When I last spoke to Danny Schmidt he had just purchased a house with his partner Carrie Elkin. So perhaps it’s no surprise that his latest disc, Man of Many Moons, concerns itself in part to home life.
“A lot of the songs are based on or revolve around domestication and settling down internally and externally,” the songwriter admits. “The house stuff actually happened before we bought the house, so I guess it’s about processing it in your brain before you take action. I was thinking for several months about getting a house together and setting down roots.”
The native Austinite may be settling down, but there’s still a lot of bite in his lyrics, especially in the political commentary of “Guilt By Association Blues” and the follow-up “Almost Round the World,” a tale of miscommunication that will get a nod of recognition from anyone that’s used the internet.
“After I first wrote ‘Guilt By Association Blues’ I made a point to play it a few times in the Netherlands,” Schmidt relates. “I was curious about the language stuff, how they would interpret the colloquial and the slang in there. They are very good at catching complex nuance and symbolism, but they miss some of the slang. So there was a review of one of the shows there that very comically didn’t understand what the point of that song was.
“We have all these different means to communicate so quickly and easily with so many people all over the world. The capacity for miscommunication gets really extreme. It’s like a game of telephone where by the time the message comes back around it’s been totally mutated.”
Schimdt was a New Folk winner at the Kerrville Folk Festival in 2007. He’ll be returning there this weekend for the three-day Wine and Music Festival, sharing the stage with the Band of Heathens, Warren Hood, the Trishas, Sahara Smith, and Michael Fracasso.
“Kerrville is really interesting compared to other festivals in that it’s sort of the community focal point for the region. All festivals have that in common to a degree. Kerrville even more so, because it’s like a village. It’s been a great gateway to the whole Texas songwriter community and has opened all kinds of doors for me. I love going out there.
“There may be people out there whose name you know, but there’s a social aspect. You’ll share a bottle of wine or something and it’s bonding on a lot of levels. Things definitely open up at 3 or 4 in the morning. Things get strange and that’s when most of the magical moments happen, at least for me.
“It’s even better if you can get a hotel room in town, so you can get out of the heat and not lose your mind entirely.”
This article appears in August 26 • 2011.