What would you say is the biggest challenge being out on your own? The biggest challenges is the stuff that goes on behind the scenes with a band. I have a band that consists of members who live in three different states. The logistics of keeping everybody together and traveling comfortably and safely everywhere we go, that’ s the biggest challenge. I ' ve never found myself, until recently, in a position where I had to make the decisions. For years, I’ ve always shown up when I needed to, and I was always ready to go. I knew my part. I was there on time. If anything went wrong, it was never on me. Now, anything that could go wrong, from catering to sound issues to travel to instruments, whatever happens now it ' s all on me. That is a little different type of pressure than I ' ve ever had, but at the same time, I feel like I ' m young again and climbing that ladder. That ' s a feeling I did not expect I would have at this stage of my career, and it has a level of excitement that ' s hard to put into words.
What are some of the significant changes you ' ve observed in the music industry during these 50 or so years? Just to watch music evolve in any way, shape, or form is fascinating. I got to be a part of the music in Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? that really kind of changed the face of music for that period of time. I still see the residue of that one recording bleeding into so much of the music that ' s being made today. It ' s fascinating to look back at a career and see people pay homage to things that you ' ve done, or see people you know play songs that you ' ve either written or performed. When you realize that you ' ve had that type of effect on a people, in my situation, it made me much more aware that my responsibilities had definitely shifted up. When you have more eyes on you, I think you ' re more responsible to be the entertainer that people want to see. The responsibility rises as the viewership rises, and I welcome that. It ' s an amazing opportunity to get to influence people with the music and to watch it change, and to think that you ' ve been any part of what changes people ' s views or opinions of music. I had a guy come up to me last week, he looked like he could have been my dad. He was an older dude, he had lived a full life it looked like, and he said,“ You know, I ' ve been listening to you since I was in diapers.” I just thought to myself, I guess I am really that old. But I don ' t take it for granted. It ' s been an amazing ride and
30 // BERKSHIRE MAGAZINE Holiday August Fall 2025 2025 2023 a fascinating journey to watch music evolve as it has, and I look forward to how it will continue, because it always will.
You write songs for yourself, and you ' ve collaborated with people on songs. What ' s your process? I ' m still finding that out for myself. I ' m not one of the people who knew that he was a songwriter growing up. In fact, I told people for most of my career that I was a musician and not a songwriter. My process of writing songs really has come from a lifetime of picking on songs that I didn ' t like, or, building up songs that I really love, just raising my awareness of what a good song was to me. Songs are a kind of story, where you can get into the picture. I like to write songs that are easy to digest, that don ' t make people really think too hard to get the story. I like to take people on an easy journey that they can see visual symbols throughout the song of what I ' m talking about. Sometimes I ' ve written lyrics first and then found the music to suit it. More often than not, though, I start with music, and I let that music inspire what it makes me feel. After I hear a melody, it will pull me down a path that makes me want to chase that path in songwriting.
So for you, the music is primary, not the lyrics? For most of my life, I didn ' t need words at all to get the full meaning of a song or a piece of music. It was through the melodies and the vibrations of what ' s being played. When you can match up your storytelling to give the same emotions, to emote the same type of feelings as the melody does, that ' s when the songs become more successful. I really try to get a good feel for what the song is trying to tell me before I start spitting words out at it. Every song is its own little creation, and the light at the end of the tunnel of each song, for me, is so gratifying when you get there and you feel like you have found a way to complete a song. I can start a song as good as anybody, but finishing a song and looking at it like it is a complete work, that ' s the challenge.
Your album Southern Gothic took a different direction as far as your usual bluegrass sound. Can you discuss what inspired that shift? I would love to, because that ' s about the evolution of my songwriting. I had done a song with an EDM artist, Avicii, and I had a hit song called“ Hey, Brother.” After that, I started spending my off time more productively. I thought songwriting would be a good way. I ultimately got a publishing deal through Ten Ten Music Group and Barry Coburn. I found myself meeting new people, like two or three different people I ' ve never met before, every week, trying to write songs that someone might record, songs that were not for me. Everyone was familiar with“ Hey Brother” and how far outside of the box that was compared to my other music. I ended up with a catalog of songs that were so far from anything that I would ever record, or really that anyone else would ever record, because of how different they were. Well, my publisher had secretly been giving these songs to a couple of record labels to gauge their interest and see what they thought. One of the labels said,“ You know, we love these songs. We think these should be recorded. We ' re trying to figure out who we could give them to.” They went back to Barry and said,“ Would Dan be interested in doing a record of these, his own songs?” It was the first time I ever had the opportunity to record a body of my own work. I couldn ' t pass it up, and I had someone by the name of Jesse Frasure who was willing to produce and be involved in this record. I made a deal with him that if he would just let me sing, I would let him have his way with all the music. So I ended up with a record that is so far outside of the music that I play. It was a crazy experience, but I was so proud at what the record would be. I don ' t think Southern Gothic was the best title for the record, but I look back, and I would absolutely do it again. It ultimately is responsible for all of the bluegrass songs that I write because it really made me frame my songwriter mind in such a way that it allowed me to write songs that I didn ' t think I could write for me. It’ s been a learning experience the whole way. Southern Gothic was the start of me realizing that I was free and able to write anything I wanted.
You’ ve said that bluegrass is the most difficult music to write. Why is that? I don ' t know if it is for all people, but it was for me. I felt like every time I tried to write a bluegrass song, it sounded like it had already been done before. I would find myself halfway through a song, and as I would listen and critique it back to myself, I would just throw it away. I needed to let