Danielson

    Danielson

    Also credited as Brother Danielson, Danielson Famile, Danielson Family, The Danielson Famile

    Clarksboro, New Jersey16 reviews across 6 releases

    experimentalfolkindie rocklo-fi
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    Danielson is a music project from Clarksboro, New Jersey, formed around Daniel Smith's senior art thesis at Rutgers University. The 1995 debut, A Prayer for Every Hour, was recorded largely in Smith's basement on four-track equipment, with family members providing backing; its acoustic guitar, effects, unstable rhythms and piercing falsetto made the record deliberately rough and difficult to categorize. Smith's lyrics could move from personal illness to a suicide in his hometown without settling into conventional song forms. Tell Another Joke at the Ol' Choppin' Block widened the sound through a stronger group presence and more polished lo-fi production, while Tri-Danielson!!! (Alpha) and its companion Omega organized the project around solo, family and rock-oriented forms. The music remained overtly Christian, but its humor and unusual arrangements carried it beyond the usual Christian-market conventions.

    After Brother Is to Son appeared in 2004, the family lineup became less constant as members went to college, married and left touring. Smith increasingly used Danielson as the common name for a changing collective, rather than reserving separate names for each configuration. The 2006 album Ships gathered more than two dozen collaborators and coincided with Danielson: A Family Movie, a documentary following the project from its beginnings through the band's changing personnel. After the Ships tours, Smith's brothers stopped performing regularly, and newer players entered the live group. He continued recording through Sounds Familyre, releasing Best of Gloucester County in 2011 and collaborating with Jad Fair on Solid Gold Heart in 2014. Danielson remains an active Daniel Smith project rather than a fixed family band.

    6 releases reviewed