We're thrilled to announce that Danny's seminal album, Parables & Primes has been re-released as a limted edition vinyl print. This album has never been available on vinyl until now. Get yours while they last! Available only from Danny's website store.
The songbook has been updated to include Danny's most reecent albums. The 4th Edition is now available to purchase . . . now in print and in electronic formats!
The book includes the chords, lyrics, technical notes, stories, and commentary for every song that Danny has ever recorded and released.
A gorgeous lyric poster designed by paper-cut artist Andrew Benincasa. Screen printed by hand on 80lb art paper, these are works of art illustrating the themes from Danny's song, This Too Shall Pass.
WE NEED A BETTER WORD
video & essay
Here's a video we recorded for the song We Need A Better Word. It was shot live in Fischer Hall, where Carrie and I were married.
And if you're interested, I hope you'll read this essay I wrote about the song. It expands upon Carrie and my experiences with fertility and miscarriage, and the insights that stemmed from those experiences.
BLACK & BLUE
lyric video
A PRAYER FOR THE SANE
lyric video
This is just a simple lyric video, so you can follow along with the song. Please share it around to anyone you think would enjoy it.
If you're new to Danny's music, and if Standard Deviation is your first window into his tunes, here's some other songs you might enjoy that have a similar depth, complexity, and humanity to them. Enjoy!
Danny is extremely proud to play a Martin Guitar with Martin Silk & Phosphor Strings. And extremely appreciative of the generous support that Martin has lent him, and many other independent musicians.
Danny also wants to make it prefectly clear that Martin has never asked him (much less obligated him) to give any sort of public endorsement of their products. He's doing so because he feels strongly about supporting businesses and organizations that do exceptional work, and exist in the world as good citizens, with good conscience.
I attempted to write a song about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict that, standing in the gates of the Gaza, I could sing facing either direction, and the people behind me could feel I was singing for them. It speaks to the fundamental sameness on either side — both in their distress and in their culpability. Not necessarily equivalency of action, but equivalency of humanity.
We all feel run over at times by the spinning of the world sometimes. And when a group of people look around and feel that society is advocating for everyone but them, and that their grievances (however justifiable or not) are being ignored, they begin to believe the social contract has been breached, and so they tear what's left of it to shreds. There's a sad litany of examples: Nazism for the post-war Germans, Trumpism for the rural white Americans left behind by globalization and the information economy, terrorist assaults from Palestinians held under a brutal regime.
None of their responses were tolerable or defensible, to me. But all of their responses were predictable. And since we can only control our own behavior, what we can do is listen to the grievances of our fellow humans, whether they are minority grievances or majority grievances, whether we agree with them or not. If grievances are being felt, then they are real, by definition. And people who feel heard don't scream so much, or so loudly, so desperately or so violently or so recklessly.
Dark Skies is an ode to the night sky, simultaneously so empty and so full, so dark and so luminous, rife with our most existential riddles and our most essential solutions. The darker the sky, the more transparent our window into the cosmos, and the more alluring the invitation to explore further, puzzle harder, and question deeper. And the darker the sky, the brighter the clarity of our mysteries, our investigations, our discoveries, and our epiphanies.
Also, I want to thank photographer, Dave Green for allowing me to use his stunning piece as the cover artwork for the song. I can imagine no more fitting visual representation for what the song is trying to say. I highly recommend checking out the rest of his work. They're masterpieces.
A Prayer For The Sane was written in mid-March and recorded the next day in my home studio. The first half of the song is about the emotional fatigue of the last three years. The second half of the song is a call to action to reclaim the world for decency and honesty this November.
I'm offering this song for free (or pay what you want) on Bandcamp, but it's also available through iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, and all the other big online music outlets.
Thank you to Welcome To Night Vale for giving the song A Prayer For The Sane its world premier on Episode #166 of their podcast. That's the perfect send off, I'd say.
2020 Vision was written in mid-April and recorded in quarantine in our home studio. The song is just a series of reflections on life in the age of the coronavirus. These are uniquely challenging times, but interestingly, even in isolation, the pandemic has created a shared experience between us all.
I'm offering this song for free (or pay what you want) on Bandcamp, but it's also available through iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, and all the other big online music outlets.
Black & Blue was written the last week in June and released on July 4th, in the tradition of Frederick Douglass' Independence Day speech of 1852, trying to celebrate our country by holding it up to our highest ideals. We've been working on racial equality for a long time. We've been reminded all too frequently, by episodes of police brutality, that we're not there yet.
Please watch the video. The imagery from the protests and memorials is quite a powerful juxtapositino with the song:
BLACK & BLUE
lyric video
Please explore the site . . . listen to some of the free songs posted here, watch a couple of the live performance videos, peruse the lyric library. And get to know Danny's music better. Thanks for visiting.
