A nice local gig westward for ten minutes along the A3 to, as Danny points out, a two Ivy town in Guildford. I looked back at my records and I have seen Danny in his various guises many times down the years. It’s been twenty three years since I first saw Danny and his brother in Grand Drive back in 99 taking them in many times in those first four or five years. It’s then been DGW, Danny and the Champs and Bennett, Wilson, Poole since then.
Its back at the Keep tonight a tiny pub in a Guildford backstreet but Howard seems to be able to book great acts and I have had the pleasure to see Courtney Marie Andrews, Dylan LeBlanc and Carson McHone there to name a few.
Tonight it’s a snug fit with Danny and friends Joe, Paul, Henry and Steve all crammed in the front corner. Wow what a band. This was not the night for throwaway three minute pop songs. But it was the night for five great musicians to showcase their craft building each song into extended jams highlighting the chops of each of them as a real groove band. And what a groove. I never like to single out band members as it’s seem disparaging to the others but a word for Paul on guitar. Unshowy and understated but what a picker with many solos hitting the spot like the musical equivalent of a cold beer on a sunny day.
It’s a trip down the DGW memory lane with tracks pulled from all of his incarnations and it’s almost impossible to highlight any favourites although of course for purely sentimental reasons Grand Drive’s ‘Jukebox’ was particularly poignant taking me back all those years. Considering the size of the venue and aside from very minor occasional feedback the sound was spot on. Danny's voice was great as usual.
A thoroughly entertaining evening with Sutton’s finest.
Keep on country rockin’ y’all.
PS. recent video from you tube below performing the great 'Tell it like it is' which was on the setlist but ran out of time on the night.