All right.
Welcome back.
You're on the Dan Time podcast.
I'm your host, Dan McCardell.
If this is your first time checking out the show, I'm so happy you're here.
You're in the right place.
I don't always reintroduce the premise of this show, the meaning of Dan Time.
So let me take a moment to bring it back front and center for
those of you just joining us.
Every week, I bring you a new guest, somebody who is making a difference,
making an impact, changing the world around them for the better and somebody
who I think that you ought to hear about.
The one thing that most of them have in common is that they're all like me,
named Dan.
Now, very few of us were actually named Dan at birth, although I've met one kid
who was absolutely named after one of the 12 tribes of Israel.
Not everybody's a Dan.
As you may have noticed, I've had a Chris, a Vic, and of course, Jim Powell.
On a show like this, we've got to mix it up in order to avoid
what I like to call Dan Fatigue.
We've had a Danny.
We will have your traditional Daniel at some point and coming soon, we will
have at least one Danielle.
This is not a boys club.
The facts of the matter is I've just not been able to confirm a female guest to
date, but I'm working on it.
If your name is Danielle and you've been listening and you're thinking,
geez, Dan, why didn't you say something?
I've been waiting for the invitation.
Well, I've said it now.
So reach out to DanTimePod at gmail.com.
If you'd like to come on the show, regardless of your first name.
So that's the general theme.
Want to leave you thinking, laughing, and hopefully inspired.
Today, my very special guest is Dan Harrison.
Dan is a Nashville based singer songwriter who fell in love with the
South and country music while attending college at Wake Forest in North Carolina.
Dan songs touch on themes like new experiences, falling in love, going for
something you've been thinking about for a while, pressing play, giving it a shot.
Jumping in, being confident in yourself.
And he connects places, textures, sights, and smells of the South,
which are very unique to memories.
Dan's vocals really have an effortless quality and charm.
His choruses carry you to another level.
I could do an entire segment just on the single nowhere bar.
I think this should have been a number one hit back when it came out in 2019.
When you hear Dan sing Carolina at about the two and a half minute mark,
I think you'll know what I mean.
His songs are just optimistic.
A lot of good stuff on the radio right now, but not quite what Dan's offering.
And what I mean by that is you'll be able to hear his songs on the radio
and what I mean by that is you'll hear some downer songs when you're driving
around that don't really have a takeaway at the end.
So you're thinking, all right, I don't really feel a lot better
than I did when that song started.
Dan's singles on the other hand, they've usually got a good spin
to every situation he describes.
Like in running out of radio, we might run out of cash, out of gas, out of time,
but we'll never be running out of radio.
Dan was awarded the 2023 ASCAP Harold Adamson Lyric Award for country music.
His song Friendly Fire won the 2021 ASCAP Jay Gourney Award
and 2022 Bluebird Cafe Golden Pick Award.
Dan has released music as both a solo artist and as part of the duo Salem Town.
His songs have been featured on Spotify's New Boots and Wild Country,
Next from Nashville, Fresh Finds and Fresh Finds Country.
He's also got songwriting credits on the viral TikTok song,
All Hat, No Cowboy by Bells, which has hit four million views.
All right. The new single is We Went South.
You can download it on any music platform.
It appeared on Spotify's New Music Friday playlist
when it was released September 15th.
Now, whatever genre that you're really into when you hear this song,
I really think that you're going to feel like you got an advanced copy of something
that the rest of the world just doesn't know about yet.
Follow Dan on social media, on Instagram, X, Facebook,
and you can find the video to this song and any other singles.
All right. Let's hear some of the new song We Went South
and then get to my conversation with Dan.
Folks, it is Dan Harrison Dime.
We were looking for something better, didn't want to waste any more time.
Never thought that we'd find our forever if we stuck around.
So that's why we went south on the interstate headed straight for that small town.
Didn't know where we'd lead, but I guess we know now
cause we found a picket fence and a patch of ground to settle down.
Planted roots down in that dirt, thank God how things turned out.
When we went south, yeah we went south.
Didn't have us a whole lot of money, all we knew was we were chasing a dream.
With the magnolia trees and honey so sweet,
we found everything we'd ever need.
When we went south.
All right folks, well I am just thrilled today to bring to you
Nashville based singer songwriter, Dan Harrison.
Dan, thanks so much for joining the show.
Thank you so much for having me, Dan. Appreciate it.
Everybody, I want you to know something.
Dan Harrison is another example, just like last week,
of somebody that I really want to have on the show.
He's got a story that's a little bit outside the box.
He's a country music artist, but he's not your typical
born and raised in the south singer songwriter.
Dan, I'll stop there and just kind of let you introduce yourself to the listeners,
where you came from, how you got interested in music, and where you are today.
Yeah, no thanks man. I appreciate it again you having me on the show.
It's very cool. I was telling this to someone yesterday actually like
I feel like I don't know that many Dan's.
I grew up like, I think I was the only Dan that I knew.
There was another kid I grew up with named Dan, but he went by a different name.
So I love the concept of this podcast.
I just wanted to say, you know, there's Dan's doing great things out there.
But yeah, no, so yeah, I'm living in Nashville and I've been here a little over five years.
Originally from Philadelphia by way of Los Angeles.
I was born in LA and I moved to Philly when I was about five.
I still have a lot of family on the west coast though, and I love going over there.
But grew up in Philly and went to college down in North Carolina, Wake Forest, Go Deeks.
You know, made my way over here after that, after a couple years back home,
and then came down here to Nashville. So that's the quick overview of it.
Now, Dan, did your mom or your dad play an instrument in the house or your brothers or sisters?
Yeah, I have two younger brothers. So not formally.
Had a piano in the house and my parents forced piano lessons on me when I was a kid.
And I really, really wish I stuck with them.
You know, but it's, I guess, different when you come to it yourself versus it's forced on you.
But I definitely understand the value in that now.
But no, my parents were always musical. My dad was self-taught.
And he had some depth tapes, I think, from back when he was a kid in the 70s and 80s
that he recorded on cassette probably. And he had the dream of that.
But I don't think it's ever something he seriously pursued.
And my mom liked to sing. But there was no family band situation.
Even though technically all of us are musical and both of my brothers separately are very talented.
My middle brother is a very talented drummer and DJ and kind of electronic music producer.
My youngest brother is also a great guitar player and songwriter.
He's kind of in a different space. He's like indie rock and jam stuff.
But we all have musical things. And we joked about the family band thing.
But it wasn't ever in the cards for us. But yeah, so definitely music was always a big
part of my life from as long as I can remember. Certainly appreciating it.
The stuff that my dad would listen to in the car growing up, I remember like it was yesterday.
RG Now, did you have somebody maybe in high school or around that time period
who was encouraging you? Maybe an older person saying,
hey, you got something there. You need to follow up on that.
JG Yeah, I mean, my parents were always very supportive and encouraging once I came to it on my own.
And I had friends in late middle school, early high school getting into guitar.
And I was like, well, that's pretty cool. And they were the ones showing me like
Jimi Hendrix, ACDC, Van Halen Queen, and stuff like that.
And they were playing. I'd never seen an electric guitar. My dad had an acoustic guitar.
I thought it was cool, but it was like a little it felt like very old school.
And then my buddy got one of those Squier strap packs, those like really cheap,
like kind of starter kits. And I was over one day and I was like, that was that looks awesome.
I want to do whatever that is. And he was like, smoke on the water or something simple now.
Like, yeah, that's kind of so I kind of got encouragement from there.
And I had some great music teachers in the school at the school that I went to.
And then I probably annoyed the crap. In fact, I know I did this new to laying and stuff like that.
I did jazz band and and took music theory and music history stuff and just very
it wasn't really specific to guitar, but it was just generally encouraging music.
And then I had obviously guitar teachers that once I like told my parents, I was like serious about it.
And I'm still connected to some of them and they're and they're great and really were really helpful.
Now, was there a time where so you you enroll at Wake Forest in North Carolina?
Did it come down to like two or three schools and you might have stayed up north or gone west or done
something and the story might may have been different? You know, I asked I think about that
sometimes. It's definitely possible. Wake was an early decision school for me.
So that's where I went. And that's where I applied first. And that was it.
But I looked at a number of other schools. I thought about Berkeley, but I didn't.
I ran back pretty seriously in high school and wanted to in college and they did not have sports
team and sports teams, I think, of any kind. So I didn't want to go north and be in a city.
So I Berkeley was kind of off the table there. And I hadn't heard about Belmont or MTSU,
which I'm not sure if I'm really with those schools, but two fantastic schools in the Nashville area
that are hugely, hugely influential in the music industry here and beyond in terms of kind of the
programs that they have and the people that have come out of there, you know, both on the business
and creative side for the industry, just at hearty for one of them, you know, from MTSU.
Brad Paisley went to Belmont. I mean, the list is just ridiculous from both of those schools.
They pretty much run this town, which I always thought put me at a disadvantage, but
thankfully it doesn't. And I feel like most of my friends anyway that I made here went to those
schools. So I kind of feel like I went there anyway without having gone there. But no, I mean,
it's possible I could have gone somewhere else. I thought about the West Coast to warmer weather,
but I just fell in love with Wake as an overall school. I always wanted to do music, but I still
wasn't at that stage that I was like, oh no, this is exactly what I'm doing. I thought like I would
just go to school and figure it out and then maybe do music after. And I just really wanted to have
the best college experience and learn and obviously athletically and academically.
And I'm very happy with my pick. I don't know, I might've still ended up here, but I don't know
when I would have ended up here or how exactly. It definitely wouldn't have happened the same way.
And I might've not been exposed to country music the way I was and when I was and as it affected me.
So who knows? Yeah. Well, that's a great time. Everyone can usually remember,
and it's usually the college years, the college age years where you have that crossroads or you
meet certain people or you have a girlfriend at the time that influences you in one way or another.
But Dan, so I understand that at Wake Forest around that time period, you figure out that
you like some country songs, some country music, maybe it's a relationship that you're in and you're
just hearing a lot of it. Take me back to some of those days. Yeah. I mean, that's pretty much,
you know, that on the head, like it was just being down there at that time. I went to school,
I graduated from Wake in 2015. And just around that time is Eric Church was kind of really big.
FGL was coming up those couple of years beforehand, Sam Hunt, Jake Owen, Zach Brown,
a lot of those guys were like the big thing at the time Bro Country was starting. And you know,
whatever you like or don't or dislike about it, there were things about it that caught my ear.
And it was just what was a lot of my friends were playing, like, you know, driving around in their
trucks because going around school then. And I also was dating a girl at the time that I met
down there who was did the student booking for concerts on campus. I'll never forget Josh Thompson,
who is a huge songwriter here now. He wrote Any Old Barstool for Jason Aldean, a lot of stuff for
Thomas Rhett. He was an artist at that point. And he has one project out, but it's like one of my
favorite records. And it was one of the first records I listened to called Way Out Here. He
came to campus on his fall tour my freshman year. And I remember seeing him and I was, you know,
just floored. And my girlfriend at the time, you know, I'd done some open mics on campus. And,
you know, after we met, she's like, you really, you really should do country music. And it just
never occurred to me that, you know, growing up doing rock and singer songwriter stuff, like I love
John Mayer, Springsteen, the Eagles, Queen, there's a lot of like rock, pop, to a certain extent,
blues, jazz, well, it all goes back to the blues, actually. So rock, country, jazz, all that stuff.
They're all siblings going back to the blues. So there's a lot of overlap. And when you think of
like the Heartland rock guys like Mellencamp or Springsteen, and then the Eagles, there's a lot
of country crossover and influence there. So it's a natural fit once you find artists within that
genre that you like. And so that's kind of what it was for me. I just found artists that I resonated
with that I hadn't been exposed to growing up. Because where I grew up, just people didn't listen
to country music as much. And even though I now know there's a massive radio station in the
Philadelphia area, 92.5 XTU, that serves that whole region. It's one of the biggest country
stations in the country. So yeah, it was definitely just like being in a totally new place like
Wake Forest in North Carolina. Just culture. I wouldn't say culture shock, but it was just very
much a time of change and experiencing new things. And it was awesome. And it was really
hugely formative, I think, for me to where I am now in a lot of ways.
Yeah, it seems like you're really starting to find yourself. And I can relate to seeing a band
perform live that is a little bit outside of my box, so to speak. And you maybe get dragged to a
bar or something. You're like, I don't really care about this band or this opening act. And then you
hear them and you're like, maybe I was missing something here. And I think there might be a
misnomer with some people with modern country music, that everybody on the stage is of a similar
background. And you could probably speak to this. It really couldn't be further from the truth.
If you look at a drummer, a bass player, the singer, the main songwriter on stage,
all four of those people might primarily listen to a different type of music, but they all coalesce
to create that sound. Yeah, no, I think the reality is my generation, which is give or take
a few years, kind of generation that's making waves and starting to be at the forefront of the
industry. We grew up with country as well as rock and hip hop and other influences. John Mayer,
for example, is I think a huge, just anybody that has picked up a guitar since he existed.
Kind of like with Taylor for girls too. But I like a lot of Taylor Swift's original country stuff as
well. And I'm sure it was some amazing writers here. But I think that it's only natural that,
because really genre is just something that was created for marketing purposes and for radio. And
like I said, all these genres are brothers and they're siblings, sisters, whatever you want to
call it. So it's really, take Hardy, for example, like he's like literally like doing metal now.
And that's what his whole record, his recent record was about this two sides of him, the mockingbird
and the crow. The crow is like the darker side, the metal side that he was as a kid, his kid growing
up. And that was very influential to him. But then the mockingbird is like the country thing.
That's the other side of him. And I really identify with that in terms of country is the
foundation for what I do. And it's my passion and I love it. And it's the centering focus for me.
But there's so many other great things to blend in. And I think that most country musicians will
find nowadays have more diverse tastes and interests than you would expect because there's
just no boundaries, no genres. I think streaming's done a lot with that too, in terms of you can have
a hip hop song and a country song on the same playlist, and then a jazz song. And it's all
Duke Ellington has a famous quote that I believe is attributed to him that says there's only two
types of music good and bad. And I think that's really what comes down to. But by that same token,
a lot of big artists aren't necessarily from the South. I mean, look at Keith Urban, he's from,
well, he is from the South. He's from way, way South Australia. But then there's plenty of,
you know, Shania Twain's Canadian. I met more Canadians in my life than Nashville than probably,
I don't know if I even knew a single Canadian before I moved here. And there's so many down
here that come down to write their songs, record their songs, and because there's a whole market
up there. And the UK and I know the Nordic countries are very much growing in terms of their
appetite for the country market. And Ed Sheeran, you know, has done some collaborations with
Luke Combs, and he loves country music. He's talked about coming to record a record here.
He has cuts with Tim McGraw and Faith Hill himself as a songwriter. So there's a song by
Brantley Gilbert, which might have been his first hit. And I love that song. And I think it's so
true. It's Country Must Be Countrywide. And I would even amend it to say Country Must Be Worldwide,
because I think once people give it a chance, I think country is what rock used to be 40 years
ago. You know, Tom Petty, the Eagles, Jackson Brown, all that stuff. But then you also had stuff
like the Beach Boys and all the way to like harder stuff, maybe like ACDC and even up to metal and
Metallica. Country is this like foundation that a lot of other genres are playing around in.
And you can add different like sub genres of country. Like Sam Hunt is country as is George
Strait, but they are not the same kinds of country. But they can both exist and they both have fans
that call themselves country music fans. Fans that can like both or maybe just like one of them.
And I just think there's this great ability to honor its roots and also widen its appeal,
that country, the space that it's in right now. So it's kind of a long-winded answer to your
to your question, but in agreeing with your statement rather, agreeing with you.
Well, just like you said, that's a great quote. And a good song is just a good song. And we live
in a really diversified culture much more so than the country music scene in the 1990s.
Yes. Which seems like not that long ago, kind of was, but it was. Yeah.
There's a lot more opportunity to reach different types of people with your music.
And people are curious and they've got access and they're on Spotify and they can accidentally
stumble upon something. And if it's a good song, you know, you just might grab somebody who wasn't
an easy mark for your sound. And I see that in some of, you know, I might be jumping ahead a
little bit here, but with the Salem Town project that you and Patrick Cornell have put together,
just some of the songs, some of the themes, some of the artwork, it kind of speaks to a new audience.
Yeah, that was a very fun project that we did. We talked about how, you know, there was Bro Country
and all these different kinds of country. We kind of called it Beat Country because we were,
it was sort of Patrick's idea initially to kind of fuse these EDM kind of dance elements and
electronic elements and even more poppier elements with country music that I hadn't even
thought about going that far. And doing it in a duo was kind of like a safe way to be able to do
that separately from my solo project. And I learned a lot from it. It was a really great
experience and love the songs that we made and put out. It's stuff that I might have never done
as myself, but helped me grow a lot as a writer and an artist. And I think when I describe Salem
Town to people, I basically say like it's chain smokers if they did country music. So that's,
I think it's another example of the kind of diversity sonically that you can have in country
music, but it still feels like country and it's the lyrics certainly and the vocal delivery,
but it can be dressed up in a lot of different ways. Now I want to talk about some of your solo
material which you're here to promote. And the new single is We Went South. Folks go on Spotify,
go on Apple Music, download it. Trust me on this one, download one Dan Harrison track. And when you
hear one, you're going to want to hear them all. Dan, one thing about We Went South, and I could
kind of carve this up a lot of different ways, but I did go back and listen to the back catalog and
I see some real growth. The Dan Harrison package, I guess. What you have on display in the video
and We Went South is just a guy, in my opinion, that has kind of that every guy appeal. You look
like you're having fun. Your music, I feel like it taps into a feeling, an emotion, connects people
with places and memories. Talk a little bit about where you were on your writing and recording,
no where bar, running out of radio, and then flash forward to the new stuff. Well, the reality is,
is that stuff is, it might be new to your ears in terms of the recording and being out there,
but it's not actually, it was kind of written around a similar time. I think I wrote We Went
South in 2021, it was early 2021, but some of the songs on the project of which We Went South is a
part, I'm putting out a bunch of new music over the next year that that song was the first single
from, was written as early as 2019, kind of around the time that that other stuff was put out. All
of this stuff has, I moved to Nashville in April 2018, so everything has been written since I moved
here, but some of the stuff that's coming out is fairly, I should say, it's not old, but it's not
like recently written. And so that's just the kind of the funny thing with music that sometimes
things take a while to get out. Sometimes they happen, it happens pretty quickly. But in terms
of the process, I mean, the goal, I love writing and I love telling stories. I love, and to me,
it's always been the best way to communicate my thoughts and expressions and emotions in a way
that can connect to people, because people's attention spans are short, and I just love the
way music has this capacity to heighten the message or an emotion that you want to convey.
And it can really hit people in a way that they might not have really processed otherwise,
if someone just told it to them or they saw it through some other medium.
And now the side note is that sometimes you can hear a song in the wrong context and it won't hit
you and then you hear it again another time, like later in the day or something, or at a show and
you're like, whoa, that song's amazing. And you realize you'd heard it earlier, but that's another
piece. But yeah, so We Went South was just me wanting to tell my story. I mean, this project,
the goal of this project was to have some songs that kind of talked about who I am and how I got
to where I was. So that song, that's an expression, we went south or things went south. Usually that's
a negative thing. But I kind of wanted to turn that on its head and talk about the story of what
got me to Nashville. I tried to avoid using specific music industry or rock star musician
imagery and language, because I find that those songs can sometimes pigeonhole you and people
can't always relate to, they just seem cheesy. But I think everyone can, not that there isn't a
place, time and place for certain songs like that. But I think this song needed to be bigger than
that. And so we couched it and people, everyone's had to move somewhere for a fresh start or chase
a dream. And, you know, we're like taking a leap of faith. And that's kind of what that song was
about. And I knew like two people here when I moved here. And I slept on a friend's couch for
the first two weeks and, you know, didn't know anything. And not that I know everything now,
but I know five years worth more worth of things. And it's just amazing to see when I look back on
what I've done in the last five years, and just gets me really excited about what I'm going to do
in the next five. So I love the theme of the song, because 10 years ago, I took a shot, I moved to
Pensacola, Florida. And I didn't know anybody except you went south to I went south to you.
And, you know, I just I maybe knew my girlfriend's friend, and then the guy that she was dating,
and then I didn't know anybody after we broke up. And, but it was all good. So I really like the
theme of this song. I like how descriptive that your story is. And one of the lines that sticks
out to me is didn't want to waste any more time. People can relate to that where they've been
sitting on an idea, whether man, I want to move to Nashville, man, I really want to move
to Atlanta, I got friends in Atlanta, or like me down to the Gulf Coast. And you feel like you've
spent five or six years chewing on it. Just want to tell my listeners, if you've got that bug in
your ear, or you you've got that dream, go follow it. It's never too late, even if you're 2535 or
45. Yeah, it's definitely never too late. And it's never going to go away until you until you do it.
I think in our first couple messages with each other, I told you the songs that I liked, and
the nowhere bar track in particular, and the video. The video is just a blast. Take me through, I
wanted to ask you a question as far as making videos. It looks like you're having fun. It must
be a lot of work. Are you having as much fun as it looks like? Yeah, I think I think I am in the
moment. Sometimes it can be stressful because you want to make sure you get the shot or you're not
running out of daylight. And, and so you know, I'm not I'm not a trained actor, although I definitely
that definitely is in my family. And I want to take some acting classes, I think. But it's
definitely a lot. It's always fun. It's especially when you have friends there. That was the funnest
part about the nowhere bar videos. I had a lot of friends there, you know, kind of in the crowd in
the bar scene. So yeah, we made it look like it was at night because you know, this were the way
the sun was. But it was it was actually really early in the morning because I was the bar before
anyone was in. So it was we were all very tired. But it was it was a fun time. So yeah, it's making
those are always fun, especially when you have a fun concept behind it. Everybody can be brought
back to that moment, you know, whether it happened last weekend, and you're wondering what happened,
if you should have said something different to that girl that you met or what, or if it happened
10 years ago, everybody's got an experience like that. Well, that was the hope. And I appreciate
that. That was, it's funny that that video was made and so DIY and four or five years ago, and I'm
proud of it. But it's just to see the growth is fun, too. It's one I very look back on it very
fondly. And but also, it's a very clear metric of like how how far I've come and still am going,
I think, in a good way. Exactly. And you put that head to head with We Went South or crazy about
country, crazy about country. I really like this song, Dan, I play drums. And one of the first
things I noticed was, my gosh, listen that drum sound. Yeah, that's all my producer or the producer
of that song, Robbie. He's killer, man. I mean, my co writing my co writers, other co writers on that
song, Adam sick learn at least you low, they help with production as well. So that's that's I got
to give them credit for that they found the right sounds and Robbie put it all together and mixed
it too and just made it really hit and sound great. Some of the lyrics to this is where I feel like I
can connect a little bit with your story. I didn't grow up listening to country music. So some of
these lyrics speak to me. Sometimes it takes a girlfriend or accidentally hearing something to
get into the genre. I just happened to be in a workplace where two guys were playing Pandora
all day long. And it was it was only Kenny Chesney channel or Jason Aldean or Eric Church station or
something like that. And so I was kind of force fed a lot of this music the first week. And then
I finally I don't know what song it was. It may have been Zack Brown band, it may have been
something like knee deep, because I do like Jimmy Buffett. I thought, okay, that's all right. And
then I just, you know, it just got into my diet a little bit more. And I started to listen a little
deeper to the music. And that was a big turning point for me, where I realized, you don't have to
box yourself in to just rock, just hip hop, that sort of thing. So yeah, what did you kind of have
that in mind right in this song? Well, again, you know, this this song I put out in March, and it
was, I kind of consider it sort of like the sister song or the part that B side to to know her bar
both sonically and kind of in story in some ways. But it was just again, telling the story about how
I kind of got into country music. And it was because of a girl. And that was definitely
the goal to show like, hey, like, yeah, this is not what I started with. But I really connected
with it. And here's why. And so hopefully that I got that across. But there's obviously like other
other musical influences in there, too. The biggest key for me, whatever I'm doing is authenticity.
And I'm never going to pretend to be something I'm not. I love country music. And I'm a fan. And
I'm a country music artist. That doesn't mean I was born on a farm raised on a farm, anything
like that. And, and I and I'm very clear about that. So hopefully that's clear. But but the the
passion and, and sort of intensity of, of how much I care about the genre is still clear. And you
don't have to have been born and raised on a farm or, you know, to appreciate and relate to country
music. Absolutely. Like we were saying earlier, it's okay to step in, even though your last memory
of trying out country music didn't go so well, or you didn't feel like you fit in. Give it another
shot. If you're listening to this episode, look up Dan's catalog. Dan, one one other thing I wanted
to mention here is that you do have songwriting credits. All Hat No Cowboy by Bells. Talk about
that one a little bit. That's got what 4 million downloads? Yeah, it's got it went viral on TikTok
big time for her for Kelly and her project. And that was a super fun song to write. That was just
one of those songs that came together pretty quickly. In the room, I wrote it with actually
my producer and who produced all the stuff we went south and all the stuff that's coming out. And he
also wrote No War Bar with me back in the day. And it was just a lot of fun. It was me, him and Kelly
who's Bells and was actually on zoom. It was during the pandemic. And that was our first write
together. I had never met Kelly in person, but I'd obviously known Andrew for a while. And we got
set up on the right. And I think we, Andrew and I had talked about this idea at some point before,
and she just liked it and thought it was funny because we were just talking about how I had just
mentioned earlier in this conversation, in our conversation that about authenticity,
because of the tourist kind of thing here that Nashville has now is big business. And you know,
a lot you can you can tell tourists a mile away if they're most of the time if they're wearing,
you know, cowboy hat and just really overt kind of like country apparel and or they're on Broadway
and matching stuff like so there's a lot of like counterfeit cowboy like I like to call it. And
that's kind of what that song was about was just calling out is meant to be fun and lighthearted.
It's not really like bad to do that. But just to show that there's a difference. The boots don't
make the man as they say, which is another song title that I've written. But that was yeah, that
was kind of idea and we just kind of came together pretty quickly in the session. And it was a ton of
fun and Kelly killed it song song sounds great. And it's been a very big song for her in terms
of the doors. It's open and we're very thankful for that. Well, Dan, when you're spending a few
years writing these songs, recording these songs, putting a lot of your heart and soul into it,
what are what are some things that you do day to day week to week to just keep your head in the
game? You know, you haven't blown up across the globe yet. And you've got high aspirations,
big dreams. Do you have to keep yourself motivated or you just you know, hey, man,
I'm having fun doing this and whatever happens next is great. It's a bit of both. I mean,
I like to say my worst day in Nashville better than my best day anywhere else,
which is true. But that doesn't mean there's still aren't fun things or you know,
there's always there's always tough things even when you're even if you're chasing your
dream or in your dream job, there's stuff that isn't fun. And sometimes you can get overwhelmed.
You know, when I first started moving here, when I first moved here, I was writing two and three
times a day, you know, we take about anywhere from two to four hours for a writing session. So do the
math. You know, part of that's like the 10,000 hours, you know, you got to put in the time and
I only written like maybe less than a dozen songs before I moved to town. It's just not something I
thought about or did. I knew that's why I moved here. I knew I need to be the best artist I could
be I needed to be the best songwriter I could be. And I just hadn't found my voice literally and
figuratively. Because I just didn't it's just not the culture and the thing that I was surrounded
by and even knew about. It was amazing to get to get the opportunity to kind of like workshop and
put in all those hours. But eventually got to a point where I was getting burned out and you got
to be like, hey, like, I love writing, I'm always gonna do that. But I can still write one song a
day. Sometimes I want and you know what, sometimes I don't have to write a song like that day.
They're like today I didn't write a song I did other things that were also beneficial and
important to my music career. Like, if I was just pursuing songwriting, that'd be one thing. But
I'm also trying to put out music under an artist project. And you know, I play guitar for other
artists as well. And there's time for social media time for learning the songs and acting like
practicing like, there's a lot of things that that I need to be doing the music also and songwriting
is an amazing thing. But if I don't give myself space from it, when I need to, it can feel like
a chore and I don't ever want it to feel like a chore. There's sometimes it's just kind of
unavoidable. But this is my passion is my dreams what I love. So I want to show up to work every
day quote unquote, excited and I would say 99.9% of the time I am it's just you have to and for
everyone is different. I know some friends of mine who are killing it and they and they write two and
three times a day and they love it. And that's just what they do. And it is all different. But
some of the greatest songwriters I've ever heard and know and they have huge cuts and big number
ones. They only write a couple times a week, you know, and maybe they like early on had really
front loaded and did a lot. But you know, it kind of just depends on what works for you. And for me,
I just realized that like, I need to have balance if I'm not like sleeping and not doing other
things I enjoy in my life that actually also feed the well for ideas for me to write, you know,
nothing gets me more excited when I come up with an idea that I'm really excited to go right,
because then that just takes care of the inspiration, the vibe right away, the hardest part of the song
is getting it started. But if you're like, oh, I just killer idea, this is how we can do it. Like
I'm hearing this melody blah, blah, blah, that just takes so much of the work out of the way and the
effort and it's still a process to execute the song. But that's, we all want that inspiration.
And it's a balance of showing up to work every day. So you're keeping fresh for when inspiration
hits and sharp, but also not dulling yourself by kind of just hammering it too much. So I think
it's a bit of both for me is the long the short answer to to your question. So I love what I do.
I'm so blessed that I get to do it. And I hope to continue to keep growing it and get to a higher
and higher level so I don't have to do anything else to, you know, to live that I can just do this.
And I think that was a great way of putting it where you got to be careful with your craft and
what you love, because you just don't want it to start feeling like work, never want that. And
and so I really try and especially as I've gotten older, it's like, want to be able to enjoy life,
exercise, sleep, you know, socialize. It's all it is all it all goes together. It really does.
It feeds the well for inspiration and creativity. You know, that's and sometimes on these episodes,
I will I'll kind of hit on a very general theme. Like you just said, sleep. I think sometimes
people who are going after something and they're just they're just hard workers in general, type A
and they feel like I can stay up till two in the morning and get back up at five. I can go
go for a run and then I could do this. And you might be able to do that for a little while,
but you may not be at your creative best. So I like it. We said they're probably trying to pay
attention to what you eat a little bit. Trying. Yeah. And that that that's obviously tricky.
And if you're on a budget and certainly when you're on the road, like that's the biggest thing that
I've I've been I haven't been on the road for a super sustained period of time, but I've done a
bunch of different runs with other bands and for you know, like just one off gigs. And it's really
hard to like maintain routine when you're on the road like that. And it's critical to find the
things that work for you and not eat. And it's really easy to eat terribly too. So that's that's
super important. Yeah, that was I was going to ask about that with have you had friends that stay on
the road for a few months, they come back and you don't want to say anything to them, but you're
like, man, you kind of look look a little rough there. Or, or I mean, that I can think of in a
super noticeable way yet. But like, I just know what they tell me. And they're just exhausted. And
that's the reality. Like touring is a really great thing. But it's so hard, it is probably the
hardest thing to do. And it's sort of the last piece of the puzzle in terms of artist development,
like to be able to go on tour and have a an enterprise that has the logistics in place, and
you know, the financial durability and that there's enough money coming in and going out to be able to
put on something like that. There's just so many moving pieces and to do it right, you know, there's
plenty of bands just like kind of go by the skin of their teeth. And it's about exposure, but that's
not really the world we live in anymore. Like, of course, if you get on like a big tour as an opener,
like that's cool. But it's I think it's important to be strategic whenever you can not not in terms
of, you know, so much so that there's decision paralysis, or you overanalyze everything. But
I've thought about that myself a lot, which is, you know, why I've tried to be careful with,
with shows and and and part of it is also like, like you said, I haven't hit it yet. And it's
easier to sell tickets when you have things people want to come see you. So but yeah, that's it's a
balance either way, whatever level you're at, if you're kind of like trying to break in, or if
you're at a Morgan Wallen, Luke Combs, whatever kind of level, there's still balance and things
you got to do to keep your sanity when you're on the road for that long and stay healthy,
because it's it's not easy. Well, like I said earlier, as far as just trying to reach a broader
audience, and I've I've connected with the songs, I want to re emphasize, I'm not just saying this,
because it's another Dan on the show. And I just I'm gonna love whatever you do. Folks, when I when
I started playing these songs, I had an instant connection to them. And I was talking to Dan
earlier, before we got started about the some of the guitar licks and nowhere bar. And I'm thinking,
they didn't really have to do that. That was kind of cool. That was a little cool little accent
there. And it just and then I went back and watched the videos. And I encourage everybody,
if you find a song you like, whether it's crazy about country, or we went south, pair it up
with the video, and you're gonna be wanting to hear some new music from Dan, I think Dan,
you got the goods. And I hope that this episode helps you reach a few more people
from across the country, maybe some people that don't even live in a hotbed area for this type
of music. And but they've realized, I kind of like some of this stuff. Follow that feeling,
lean into that. This is me speaking to the listeners. But Dan, we've been talking for a
while, we could go on and on, I don't want to tie you up all night. And I would love to see you
perform live. But I understand it is a unique challenge this day and age to pull that off.
It's not impossible. And I play shows all the time in town. It's definitely not possible. It's just
to do you know, a tour is different from from a show, if that makes sense. But I you know,
yeah, if you're ever in Nashville, let me know. And obviously, you know, if I'm announcing stuff
outside, you know, going on the road, you will definitely see and whoever follows me on social
media will see. Now I saw that you guys did play a festival this past summer, the Barefoot Country
Music Fest. Correct, correct. Yeah, that was that was great. Because that was back in my hometown.
Well, near near Philly, it was at the Jersey Shore. So pretty much a hometown show. And it was it was
really awesome. That I mean, that's a whole that's, you know, flying out there and getting all that
taken care of. So it's it's it's an endeavor, but it's obviously worth it. And to have family and
friends come see me and it was it was great. Okay, Dan. Well, hey, I'll always wrap up with
just some off the wall questions. Sure. Okay. Being from Philadelphia, are you rooting for the
Phillies in the playoffs? Of course, I just heard that they were in the wild card recently. I,
you know, haven't been keeping up with it much this season. But I'm very glad, obviously. I mean,
hopefully we can win some kind of championship this year. We were in the World Series last year
and the MLS finals and the Super Bowl, and we didn't win a single thing. So that's always
heartbreaking. Feel like Philly sports were always like in the mix. And every now and then we get it,
but not as much as we should. How do you feel about Travis Kelsey? I guess he and Taylor are a pair.
Yeah, I mean, good for him. But I wish I wish he was dating his brother. So the Eagles were getting
that effect. I saw somewhere, Mark Cuban, like, sit like, I think posted on Twitter online,
someone sent to me and said, Hey, you know, Taylor, whenever you guys break up, I got a lot of handsome
single rich guys on the Mavericks for you. So because he owns the Dallas Mavericks. And but no,
I think it's amazing. You know, we love her hater, you know, her her power is undeniable. And it's
really, really incredible. And if I could even have a fraction of that, it's not about fame,
it's just a fraction of that sort of influence. And, you know, people listen, listening to what
I do is in wanting to hear my music, that would be incredible. Well, I think that you'll get there,
I really do. I think it's just a matter of probably if somebody speaking up for you,
and introducing you another musician saying, Hey, all you guys who listen to me, you need to check
out Dan Harrison, I keep returning to you giving what I would say clearance to guys and girls who
didn't grow up listening to country. And then on top of that, you've got an office authenticity
that comes across in your songwriting and in the videos. I appreciate it, man. That means a lot in
because that's certainly the intention. Okay, Dan favorite ice cream flavor, probably cookies and
cream. But I find myself having vanilla or mint, one of those two mint chocolate chip. But I find
myself having vanilla a lot just because it's a really good base for you know, if you want to
mix it with anything. Dan, did you ever have a gerbil? Did you ever have a guinea pig? Did you
ever have a little a little turtle or mouse or something? I did have two turtles actually,
at one point, I don't remember why I got them or when it was I like had to been kindergarten,
first grade. They were and I remember they were named Bob and David and very creative names, and
they died at some point. I don't remember why or what I think I fed them. So they're very,
very tiny though. I had a hamster one time and I came back from vacation. We were gone for a week.
I came back and my dog had had eaten it. Oh my gosh, that yeah. Whoa, that was not nice. That was
I don't like that. Dan, what's something you like to watch when you're just trying to decompress
and you're like, all right, I'm gonna put something on the rest of development. That's like I've seen
that so many times. So in terms of something to like throw on that I don't need to think too hard
about and I can kind of come in and out of definitely something like that or like a family guy
or South Park comedy shows like that. But I'm a big Star Wars guy too. So I love throwing on
any of those things. And I'm kind of in the midst of watching Clone Wars and Rebels and all those
all those things, all the animated stuff from the expanded universe that I actually didn't watch.
Like I always loved Star Wars and watched all the movies, but I never, I just never got into the
and I just didn't like the CGI I think when it first came out. But I like once you get used to
it and it's really great stuff and a lot of the stuff that they're putting out is kind of now is
kind of inspired by that era. So like the Ahsoka show that's out right now. So it's cool to dive
back into that and kind of get the backstory. Well, Dan, this has been terrific. I got a bunch
of other questions, but we'll save it for another time. Would you come back on the show long after
you've made it to the top and left this episode in the dust? Would you still remember Dan time?
Oh, I'd love to. Yeah. And I hope you're one of the you're right up there with Joe Rogan by that
time. Yeah, absolutely. I'd love to. All right. Well, thanks for making time here, Dan. This has
been a pleasure. And folks, remember, if you're in a rut, you feel like there's something bigger
out there for you. If you feel like you've been in this town long enough and it's you're tired of
the cold, you're tired of the snow and you see go put a plan together and get out. If you just want
to move across town, if you want to leave that dead end job, stop thinking about it. Do it. Dan,
I wish you nothing but the best. I wish you all the success in the world. And thanks for appearing
on the show. I appreciate you having me. I do. Thank you. All right. Anything else you'd like to
plug? I didn't mention the website, but I will link it any podcast or anything you'd like to plug
as far as Dan here is the music. I'm putting out another new song in a couple of weeks. I haven't
announced it yet, but I'm going to be announcing it very soon. I think by the time I don't know
when you'll have this podcast out, but it might already be out or at least announced. It's called
So Far So Good. And it's another song that's kind of about my story. Yeah. So I'm putting that out
soon and I got a bunch of new music coming out next year as well. I'm really excited about and
just keeping keeping the train rolling and hopefully snowballing everything. Full steam ahead.
Yeah. All right. Well, you guys have a great week and we will see you next Sunday on Dan Time.
All right. Thank you so much.
Hey, if you really enjoy that episode, please take a minute to download and subscribe. You can
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