From NetRhythms UK Oct 07

Texan-born songwriter Danny had previously only entered my consciousness through a track on the Waterbug Anthology #8: I made a mental note to look out for his recordings but heard nothing more till this one arrived through my mailbox just a short time ago. On this evidence, Danny is a really captivating talent, with an intensely literate take on things that at times recalls that of Josh Ritter but if anything encompasses a wider stylistic range and an arguably even greater sense of poeticism.

His songs are characterised by an easy kind of poetry that seems to just spill off the end of his pen fully formed, and delivered in a winning kind of unassuming but entirely confident soft drawl that beguiles the ear with little apparent effort and draws the intellect in too with its spun word-patterns.

Most of the time on this disc, there's just Danny and his guitar, with tasteful little embellishments from steel guitar (Lloyd Maines, no less), accordion or organ (Stefano Intelisano) and gentle stringed instruments like violin and cello, while trumpet, mandolin, harmonica, percussion, bass and vocal harmonies also appear in the exhaustive cast-list. Yet there's never any excess baggage or clouding of textures and full concentration always rests squarely on Danny's lyrics.

Every song on this disc immediately impresses, but the crowning glory has to be the epic yet claustrophobic Stained Glass, which recalls Leonard Cohen in its dazzling use of often primal religious imagery to tell its story. There's a distinctly weary, resigned-yet-defiant demeanour to Danny's writing too: This Too Shall Pass was written in the midst of a bout of cancer, while Ghosts is pure meditative gallows-Gothic. Elsewhere among this disc's eleven amazing creations, Neil Young is a double-edged love-song that partly pays tribute to one of Danny's evident inspirations, the freewheelingly jazzy mode of Happy All The Time is reflected in its mood of twisted irony and Beggars And Mules is a sly take on the country-roots barroom lament, written expressly for Danny's muso friends. The parables include the truly bizarre political allegory of A Circus Of Clowns and the pseudo-fairytale character sketch of Dark-Eyed Prince.

Danny has a hell of an imagination, but one which doesn't exclude his listeners, whom he holds in rapt attention throughout his storytelling and ruminations. I was so impressed with this album I just had to investigate further, and it turns out that Parables & Primes is Danny's fourth CD, recorded back in 2005 and only just now gaining a UK release; apparently there's a further new album on the way as we speak, which I'm looking forward to immensely.

Parables & Primes is an absolutely outstanding singer-songwriter album by any standards, truly one of the finest and most individual I've heard this year, and I'm glad to report that Danny's going to be touring the UK briefly next month.

From Sing Out! Magazine
by Rich Warren (see note at the end of review)

Danny Schmidt reminds me of why I gravitate towards the singer-songwriter art form. With the gravitational pull of the sun, he is, perhaps the best new songwriter I’ve heard in the last 15 years. Schmidt’s iconoclastic style sets him apart from the crowd, yet if you lean toward the acoustic folk side of singer-songwriters you’ll find him quite accessible.

This self-produced CD lists 15 accompanists, yet the uncluttered production never overwhelms or overshadows the songs. It builds a vortex that swirls you into the songs. Schmidt’s voice is frail yet assertive, self-effacing yet self-confident and easily carries his ideas.

“Stained Glass” is the single most dazzling, dramatic, dynamic and poetic song I’ve heard since Phil Och’s “Crucifixion.” This 6:36 minute long parable tells of the destruction and reconstruction of a church window. However stunning the imagery, it is a song that defies description, it must be heard.
The other 10 remarkable songs on this CD do not pale in comparison, but after looking directly into the sun, you must allow your mind and psyche to readjust before appreciating the other songs.

“This Too Shall Pass” is a defiant song for a friend with cancer. Setting an overall tone of sardonic, dark commentary often illuminated with irony, he views the human condition from a variety of angles. “A Circus of Clowns” cleverly, boldly skewers the current Administration.

Schmidt crafts engrossing melodies to carry his novel approach to words. While you may not be able to remember all the lyrics because of the complexity, you may have trouble escaping the tunes. He even weaves in some melodic quotations from traditional folk songs.

I have tried to avoid hyperbole in discussing Parables & Primes. I’ll simply say you must buy this CD. It is the pinnacle of contemporary songwriting.

Besides writing for Sing Out! magazine, Rich Warren also hosts the nationally syndicated folk radio show, Midnight Special, produced by Chicago's WFMT 98.7FM
http://www.midnightspecial.org

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Schmidt has the poetry and flow of Dylan without the drawback of having his voice. These songs are crammed full of words, each one placed with care, his voice moving between them with ease as though the transition between syllables has been worn smooth by practice. The density of the poetry means that there isn't a need for any complex musical embellishment; the core is acoustic guitar shaded with trumpet, mandolin, accordion and some steel guitar. The songs breathe because they have the room to; it only takes a few bars of harmony to change the texture of a song. He combines the starkness of early Iron & Wine with the torrent that is Josh Ritter. His voice seems like there aren't any words that could confound it; everything that there is to say can be said and turned into song.

The guitar seems part of the thought process, the lines on which the words are written, the breath between them, the punctuation, italics and occasional underlining or bold. With a full electric band sound the vocals don't change, the organ and guitars offering more than typographical assistance, they are illustrations, an illuminated manuscript. The songs synthesise various generic and poetic conventions into something that is recognizably his own, equally at home with small domestic details as on the larger canvas of human nature. These are songs that you have to give time to, pay attention to - otherwise they will escape you: listen close and you will be rewarded.