John Danley Biography

POSTED BY: Maton100

POSTED ON: 03/11/07 18:40:01

JOHN DANLEY is an experimental, fingerstyle guitarist who composes and performs his own blend of acoustic, instrumental music. John has developed a style of guitar playing by using a housepainter's paintbrush to add percussive sounds to the instrument while simultaneously creating colorful harmonies and distinctive melodic hooks. His exposure includes extensive airplay on syndicated radio stations focusing on folk, new age, acoustic, jazz, blues and world music. John Danley is a regular contributor to National Public Radio's All Things Considered, Public Radio International's To The Best of Our Knowledge, a performing arts entertainer and composer of music for film and television (including TBS soundtracks for cable). He has performed at The Kennedy Center, college universities, festivals, art galleries, workshops and has shared the stage with such artists as David Gray, Iris DeMent, Reese Wynans, Cheryl Wheeler, and the Nashville Symphony Orchestra.

Aside from John's musicality, he is a psychotherapy enthusiast, and part of his show demonstrates cognitive insight in the form of "off the cuff" humor. Social satire is an element that appears often in a Danley concert and serves to provide the audience with a dual experience.

Recent nominations include The Nashville Scene's "Best Guitar Hero" 2002 and solo guitar album Cemeteries, Missed Trains and Blue Skies and solo guitar song of the year (Hickory) , 2004 JPFolks Music Awards. Drifting Into Oblivion, John's 5th release, was nominated by JPFolks in 2006. Amber Dispositions represents his 7th solo release.

NCGP

POSTED BY: Maton100

POSTED ON: 03/10/07 17:50:16

For the record, I wanted to mention that I am currently performing and practicing the guitar without a license. Now that Chet is no longer with us, it is vague and uncertain how one actually achieves proper credentials for performance and general playing purposes. Registration and documentation procedures have been rather elusive, vague and problematic. I feel that the designation of certification cannot be laminated as such; therefore, if asked to produce paperwork or a temporary license, I’d be striking a wet match. In any event, I have chosen to remain a NCGP (non-certified guitar player) until government forms are made available to the general public. Subsequently, application processing might deter the most dedicated string aficionado. Nonetheless, if I reapply for certification I won’t include my past history with an interest in dialectical epistemology or the fact that I played a gourdalin for three weeks in Binghamton, NY.

Practice & Addiction

POSTED BY: Maton100

POSTED ON: 03/09/07 17:42:18

They say that addiction is doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results. When one practices a musical instrument, there are many parallels. For one thing, you hope to get a different result after 8 hours of practice. But you might not. Or you may want the same results if your technique is flawless and your goal is to rehearse something you already know. Either way, spending 8 hours in social isolation while the world turns outside can be similar to doing bong hits in the neighbor’s basement while listening to Billy Ocean—except now you’ve got something to show for that time alone. However, sometimes what you have to show has no place to go and you’re the only one who knows what you’ve accomplished. This phenomenon is similar to Lady Fatima visiting you in the breakfast room and telling you to add lint removers to your grocery list. “No, I swear she mentioned that to me and that is why I am on my way to the grocer… see?” So the line between sanity and reality becomes obstructed and you’d better be able to play The Devil Went Down to Georgia on the fiddle in front of the luggage officials at the LAX airport. Even then they might add, “Is that all you can do? Is that what you spent your life on?” So now we have an issue of economic or external reciprocity for every x number of hours spent perfecting a minor melodic scale. But what you finally realize is that three chords and an attitude will often suffice for ninety-percent of the population—at least the percent that are attending concerts and spending their fringe benefit income on vinyl EP’s and cheap T-shirts. Image goes a long, long way. They have mathematicians who are hired to figure this out and who can tell you why an MBA from a community college in Branson Missouri or the debut album of Molly Hatchet is intrinsically better to have than a PhD in musicology from Columbia. Then why bother? It has been said that a virtuoso is his own reward. But that would mean that narcissism alone could suffice as a plausible strategy for paying rent. Bless every Berklee grad that now has to shuffle papers in some poorly ventilated, real-estate office cube. Well, you can pursue other addictions. And most musicians do. In fact, there are few highly-sensitive individuals who have not experienced a tango with repetition—whether inhaling nicotine, airplane glue or embellishing the staccato in some piece by Manuel Ponce. As far as I know, there are no resume requirements for doing a set at Carnegie Hall other than projected ticket sales. This will cause panic and indignation among fellow aesthetes, which of course will lead to more practice because sublimation is the only way to psychologically deal with the frustrations of the marketplace and the inequality amongst talented mortals.

The cycle of addiction has been cast.

Economy of Scarcity

POSTED BY: Maton100

POSTED ON: 03/09/07 17:40:01

Right off the bat, I think it is important for me to stress that I have a layman’s understanding of advanced economics and have never written about nor experienced power lunches with a Malthusian specialist. Also, I don’t know much about Keynes except for the fact that he was probably better at managing a savings account. What I am interested in is the term economy of scarcity. In capitalistic lingo, I like to think of corporations marketing products or individuals according to the ¬pyramid or umbrella principle. These principles will not show up in a supply-side economic textbook for very good reasons. I made them up. But the idea that only a handful of individuals are allowed to experience economic reciprocity in the arts is a ridiculous proposition. As Ernest Becker illustrated: realism, if brutal, is not cynicism. The reality of the current marketplace for the average working musician is simple. There really is no middle class. Sure, performing artists can make a menial income if they are also employed as a part-time band instructor and sell trip hop sheet music to underage kids online. But, on their own, they better have a priority signing with a major distributor who is not going to bump them after two years of marginal record sales (the bottom line always trumps intention). Informed consent caveats do not always support critical thinking—especially when it comes to consumer markets. That is why people line up to buy mechanical Harry Potter broomsticks and audio files of American Idol contestants. Barbara Ehrenreich once voted for Nader based on this very reason. Nevertheless, what I am talking about is the frightening prospect of corporate control over long-term cultural aesthetics. In other words, things might be okay if Itzhak Perlman earned the same net revenue as 50 Cent. But I’m willing to bet that the latter is pimpin’ hard on the boulevard in a drop-top Bentley and quaffin’ Clos du Mesnil while Perlman is busy cleaning his bow.*

I know what you’re thinking. Who are you to say what ought to be judicious in an open marketplace? To each his own, etc. True, I am no Perlman and do not possess oblique abs like Mr. Cent (in fact, I was a sociology major from Alabama). But the point is well taken when hordes of Julliard alumni have invested a fulminating amount of time perfecting their art and are sideswiped by Britney’s shaving policies. Unfortunately the “subjectivity of taste” leaves a bunch of folks in creative limbo—this applies to the visual and literary arts as well. The politics of situational favoritism within a free enterprise system is just getting too weird. Fast, aggressive and dumb.

The cut-and-paste musical generation of the internet experiences a lack of anonymity that, ironically, doesn’t necessarily equate with monetary flow. Then the realization occurs: you’re unique, just like everybody else. Anyone who has access to a wireless connection can dial in their consumer fetish and buy anything from camouflage thongs to books about industrial plumbing on Amazon. Anonymity is no longer a problem for the artist. How the artist gets justifiably paid for their work becomes the issue. Output doesn’t necessarily equate with input (unless you’re an adult film performer). I think we’re now seeing the yang of technology in its ability to provide tireless information and connect seemingly unrelated individuals to all sorts of avenues for exposure and economic opportunity. Subsequently, what remains is a new economy of scarcity that will flourish in attempts to retain profit margins in cyberspace and elsewhere. What seems like free information for the individual is still tainted and influenced by the marketing agendas and psychological manipulation of corporate profiteers (there is still a carry-over effect not unlike Zoloft’s half-life). You might say, “Is there anything wrong with making a profit?” No. Business models are designed to do just that and nothing more. They do not educate, they do not raise the bar on cultural evolution, and they do not instill a sense of consumer responsibility for posterity’s sake. A business model is simply like a molecular shark (it neither knows nor cares how the consumer ends up).

*Itzhak Perlman may very well own a Bentley or a 700 series BMW, but he is certainly, under no conditions, “straight up pimpin’ on the boulevard”—especially when he has to rehearse his interpretation of Dvorak in Prague. And this statement is not meant to infer that 50 Cent is not an artistic genius, just that he may be no better than Perlman when it comes to some melodic interpretations and counterpoint.

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