Danny was born and raised in Austin, Texas. He started playing guitar at the tender age of 12. At 20, Danny had the great realization that Jimi Hendrix was a bluesman, and discovered he liked the blues, and that Hendrix was playing off the music of Muddy Waters, and Muddy was playing off of Mississippi John Hurt and Lightening Hopkins and Skip James and Brownie & Sunny, and they were all playing off of old country gospel and spirituals. So he bought an acoustic guitar and, musically, sauntered down to the crossroad where Leadbelly's wellspring filled Woody Guthrie's canteen, and where white music met black music, and where old country stayed put while the blues went off to town, and where if you drink your ass stupid on Saturday night, you could still play it smart and get to church Sunday morning. You can't really take a wrong turn at this crossroad -- and Danny eventually discovered the likes of Dylan and Neil Young and Torn Waits and John Prine, and they taught him about poetry and the melody of words.

Danny's been writing songs since he was 25. Kind of a late start for a songwriter. He says: I always loved poetry, and I always loved songs. It just really never occurred to me to sit down and write one myself.