Saturday, March 14, 2009

Oh Child, You're right on Time



I've spent about a week with Danny Schmidt's new offering, "Instead the Forest Rose to Sing". All the while, in the back of my mind trying to formulate words of praise for it, since I figured I would blog about it as I found the offering very moving.. Everyday that I listened I would find a new jewel of phrasing or harmony and scratch what I thought I would write the day before.

The thing about great art is that it is never static. It seems to move with us adding something to our lives as we stir through time. At one point I thought to myself that Danny's work is like a color that has been there all along but you never really saw it in a sense because you were never able to call it by name. As in, "Oh my God! That's vermilion? THAT'S vermilion!" and even though the color has been there all our lives it is somehow more real and intimate for its naming. Danny's music and lyrics are like that...like the color...then the naming...and then the connection...then the growth. Vermilion, once just a word, is now an experience.

There is a turn of phrase and melody in each song on "Instead the Forest Rose to Sing" that will turn you on, turn you in and turn you out but never turn you away. That's the kind of artist Danny Schmidt is. Do yourself a favor and buy this CD and the forest will rise to sing to you too.