Boasting a sound that owes a great debt to “old time” country music, Ontario singer-songwriter Daniel Romano is a busy man as of late.
Not only is Romano a vibrant, prolific solo artist, he is a full-time member of City and Colour, a band led by Alexisonfire’s Dallas Green and has also collaborated with the likes of Moncton native Julie Doiron.
Daniel Romano will be performing at Moncton’s Manhattan Bar & Grill tomorrow night as the show opener for The Sadies, one of four dates that he is playing in support of the acclaimed Toronto psychedelic-country group.
Romano’s love of country music stemmed from his grade school days when he would spend his lunch breaks at his grandparents’ home. There, his grandfather would often be playing the music of Merle Haggard, Buck Owens and George Jones or be playing country music himself.
And though Romano admits that he did his best to shun country music as a teen, it remained a constant in his life.
“I think that every teen goes through the phase of hating things that the rest of his family likes,” Daniel says. “For a while, I only liked punk rock but deep down, it was just a phase where I was blocking it out unnecessarily. My love of country music was always there; I always appreciated it.”
Prior to embarking on a solo career, Daniel logged an immeasurable number of road miles and an impressive six releases over the course of approximately six years with his band Attack In Black. Though the group has not officially been placed on the back burner, Romano insists that the group’s individual members are, like him, pursuing their own endeavors outside of the group.
“Everyone is making amazing music in bands like Grey Kingdom and Marine Dreams and those who aren’t making music are recording those who are. Everyone in the band is super content doing their own thing and I think it is for the best.”
It has been a couple of busy years for Daniel. Not only has he managed to release two solo albums of his own, he also had the opportunity to collaborate with Julie Doiron and Fred Squire on the aforementioned “Daniel, Fred and Julie” record which was released in December 2009.
The success of that effort caught the trio of musicians somewhat off-guard as Daniel insists that it was recorded in a very nonchalant way.
“We did do the record just for fun and people really seemed to like it, which was strange at first because it sounds bad,” he says. “At the same time though, it was what it was and I am super glad to have had the chance to be a part of it.”
The trio did have the opportunity to promote its off-the-cuff record throughout Canada and even made it overseas for a series of shows in France, although Daniel questions the possibility of any follow-up effort given their increasingly hectic individual schedules.
Daniel is currently on the road promoting his newest effort Sleep Beneath the Willow, released on his own You’ve Changed Records label this past April. The record is a rather quick follow-up to his previous effort Workin’ For the Music Man, which was released just a year prior. Asked about the rapid succession of his records, he admits that his own impatience is partially to blame and leads him to playing many (if not all) of the instruments on his records himself.
“The cycle of only releasing a record every year and a half or every two years doesn’t make any sense as far as I am concerned,” he says. “I can only hope that my fans love having my records come out more often.”
Article published in June 15, 2011 edition of the Times & Transcript