About Me (danno):
Some folks have asked about the path I took to performing like this,
so here are some random mumblings about me and my history...
So... Hello there, I'm Danno, a guitar-playing fellow with fingers
that usually do what they're told, a mostly-reliable
noggin, generally on-key voice, and a strangely persistent
urge to share music and smiles in a "less than refined"
street-busking style ("honky-tonk guitar" anyone?)*.
I can't hit a nail or golf-ball the same way twice, but it seems I
can kinda hold a tune and generally get relevant and recognizable
guitar chords down - in mostly the right order and roughly in
time..., so that's a "feature". While I'm very little like my
performance heroes, I've been lucky enough to recently learn that I
am good enough to get folks smiling, singing,
dancing, crying (in the good way), and generally enjoying my musical
contributions, so ... why not, right?
If you come see me, you'll find that I play a broad mix of
old/new/classic/local stuff that most folks have heard, and I sneak
in some melancholy gems because I like them.
* Of course, this all causes my gracious wife to
wonder about me, but she keeps me around anyway - so far...
What's with "Danno"?
In real life, I'm simply 'Dan', but 'Danno' is a throwback to me
growing up in 'The Islands' (Oahu) and then going to college on the
mainland for photography and computer science. Folks there thought
my migrating from Hawaii to New York state was nutz - but I liked
it! But yeah, "book'm danno" stuck, and you don't get to choose your
nicknames...
So, 'Danno' was recently (re)born when I considered the idea of
performing. I thought I'd help myself get into 'musician mode',
using a new pseudonym and magic hat to conjure a (semi-)new persona
- hence 'Danno' was (re)born. It's kinda silly, but fun.
Playing Guitar
I've been plunking at the guitar and ukelele since I was a wee lad -
I found an old "buss-up" tenor ukulele near some trash cans on the
way home from school, and with some Elmer's Wood Glue, rubber-bands,
and thick fishing line (100lb test), we were off!
"In the Jungle" was my first song (a-weeem-a-wep
a-weeem-a-wep...)! I played a bit in college with dorm-mates
and friends, but nothing serious. After that, I always kept a guitar
and ukulele around and would pick it up and play old stuff for
years, and for my kids at bedtime, but didn't do anything new for
~25 years... So, much as I've loved playing, I never did much with
it - always assuming I'd "get to that later"...
Mid-life Crisis? Busking? Really?
Well... let me tell you... "later" happens much faster
than you'd think, so a few months before my 60th birthday I had some
form of reality-check 'ah-ha' mid(?)-life crisis go off thing in my
head, insisting that I best understand that life ain't gonna wait! (My poor lovely tolerant wife!!! I'm so lucky!!!)
So... I decided I was going to go sing and play my guitar on
the streets of Paia... yeah - busking, somehow, somewhere...
I 'cased' the town and got a few places in mind to play, talked to
the local Police about sound ordinances and street performance laws,
and started my journey in that direction. I then committed to the
goal of to consolidating and refining my life's scattered
song-learnings, and get at least 100 complete, perform-able
songs - with guitar *and* lyrics - into my brain
before I hit that Big Six-Oh (60). And, man, I am not
a lyrics memorizing guy, so this was a big deal for my
aging cranial mass.
Well, damn if I didn't get about 60 of 'em in there by my
deadline, so that's one-song-per-year! that'll do - so, hey, look at
me go! (and I'm still slowly adding to that list too! About 25 more
in 'almost ready' mode, and I'm trying to get a new song in some
form of "up-to-snuff" and added to the list and into my brain about
every two weeks...)
Add to that, I have always been one of those folks who can't walk by
a compelling street musician and not stop... They aren't ever the
same - never predictable! Too Cool! It's like that wonderful
sidewalk art, but with sound. And either you're there for it, or
it's gone! Precious moments.
Busking in Paia
All of this inspiration had somehow converged to expose,
somewhere deep in me, a latent obsession with busking on the
street (a bucket-list kind of thing? Oh, and "what will the
neighbors think?", etc.). But, I just wanted to, no, needed
to... do that...
After over a year of learning songs, practicing singing, playing
guitar, and getting used to using mic and sound system to decent
effect, I was ready to do this... at which point I entered the
'avoidance mode', where I always had an excuse not to go.
With good advice from a friend, and having made enough noise about
doing this 'busking thing', I finally had to go, so I loaded up my
truck and ... I did it - I went out and played for passers-by on a
busy street-corner in Paia, Maui.
It went very well. Folks seemed to like it. It was fun. I made
enough tips to get a beer when I was done, and take a little bit
home after that... I'm hooked!
Somewhere's around the beginning of 2025, I was having a friendly
chat about random things with a friend Daniel, who, unbeknownst to
me is the Events Coordinator of The Paia Bay Coffee
& Bar Restaurant/Cafe (PBCB). I mentioned that I had a
crazy plan to busk/play on a nearby street corner in Paia, and he
thought that was great, and insisted that I come play at
PBCB during one of the quiet spells, simply trusting that I was
probably good enough for that, if I was willing to play on the
streets, lol!
Well, I held him to his invitation, and we were able to coordinate a
good performance time on a Monday morning in March of 2025, St.
Paddy's day, to be exact, and I played guitar and sang for almost 3
hours, made some new friends, and had a raging good time. As
expected, I learned a lot about how complicated and
involved good (and bad) stage-craft is... I also made some great
friends while singing, and made a few bucks for my pet Seabury Hall Chorus
"Fun-d" project. How cool is that?!? For as nervous as I was,
I played much better than I expected - pretty well, it
turned out!
So with the blessings of Daniel and PBCB's (co?)owner Sara, I played
on the available Saturday lunch-times for a couple of months,
learning how it all works, refining my performances and stage
presence, and collecting some wonderful donations for our project.
Update: With the advent of the current football season, the Jazz
Band that usually plays on Sundays is now filling the Saturday
mid-day slot through January. I'll let you know if I'll be available
there when the football season ends.
I've since added two more monthly gigs to my schedule by asking a
long-time friend (and guitar player) Trish who opened and runs the Baked on
Maui Cafe in Haiku. You can find me there, dodging the Haiku
morning mists on the 1st and 3rd Saturdays of each month, from 9am
to 11am+.
The Future...
Folks smile, clap, sing-along, and occasionally drop a few bucks
- So, yeah, I'm hooked. What fun! And I love the songs I play.
It's a rush when folks sing along, dance, or otherwise indicate
that they really liked something I played. So now I'm always
looking for compatible establishments where I might share my music
and collect a few smiles, beers, and if I earn a few bucks, icing
on the cake.
I'm also putting together a simple/portable busking 'rig' with
plans to play in an open Paia town courtyard for a few hours each
week, just to add to the town's cool vibe. My best girl isn't sure
that Paia town is 'ready yet' for this new influence, so we'll
have to finesse it a bit and see how it all goes!
It seems clear that, if I'm gonna do this with any regularity, I
need to up my marketing game and get some promos and videos of me
playing on the 'socials', and learn how to collect donations via
digital mechanisms like Venmo, Paypal, Apple-Pay, etc. That means
I'll be (re)working on this crude (but functional) web-site as
well. But I'd rather play guitar...
And, I've got about 7000 songs I really want to play,
and I'll probably get to learning around 200 of them in the
lifetime I have left... (I'm 61 right now...).
So that's about it for now! Check my schedule, come see me play a song you like,
and stop by and say "Hi"!
--danno - "You've Heard Verse!"
