It is getting late.  I need to get some rest.  I am excited.

I looked up the last day that I did any proper recording in the studio with Jeff Carpenter and discovered it was October 21, 2014.  That was 4 days before I found out the prognosis of what would be my Grandmother’s quick demise.  I was primed and ready to make some music then.  I didn’t.  My tune changed quickly when Granny got sick and died a month later.

I feel I am musically back.

I am going to see The Moody Blues again this Wednesday night at The Louisville Palace.  Thirty years later, I get to see them in the town I first saw them.  And this is perfect timing.

I saw The Moodies in 1999 and did not see them again until 2003.  I took a break from The Moodies at bit.  I was so busy at the time developing a style of my own musically.  I could not hear much more than the tunes I was chasing down in my head.  I am there again…somewhat.

Carrie, my dear wife, and I have seen The Moodies at least once a year since 2003.  Those guys are hard working musicians.  AI am blessed that the Midwest has been so good to them.

For better or worse, I have style that is mine and I know what it sounds like.  15 years ago I was trying to figure that out.  I feel good knowing, two cds and a great deal of playing later, that I can bring it.  In fact, I feel some of these new songs are very strong and willful.  There is some years behind them.  I am no longer hoping something sounds good.  I think it does sound good.  But…that doesn’t mean someone will want to listen to it over and over again.

I called Jefferson Carpenter and told him it was time.  It is time to record another one.  The time is now.  It will start with demos.  That means I sit there with a guitar and sing my songs while I am playing.  That is the first foundation.  Jeff will then pass these along to the guys that will help me musically.  John Burgard, Barry King, John Hayse, and Rod Wurtele are the guys I hope will work with me again.  I know their playing and they can make this songwriter feel pretty small in a hurry when they start throwing around a musical vocab I have no idea of.  I just write the songs and sing them.  Yes…I do write the words and the music.  That is a gift.  I will give you that.  For me, though, the fun is seeing true virtuoso guys take my songs to another level.  That is special.

That is where we are.  I am going to see The Moody Blues this Wednesday and I will say goodbye to them for a while.  Right now I am writing songs, putting chords to them, playing them over and over again and saying…”I hear that sound once more.”

I am blessed to have the ability…a friend with a GREAT studio…and guys that want to work with me.  It is as simple as that.  The best thing I have going for me is that I am a songwriter who feels smaller than anyone in the studio.  I know…I know…I write the material.  But I don’t really.  It feels more like this stuff was just given to me in and at the time I need it the most.   I’m excited.  To put those headphones on and hear drums and cymbals crash and guitars wail and I reach to turn the headphones up louder and louder!!!!  It is all too cool and it goes by way too fast.  That I certainly remember.

I will keep things updated here.  I certainly will try…as I….

Speak the Rights.

Danny Johnson