News

Danny will be a special guest performer at the 10th Annual Summer Camp Festival in Chicilothe, IL over Memorial Day weekend (May 28 - 30) with moe., Umphrey's McGee, STS9, Gov't Mule, The Avett Brothers, Yonder Mounain String Band, Keller Williams, and more. Tickets on sale now at summercampfestival.com !//t.opsp.in/fymz>

Danny will also be appearing at Grand Targhee Bluegrass Festival August 9 - 14th as both a performer and instructor at the camp. Other artists include Bela Fleck, Sam Bush, Punch Brothers featuring Chris Thile, and Keller Williams. Tickets on sale now here .//t.opsp.in/fyma>

Danny will return to the stage with good friend Robert Earl Keen to support Dave Matthews Band this summer in the following markets:

6/15 Cincinatti, OH- Riverbend Music Center
6/16 Maryland Heights, MO- Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
6/18 Noblesville, IN- Verizon Wireless Music Center
6/19 Noblesville, IN- Verizon Wireless Music Center
6/22 Columbus, OH- Huntington Park

Tickets on sale now at www.davematthewsband.com !//t.opsp.in/fymy>

Be sure to check out an extensive feature on the album and in-depth interview with Danny by Sarah Hagerman on Jambase.com . If you feel so compelled, please feel free to comment and show your support! //t.opsp.in/fymx>

Danny has been added to the official lineup of the 9th Annual Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, TN. Bonnaroo is the largest North American festival and also widely hailed as the most eclectic. The festival takes place over a four day period from June 10-13 with a lineup that includes Dave Matthews Band, Stevie Wonder, Kings of Leon, Jay Z, and Conan O'Brien among others. Tickets on sale now at www.bonnaroo.com //t.opsp.in/fymw>

We are thrilled to announce that Danny will be appearing this Sunday on NPR's Weekend Edition with Liane Hansen! Tune in to hear Ms. Hansen's musically enlightening conversation with Danny and be sure to visit www.npr.org for an online extra including video footage of Barnes' live performance. Check local listings for details.//t.opsp.in/fymv>

The rapid changes that have occurred in the music industry in the last decade have left a lot of folks sour as they wistfully long for the good old days. But not Danny Barnes... (2 page interview)

Listen to Danny Barnes in concert at NPR, including the tracks:

  • Misty Swan
  • Overdue
  • Caveman

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126150491

Pizza Box, Danny Barnes (ATO)--In the early part of his career, Barnes was a bluegrass hellcat, his virtuoso banjo playing leading the Austin-based Bad Livers down the weird and rocky side of traditional (and original) music. Barnes lived in the place where punk, metal, and country met--where the lost highway hit a dead end and howled--and he’s still in that neighborhood. “Pizza Box” (on Dave Matthews’ label) is less experimental, with more hooks, and has some sweet, almost Beach Boyish singing. But it continues to see the darkness and yearn for redemption, going backwards (“I need a good woman in a rich man’s yard”) and forwards (“So here I stand in the ol’ Wal-Mart”), his spectacular, lead guitar-like banjo connecting the two. If this CD had Steve Earle’s name on it, or Dylan’s, it would be called an astonishing and moving mash-up of American traditions and be heralded as one of the best albums of 2009. And so it is.

when i was a young man, you could get a sody water and go in a little booth and listen to 45s. it was so hep. they were cheap and cool. it was really fun to experiment and find new sounds. i'm still doing this 38 years later. every time i do an in-store i get reminded of why record stores are so important. i almost always hear something on the house system, where i go, "what is that?" and end up buying something new. with this giant database of all recorded music, taste makers are more important than ever. a working person just doesn't have enough time in their life to sort through everything that exists. i've seen lots of changes in my life on this planet but one thing sure is the same, and that is going into a record store and flipping through the stock.
love it.

As much as we need those genuine roots, we also need visionaries to water the branches, otherwise we risk this music becoming mere nostalgia. There’s absolutely a place for all of it (if we can set aside the tired “traditional” versus “progressive” chatter). Thank god then for an artist like Danny Barnes. He stood on stage with his banjo in his hands and his laptop to the side, ready to lead us into fearless new territory. The slack-jawed crowd that got it hung on every shape-shifting note. On banjo alone, Barnes will blow a few new holes in your cerebrum, but add the laptop and his folkTronics approach, and it’s a whole other animal, as he uses Ableton software to incorporate samples while layering and manipulating the sound of his instrument. The jaunty, rump-shaker “Misty Swan,” from superb latest album Pizza Box strutted with a bass-heavy gutteral growl, a whomping beat that made someone behind me gasp, “WOW!” Sprinkling in bits of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way,” Barnes than dropped the beat out entirely and simply played all over it in a dizzying whirl. Beside songs from Pizza Box, many of which got the folkTronics treatment, we were treated to banjo-only versions of “Good as I Been to You,” “Life in the Country,” Bad Livers‘ “Little Bitty Town,” and one fellow’s request for the moving “Big Girl Blues.” With moments of graceful note shaping and electronic fueled insanity, structure and demolition, this was an astonishing set by one of the most uncanny songwriters and musicians working today. At one point, I glanced up and noticed the sign behind him on the cantina stage that read, “Texas ain’t no place for amateurs.” No foolin’. Barnes is light years ahead but, as I watched the moon climb the rungs of the sky over the cantina, something tells me his body of work will be eternal.

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