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Daryl Wayne Dasher - artist bio

For Daryl Wayne Dasher, there really was only one career option - music. His second solo project established him as a country-folk troubadour with his heart on his sleeve. GREAT BIG SKY is the culmination of years of hard work, hard lessons learned, tough paths traveled, and real life lived.

Daryl hails from the small farming community of Paulding, OH. Raised in an artistic family, dad plays bluegrass, mom sings and paints, he got behind a drum kit at age 3, started learning guitar at age 4. But growing up in the 1980s, country was not the music he was playing. "To tell you the truth, I was inspired by KISS," laughs Daryl. "It was theatrical and not something my parents listened to." Having caught the performance bug by playing guitar in church, he started a rock band in high school. "I was playing clubs when I was only 16. They would keep us in the back room before and after our shows. All the while, my parents believed we were playing at birthday parties," he admits with a mischievous smile. From 1997, he started spending summer in Nashville, worked as part of the security team at the Grand Ole Opry and sold cowboy boots at night.

Witnessing countless Opry shows and Garth Brooks frequenting the boot store, he drew inspiration from his musical heroes and after a short time in Montana; Daryl made the move to Nashville in 2002. He quickly secured a spot as the bass player in roots-rock band Mellow Down Easy. Applying the lessons from his sideman years, Daryl released his first solo album, Long Road Now, in 2009. The album was produced by Jerry "Jigger" Bridges (Waylon Jennings) and recorded in Mississippi with some legendary musicians including Richie Albright, Fred Newell, and Eugene Moles. The idea was to build on the Nashville sound that had inspired him and record live takes with those honky-tonk heroes. The result is a sincere organic sound.

Daryl took his music on the road, first as part of the Spirit of the Outlaws show run by Brigitte London, and later with his own band. Starting in the Southeast, he quickly gained fans across North America. His rootsy brand of country also connected with audiences overseas and, with his songs receiving airplay in Europe, he has also toured in Switzerland.

In 2010, Daryl started working on a follow-up project. Written and recorded over the last two years, much of the work took place in different hotel rooms across the country. Titled GREAT BIG SKY, the album explores the idea of expanding one's horizon. "This was all about journeying into new adventures," says Daryl. "This is the first album I produced and engineered, and I learned how to play mandolin and harmonica for this project." For this labor of love, Daryl focused all his attention on the new album and played all instruments except for percussion and fiddle.

From honest introspection on 'Hello Sky!' to the story of a road-weary musician on 'Again,' and the island relaxation on 'Sun,' the album celebrates a diversity of characters. Each song is a little vignette of real life with Daryl being a skilled interpreter of emotions. He lets his voice soar like an eagle in 'The Mountains of Montana,' and lets it drop to a disenchanted sigh on 'Soldier.' Built on traditional country music tempos and strengthened by storytelling in the best folk tradition, GREAT BIG SKY lets Daryl take his place among modern day American troubadours.

Daryl will spend much of 2013 on the road, bringing his stories to an ever-growing audience. Music has gone from what he needed to make to what he wants to share. "For years I thought making art was about my experience," he explains, "but my audience has helped me to understand that music is something you give."

For more information about Daryl Wayne Dasher:
Website: dwdasher.com
Facebook: facebook.com/dwdasher
Twitter: twitter.com/dwdmusic
YouTube: youtube.com/dwdasher
Reverbnation: reverbnation.com/daryldasher