|
About Danny |
|
Danny has played guitar in Southern California for over 35 years. He has played, toured and recorded with some of the best musicians on the national and the local scene; Chris Gaffney, Dave Alvin, Walter Trout, Mike Reilly, Gregg Allman, Greg Leisz, John Doe, Jim Lauderdale, Rick Shea, Doug Livingston, Danny Timms, Garth Hudson, Joe Walsh, Wyman Reese, Walter Clevenger, Tracy Huffman, Patty Booker and Gary Brandin. Danny is available for professional recording projects. |
OC WeeklyBest of OC 2004 Five Essential OC Guitar Players1. Junior Watson. If there is any reason for people to still be playing blues, it is in the hope that someone as stunningly original as Watson will come along. The Stanton-based wonder is a master of every shade of blues and a number of other styles, but in the jazz-infused West Coast jump style, he’s carved his own unique niche—with a buzz saw. A Watson solo is the equivalent of Albert Einstein throwing up on a roller coaster as it plunges through wormholes in the space-time continuum of musical logic, and we’re talking Einstein after eating a hot pastrami sandwich. 2. Dick Dale. Though the King of the Surf Guitar has pretty much abandoned us for the desert—we hear he’s got a boat in Newport now—he remains the keeper of the definitive OC guitar sound: the reverb-drenched throb that replicates the sensation of a big-ass wave curl enveloping you. Though he’s now older than rope, Dale is still a monster on guitar, playing with an elemental ferocity and unfettered spirit. 3. Danny Ott. In his many years with Chris Gaffney and the Cold Hard Facts, Ott established himself as OC’s best utility player: not just excelling at Bakersfield twang, blistering rock, low-riding R&B, Norteno two-step, and everything else Gaffney threw at him, but also making it all his own with a drive and lyricism unmatched by most stadium-filling guitarists. 4. Rusty Anderson. Speaking of stadiums, Fullerton-raised Anderson used to be the guitar whiz in local bands such as the Living Daylights, and he now tours the world in Paul McCartney’s band. A cosmic coincidence, that: being in a band with the same name as a Bond film and now playing the theme from another one—"Live and Let Die"—nightly with Sir Paul. In case you haven’t noticed, McCartney’s rocking better now than he has in decades, and Rusty’s a spiffy adjunct to that. 5. Matt Barnes. If Jann Browne was Mick, Matt Barnes would be Keith. If she was Anita Pallenberg, he’d still be Keith. Whether it’s coming up with the perfect instrumental hook that tethers Jann’s voice to a song or continuing a lyric’s emotional thread through his string-rolfing solos, he’s the ideal musical co-pilot. I mean, if Jann were Han Solo, he’d be Chewbacca |
|
“He is a great, great, great guitar player.”
-Dave Alvin, The Blasters |
|
“Ott comes off as a guitar hero of the first degree, able to serve up everything from flashing acoustic runs to notes that fall like teardrops on a honky-tonk floor.” “A marvelous player, he has more delicious tones and shadings at his disposal than a gambling cheat has face cards...his sizzling soloing simultaneously rings like a bell and tears like a saw.”
-Mike Boehm, The Los Angeles Time |
|
“Ott’s playing is always strikingly melodic, as economical or wildly expansive as the moment dictates.”
-Randy Lewis, The Los Angeles Times |
|
Video Links (Right click links to open in new tab or window) |
|