Danielson will be embarking on a US tour in support of his first album in five years, Best of Gloucestor County. Five years. A very long time in popular music, especially in the present moment when the delivery systems, the methodologies, are changing weekly. And yet five years is the time it took Daniel Christopher Smith, a.k.a. Brother Danielson, a.k.a. Danielson, to complete this his newest work, Best of Gloucester County.
The bulk of Best of Gloucester County revolves around a completely new “team,” as Smith has put it himself (Patrick Berkery– drums, percussion; Evan Mazunik– piano, organ; Joshua Stamper– bass; Sufjan Stevens– banjo, vocal; Andrew Wilson– electric guitar), most of them local players from the Gloucester County, NJ, area where Smith lives and works and has his studio. That means that Best of Gloucester County is not, despite the title, a retrospective “Best of” album (that would be Trying Hartz, the last Danielson-related release), but rather a statement of intention.
The whole represents a new and welcome chapter in the Danielson oeuvre—a startlingly effective new band, a new thematic field (the locally-grown opus), produced with more sonic ambition than any recent Danielson effort, but without sacrificing the brave interior journey that we have come to expect from Daniel Christopher Smith: the world is complex, slightly dangerous, full of temptations, but there is still grace, beauty, meaning, and the music that is required to suggest all this is anything but easy, but that doesn’t mean it is not rewarding, beautiful, funny, sad, and generous.
DANIELSON TOUR DATES
03-25 – New York, NY – Le Poisson Rouge
03-26 – Lancaster, PA – Chameleon Club Lounge
03-27 – Pittsburgh, PA – Smiling Moose
03-28 – Cincinnati, OH – Mayday
03-29 – Louisville, KY – 930 Listening Room
03-30 – Chicago, IL – Schuba’s
04-01 – Minneapolis, MN – Southern Theater
04-02 – Minneapolis, MN – Southern Theater
04-05 – Seattle, WA – Vera Project
04-06 – Portland, OR – Mississippi Studios
04-08 – San Francisco, CA – Bottom Of The Hill
04-09 – Los Angeles, CA – Satellite
04-10 – Tucson, AZ – Solar Culture
04-12 – Austin, TX – ND at 501 Studios
04-13 – Dallas, TX – The Loft
04-14 – Memphis, TN – The Hi Tone
04-15 – Asheville, NC – The Grey Eagle
04-16 – Washington, DC – Red Palace
04-17 – Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brendas
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