fun time! Then Tomorrow off to Austin, TX!
New Orleans, Hemphill, Houston
Once again I have waited a while to write a post! Traveling has taken it's toll on my will to do things like this! I am currently in San Antonio with a friend of mine, and I don't have a show until Friday, so I am seriously relaxing! Catching up on my journal, and music, and everything and anything else. After I left Auburn, Alabama I headed south to New Orleans. I stayed with an awesome host, and had an amazing experience! He was very kind, and positive, so in turn everyone he surrounded himself with was kind and positive. I got a chance to meet some other couchsurfers as well. There were four of us the first couple nights: a girl from Holland, a boy from Russia, another boy from France and myself. If was fun and the night was filled with good talks. The next night I had my show at Neutral Ground Coffeehouse. It was a nice little establishment, and I had a lot of fun playing. The crowd was kind and receptive. I always say that I'd rather play to one person who is listening, than play to a room full of people who do care, or who aren't paying attention! I stayed in Louisiana a few days after that and just explored around, taking pictures and eating food! It was fun.
After that I said my goodbyes and headed north to stay with some family in Hemphill, Texas on a cool lake called the Toledo Bend Resavior. It was a very fun time. I got to meet some family that I have never met, got to go boating, swimming and canoeing, got to be out in nature for a few days, got some good food, and got to relax! It was really nice! I have pictures from Hemphill and New Orleans if you click on this link to my Facebook After a few days there I headed south to Houston where I played a very interesting show at a place called The Mink. I was booked to play at 7:00 pm, so I show up at 6:30. The woman at the bar tells me the bands don't play until 9:00, so I should come back around 8-8:30. I leave and come back and when I arrive the promoter comes up to me and asks me what I'm doing. She says you were supposed to play in the front room at 7:00. I tell her what happened and she goes and verifies everything. She comes back and apologizes. She then asks me, "Are you ready to play right now?" Of course being a solo act, I am pretty flexible and I was! So I run upstairs and hop on stage and get all tuned up and start playing. Now I wasn't supposed to play this show... this show was a punk rock show... The Ramones, NoFX type stuff. I was thought to myself.... this should be fun! But I remembered what my dad told me before I left, "No matter where you go, just be yourself." Great advice, and I can promise you that that advice has guided me through many strange situations along this journey. I used my computer to play my back up instruments, got on stage and played my music! I still got applauded, I had amazing crowd interaction, and I even sold a CD! I had a bunch of people tell me good set and that they liked my music. It was an amazing experience, and it was powerful to see how open minded and loving everyone can be. Our misconceptions of people tend to be our downfall, it is usually the nice looking "normal" people who have been rude and judgmental in all my travels, and rarely the crude looking punk rockers of the world! Traveling has opened my eyes to so much though! So I suggest that everyone gets out and breaks away from your comfort zones to experience the true goodness in people. All the guys in the band after me told me they dug my music, and one of the guys even found five dollars on stage, he handed it to me and said, "You probably need this more than I do, you're a long ways from home." Great experience, as those odd circumstances usually are! I spend the night in Houston, and the headed to my friends house here in San Antonio. It's been a lot of fun so far. Next stop will be San Angelo, Texas at the Deadhorse Saloon! Asheville, Auburn
Last Friday I played a show in Asheville NC at The Creatures Cafe. It was a very cool venue and everyone there was super nice! Plus Asheville is really awesome city. The show went well. I played with my computer providing the drums and the bass to back me up. Here's a video from the show "Our Only Hope Live". After the show my couch hosts and me drove back to their house, a cabin in the woods about 45 mins outside of Asheville. I spent the next couple nights there writing, drawing, and relaxing. The cabin was right on a stream with water falls and beautiful woods all around. It was an extremely relaxing and spiritual experience. But it was good to leave! it's never good to get to comfortable anywhere. You can check out pictures here on my facebook page. The next stop was Auburn, AL for a show at an awesome little bookstore/coffeeshop called The Gnu's Room. The owner, the coffee, the atmosphere, everything about the place was awesome! Definitely worth stopping at sometime, and definitely worth going back. I stayed with a couchsurfer in Opelika, AL for a few nights. We hung out and went shooting one morning! That was an experience. Last night I went back to The Gnu's Room to check out a jazz guitarist, and get some coffee. While I was there I met a girl who's on the new season of Glee, and an amazing slide guitarist. The couchsurfer I'm staying with her in Auburn lives next to a girl who plays mandolin, and the slide guitarist knew her. I told the slide guitarist that the mandolinist and I were going to jam, he wanted to come, so that night The slide guitarist, the mandolinist, a banjo player, and myself all jammed! It was awesome. We switched up instruments and sang and laugh, a truly wonderful experience. My next stop is going to be New Orleans, LA! at a place called Neutral Grounds Coffee. Can't wait to write about that!
Nashville, Memphis, Johnson City
A whole lot of Tennessee! It's been a while since my last blog... I got busy/lazy. My last three shows went pretty well though. I've noticed that if I don't get paid I usually get fed, and not to expect anything, but be grateful for everything! My first day in Nashville I did a ton of sight seeing, and then did some Busking in the streets. It was cool, I met some fellow street performs and got to hear their stories. From there I went a bit south to Franklin, TN to play a show in a nice little bakery called Merridee's Breadbasket. Got some good food, and played with a band called The Bundee's, it was fun. Then I headed West to Memphis! I stayed with an amazing family, we went to the zoo, and they had a pool! It's hot down south! My show in Memphis was at a place called Kudzu's. It was a fun show, I enjoyed it. Then I headed all the way back across the state, slept in my car outside Nashville, and made it to Johnson City last night for my show at The Acoustic Coffeehouse. It was a fun show too! Today I'm just relaxing, trying to figure out what I'm doing tonight. Either camping or.... I don't know! Fate will decide.. I think! :)
Louisville
Well right now I am in Louisville. I am staying with some family and it has been a lot of fun. My family showed me around the city and took me to the Churchill Downs. I got to take a tour and see a video of the history of the Kentucky Derby, it was honestly pretty awesome! My show in Chicago wasn't the greatest, I didn't get paid, and I only played to two people, but I did get an awesome free meal! Black bean burger and sweet potato fries. Plus I made a good contact with a fellow touring musician who plays folk music and tours the Northeast, so I figure if nothing else that was a positive result. Plus I got to see Chicago, it was my first time there... and that is the real reason I wanted to go there :) Life is about the journey, not about the money.
Last night I played at a bar called HIghlands Tap Room here in Louisville. I didn't know what to expect, but the show was awesome. I played to a group of older men who were attentive and generally interested in what I had to say, and that is better than playing to a room full of people who don't give a shit. Everyone there was super nice. I even met a woman who had just moved down from Rochester, and she even knew where Churchville was! "That little down in Riga." So that was pretty interesting. Right now I am mailing off the final things to get my new CD printed so I can have them at my shows. Next stop Nashville, TN! Chicago
So far I have been to Cleveland, where I played at the Barking Spider, that was a neat little tavern. Then I drove to Columbus and visited my cousin for a night. We went and got sushi... which was half off! awesome. Then we went to see the movie Prometheus, which was pretty cool, with her and her friends. My next stop was Eaton, OH at a place called Taffy's. The show was awesome, the crowd was awesome, and the club owner was an amazing guy. The club owner was very out going and very inspirational, he told me to basically follow my dreams and never stop because someday I'll be too old to, and I'll wish I had when I was younger. He said "There are a million people just like you, so just go out there and do it..." "Money is fictional, trust me I know." This was very motivational. For one, I am traveling alone, and that can be lonely sometimes, and two, traveling is filled with ups and downs, high, high points, and low, low points. Hearing things to keep me motivated is so important, and so is the kindness of others! The one amazing thing about music is that it allows you to see the goodness in people, and traveling allows you to understand humanity just a little bit more.
Last night I was in Chicago, I stayed with a Malaysian girl, she is an amazing classical pianist. She showed me around the city, we went to "the bean," and to the Navy Pier to watch fire works. Right now I'm at her school using the wifi! Tonight I have a show at Uncommon Ground on Clark st in Chicago! then off to Louisville, KY to stay with some family and play a show at the Highland Tap Room. 
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