Danny Schmidt (born October 7, 1970) is an American singer-songwriter based in Austin,

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, where he now lives with his wife, fellow musician and singer-songwriter

Carrie Elkin Carrie Elkin (born October 11, 1973 in Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio), is a Folk music, folk/Country music, country singer and musician based out of Austin, Texas. Active since the mid-1990s, she signed with Red House Records in September 2010. ...

Biography

Schmidt was born in 1970 and grew up in Austin, Texas. He started playing guitar at the age of 12. At age 20, he discovered that he liked the blues after tracking the music of Jimi Hendrix back through

Muddy Waters McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913 April 30, 1983), known professionally as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer and musician who was an important figure in the post- war blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of modern Chicag ...

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, and

Lightning Hopkins Samuel John "Lightnin" Hopkins (March 15, 1912 – January 30, 1982) was an American country blues singer, songwriter, guitarist and occasional pianist from Centerville, Texas. In 2010, ''Rolling Stone'' magazine ranked him No. 71 on its list o ...

all the way to old country gospel and spirituals. He bought an acoustic guitar and eventually discovered

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Fu ...

Tom Waits Thomas Alan Waits (born December 7, 1949) is an American musician, composer, songwriter, and actor. His lyrics often focus on the underbelly of society and are delivered in his trademark deep, gravelly voice. He worked primarily in jazz during ...

, and

John Prine John Edward Prine (; October 10, 1946 – April 7, 2020) was an American singer-songwriter of country-folk music. He was active as a composer, recording artist, live performer, and occasional actor from the early 1970s until his death. He ...

, from whom he learned songwriting. After three years of college, he joined the

East Wind Community East Wind Community is an intentional community located in the Missouri Ozarks. Founded in 1974, it is a secular and democratic community in which members hold all community assets in common. Each member is also given food, shelter, clothing, medic ...

in the Ozark Mountains of southern

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

for a year. He then became part of the Twin Oaks Community in the

Blue Ridge Mountains The Blue Ridge Mountains are a Physiographic regions of the world, physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. The mountain range is located in the Eastern United States, and extends 550 miles southwest from southern Pennsy ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the East Coast of the United States, Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography an ...

for about four years, where he met fellow singer-songwriter Devon Sproule. At 25, Schmidt began writing songs a developing talent which ultimately earned him the 2007

Kerrville Folk Festival The Kerrville Folk Festival is a music festival held for 18 consecutive days in the late spring/early summer at Quiet Valley Ranch near Kerrville, Texas. The Kerrville Folk Festival was founded in 1972 by the husband-wife team of Rod Kennedy an ...

New Folk award.2007 Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk award
In 1999, he settled for a while in

Charlottesville, Virginia Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen ...

where his songwriting flourished and he started sharing his songs with the public. That year he released his first recording, an album titled ''Live at the Prism Coffeehouse''. In 2001 he released ''Enjoying the Fall''. 2003 brought his third collection of songs, ''Make Right the Time''. In 2005, Schmidt released ''Parables & Primes''. 2007 saw the release of ''Little Grey Sheep'' and 2009 the release of ''Instead the Forest Rose to Sing''his first release on

Red House Records Red House Records is an independent folk and Americana record label in St. Paul, Minnesota. The label was founded in 1983 by Bob Feldman after seeing a performance by Iowa folk singer Greg Brown. Origin The label is named for a farmhouse in I ...

. In 2011, Schmidt released ''Man of Many Moons'', also on Red House. Schmidt was a part of the original ''King of My Living Room'' group of Charlottesville songwriters—which included such artists as Brady Earnhart, Danny Schmidt, Stratton Salidis, Jan Smith, Lance Brenner, Browning Porter, and Jeff Romanowho would go on to do a series of concerts together, the first CD of which was recorded in 2001. He's appeared in each of the four performances since, including the latest November 2007 at the Gravity Lounge in Charlottesville.King of My Living Room
History The debut ''King of My Living Room'' performance in Charlottesville convinced fellow singer-songwriter Paul Curreri to make his home there. Schmidt, Curreri, and

Sproule Sproule is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Cathy Sproule, Canadian politician * Claire Sproule (born 1984), Irish singer-songwriter * Clifford Sproule (1905–1981), Australian tennis player and administrator * Daniel Sproule ...

became housemates, with Paul and Devon marrying soon after. Curreri later wrote and recorded a letter in song form to Danny, who responded with the yet-to-be-produced song ''Two Guitars,'' which he began performing live in 2009. Danny recorded his fifth album ''Little Grey Sheep'' (2008) in the Curreri/

home, with Curreri serving as a production engineer. In 2005 Schmidt toured up and down the east and west coasts, as well as in Alaska, the United Kingdom, Italy, The Netherlands, France, and Italy. In 2012, his song "This Too Shall Pass" was featured in the weather section of episode 8 of the popular podcast '' Welcome to Night Vale''. His song "Echo in the Hills", performed alongside Carrie Elkin, was also featured in the podcast on August 1, 2014. In early 2015, Schmidt toured with the crew of the podcast, performing live versions of his songs with Elkin, as a part of their live episodes.

Religion

Born into a Jewish family, Schmidt does not feel his religion is either distinct or critical to understanding his art. As he puts it, when discussing his song "Sad Songs Walking":

Recordings

Schmidt's album ''Little Grey Sheep (2008)'' was #1 Album on the Folk DJ Charts (FOLKDJ-L forum radio playlists) for February 2008 with four songs from the release: "Company Of Friends", "Leaves Are Burning", "Drawing Board", and "Tales Of Sweet Odysseus". A collection of songs from his 2009 release ''Instead the Forest Rose To Sing'' made it No. 1 Album on the Folk DJ Charts again for March and April 2009; ranking No. 2 in May 2009. Plays of songs from his 2011 release ''Man Of Many Moons'' — i.e., "Man Of Many Moons", "Houses Sing", "Buckets Of Rain", "Ragtime Ragtime Blues" — ranked it No. 3 Album played for February 2011, the month it was released. This made three Schmidt albums in a row to rate highly on these lists. Of Schmidt's 2015 release ''Owls'', Frank Gutch of No Depression said, "Danny Schmidt is a lyric machine. He tells stories. He creates magic — good and bad. He goes places I did not know existed."

Musical style

Danny Schmidt's writing spans from deeply rooted Appalachian mountain gospel to English balladry, from syncopated Piedmont country blues to vagabond protest folk-stumpery. His main influences are

Townes Van Zandt John Townes Van Zandt (March 7, 1944 – January 1, 1997) was an American singer-songwriter.

Leonard Cohen Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian singer-songwriter, poet and novelist. His work explored religion, politics, isolation, depression, sexuality, loss, death, and romantic relationships. He was inducted in ...

, and

Dave Carter Dave Carter (August 13, 1952 July 19, 2002) was an American folk music singer-songwriter who described his style as "post-modern mythic American folk music". He was one half of the duo Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer, who were heralded as the new ...

. In the Spring 2008 issue of Sing Out! magazine, journalist Matt Watroba noted that Schmidt's arrangements are powerful, his performances are laid-back yet energetic, while his lyrics are sheer poetry.

Awards, honors, distinctions

*In July 2010,

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...

music reviewer

Rich Warren Rich may refer to: Common uses * Rich, an entity possessing wealth * Rich, an intense flavor, color, sound, texture, or feeling **Rich (wine), a descriptor in wine tasting Places United States * Rich, Mississippi, an unincorporated communi ...

declared him one of the 50 most significant singer-songwriters of folk in the last 50 years, together with other such notable singer-songwriters as

Harry Chapin Harold Forster Chapin (; December 7, 1942 – July 16, 1981) was an American singer-songwriter, philanthropist, and hunger activist best known for his folk rock and pop rock songs. He achieved worldwide success in the 1970s. Chapin, a Gramm ...

Judy Collins Judith Marjorie Collins (born May 1, 1939) is an American singer-songwriter and musician with a career spanning seven decades. An Academy Award-nominated documentary director and a Grammy Award-winning recording artist, she is known for her ...

, and John McCutcheon. *He was one of six winners of the 2007 Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk award selected from 32 finalists who performed during the 2007 Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk Concerts on May 26 & 27. *He was part of the original ''King of My Living Room'' group of Charlottesville songwriters—which has come to include such notable artists as Paul Curreri and Devon Sproule—the first CD of which recorded in 2001. He's appeared in their performances since, including the latest November 2007 at the Gravity Lounge in Charlottesville.

Personal

Schmidt is married to singer-songwriter Carrie Elkin who gave birth to their first child in 2016. They live together in Austin.

Biography

Religion

Recordings

Musical style

Awards, honors, distinctions

Personal

Discography

See also

References

External links