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Published on Jul-08-2020 8:00am
Views: 13814
Danny Barnes has pivoted. Or maybe he's made a career of pivoting. The banjo master, one of the great musicians of our time, has been unusually malleable in navigating a career in music: early on founding a ground breaking punk rock/bluegrass band (the Bad Livers), later on touring and recording with artists at the very pinnacle of jazz, bluegrass, and pop music (including Bill Frisell, Tim O’Brien, David Grisman and Dave Matthews), and all the while releasing a wildly diverse collection of solo records, ranging from straight bluegrass to rock to ambient electronica (a personal favorite of mine). Not to mention his essays, which are legendary, or his cartoons, which are as well. Or his deeply inspiring music lessons at Peghead Nation.
And now that touring is off the table for the time being, taken away just as he was in the middle of a run of gigs celebrating the release of his latest record, Man on Fire (which is great!), Danny has shifted his focus a bit: he's at home on the Olympic Peninsula, balancing his daily practices with a recently ramped up and always well received cartoon/art business.
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