Last weekend I put the closing chapters into an album of songs that are very important to me. I did not think I could be this pleased with a group of tunes.  It was a nice surprise.  I will say it here, as I have said it to a select few that I have discussed this with…though it is not the simplest thing to verbalized or write about.  For better or worse or good or bad I feel like I have finally found “my sound”.

That may seem odd.  It is not odd to me.  I got to music via a crooked road that I have written about in the past.  After my dear friend Malcolm Todd “Corner King” Lincoln, Sr. passed away in late August of 1997, I was reeling.  At the behest of my dear wife, Carrie (we had been married less than two years….she knows me well), I took up the guitar.  This was October 1997.  In August of 1998 I was in front of a church singing and playing songs that I had written. In the next few years I played a bit in front of some folks at a place or two.  I enjoyed it.  I did not enjoy the fact that for oh so many years I felt like I was trying to just plain keep up with everyone else around me I was playing or working on music with.

I never learned how to play the guitar very well.  I can, however, meld words and melodies that make sense and go well together.

For the longest time that was just not enough.  I was struggling trying to fit in to a musical sensibility that allowed me to be comfortable with everyone else in the room.  I just didn’t feel like I was worthy of being there.  Know that I have been, thanks in large part to my dear friend and recording partner, Jeff Carpenter, SURROUNDED by musical greatness from my first trip into the studio in 2001 until now.

In 2001 I found myself with a large combination of songs that I had written. The CD Leap of Faith was recorded. The songs were all over the board.  Rock, Country, Spiritual, Rootsy….I was glad to be in the room with them.  I had a friend with a great studio and we were off.  It worked as well as it could have.  I knew nothing about what I was doing.  I brought my songs played them and started taking orders.  Not thinking you belong at the grown-up table will do that.  The irony is that all these people were gathered together to make music because I was the one that brought the songs.  For me, it just still wasn’t enough.  I saw the talent they had as musicians and as people.  I felt I had no business to be playing in their ball park and I was the one pitching.  It was an opportunity and an experience that I will always be thankful for.  The song I wrote and sang about Lewis Grizzard was good to me.  I was on a television show in Georgia and I was awful.  I was so nervous and, yes, thinking I did not belong there.  Alex McRae was very kind to me that day.

In 2004 I had another sack of of songs that I had written.  I really liked them and I thought they were a leap of improvement.  One day I was talking to Jeff Carpenter and he mentioned to me that Tim Krekel had expressed interest in working with me.  What a compliment this was.  Tim had written hit songs for the likes of Crystal Gayle, Patty Loveless and was the lead guitar played for Jimmy Buffett during two different stints one in the 70s and one in th 80s.  Legend has it that Buffett was in Nashville looking for a new guitar player.  Also in the audience was Chet Atkins.  Atkins pointed at Krekel and told Jimmy Buffett he had found his guitar player.  Tim also toured as a member of Billy Swan’s band during the time he hit it big in 1974 with his classic “I Can Help”.  Ironically enough, that was the first song outside of church that ever got my attention.  It is on my IPOD.  It was on 790 WAKY when I was a kid.

So there I was.  Ready to record with a solid player and a rock solid band that included Mike Alger on drums, Jim Baugher on bass, Rod Wurtele on keyboards, and Jeff Guernsey on fiddle.  I was, once more, the guy who brought the songs and handed the process over to Jeff Carpenter and Mr. Krekel.  Who in the right mind would not do that?  The result was the CD The Best Thing You Did Yesterday and to this day I am very proud of it.  I brought the songs.  I turned my guitar over to Tim Krekel.  I did not play on it (save a couple songs added from sessions with Tim).  Krekel played the rhythm guitar and I sang when we recorded the rhythm tracks.  We did some signing together as backup on a few tracks and I am so glad we did.  We lost Tim in 2009.  It feels like much longer than that.

While I will cherish the time I spent with the people that made The Best Thing You Did Yesterday (finished in 2006) what it was and that result, I still have a bit of a disconnect to it artistically. You may think that is hard to believe coming from the songwriter.  I was still in Minnie Pearl mode….I was just proud to be there.  And you better believe I was.

It is now 2017.  I have recorded 16 new tunes.  Not sure what the collection will be called.  Don’t want to think about that right now.  I want to sit here and enjoy it.  I am sad that the process of recording is over.  I am elated that I feel like I was in the conversation and had a thumbprint on every aspect of this recording including playing acoustic rhythm guitar.  I go back to the first paragraph… For better or worse or good or bad I feel like I have finally found “my sound”.    I was comfortable speaking up and giving my 2 cents.  I was there for every session….every instrument that added…every time the red light came on I was there to help see it through.  I knew what I needed to hear.  That was when I knew I had found my sound.  It was a liberating time, I can tell you.  I did belong in the room.  I was at the grown-up table.  And I let me tell you…it was a nice table.

John Burgard helped me immensely.  He and I took the songs and gave them the direction they needed.  Thank you, John.  Oh, John was in a group that opened for The Rolling Stones at Louisville’s Memorial Auditorium.  A blues guitar master, I am proud to know him.  He has liked my songs since the start in 2001.

Barry King played guitar….and did so superbly.  His lead licks are very tasteful and pack a punch.  Barry played with Charlie Daniels.  He also went to Woodstock.

John Hayes played the drums.  He is a tap-happy drummer who has played with everyone in town and for good reason.  He hears it two beats before it gets there.

Jason Sturgill was a rock solid bass player.  He could not have done better.  Knew where the song was going at all times.  Was harder on himself than anyone could have been.  Great player.

Jeff Guernsey played fiddle and banjo and lead guitar.  He has appeared was here in 2001, 2006, and 2016.  This was the first time I had been there for his playing.  He has played with The Gatlin Brothers and was in Vince Gill’s band for many years.  He has a music school.  Good thing, given he is a virtuoso.

Rod Wurtele of The Wulfe Brothers has played on all of my recordings.  He is a master.  I wrote about him in a post I wrote in November when Millard Dunn came over for a session.  That too made things special.  Rod’s keyboard playing is just what I need to help fill in the space that is reserved for only him.

Robbie Bartlett and my sister, Lynn, sang backing vocals last weekend.  That is when we turned off the red light for the last time on this project.  They did a great job together.  They sounded like they had been singing together for years instead of meeting for the first time that afternoon.

Jeff Carpenter.  He is the man.  Engineer extraordinaire.  I thank him for his love of the music.  Thanks in part to Jefferson and all of the folks I have mentioned on this post, I found my sound.  How does that make sense.  It is more “our sound”.

Speaking the music rights.

Danny Johnson