Kyle Daniel “What’s There To Say?” (Independent, 2019)

Kyle Daniel’s life seems paved with near-misses that turn into gold. The Bowling Green, KY native picked up the guitar out of despair when he broke his leg playing baseball in an all-star junior team. Bitten by the bug, he polished his southern rock chops and took first place in a major blues competition just a couple years later.

He then moved to Tennessee to study music business and snatched a manager position for Taylor Swift’s tour band. That experience left him so sore he prematurely retired from the business side of music and concentrated on the real things: playing guitar and writing songs. He did just that for his next cycle of life, away from the spotlights and in the shadowy corners of Nashville, slinging hot riffs for such acts as Bob Seger and Clare Dunn and penning hundreds of tunes for the Music City microcosm. But Kyle Daniel was not meant to stay behind the scene for too long.

‘What’s There To Say?’, Daniel’s second EP, confirms the dude is a force to be reckoned with in the twang rock world. All songs cut through like a shattered bottle of whisky, laden with steel-gnawing guitar riffs and rock-ribbed vocals. ‘Born To Lose‘ gets the ball rolling with a wall of thunderous guitars and crystalline piano runs, while ‘God Bless America (Damn Rock’n’Roll)‘ deploys all the melodic power of a (good) radio hit. The softer material (‘Somewhere In Between’, ‘What’s There To Say?‘) highlights the velvety nature of Kyle Daniel’s baritone voice, perfectly adorned with grooving bass lines and harmonized layers of guitar reminiscent of Cinnamon Girl-era Neil Young. Then how come Daniel’s music sounds as fresh as mountain dew? Perhaps because his composition is rich and truthful, written with blood from his veins. And most definitely because good old straight ahead rock’n’roll like Kyle Daniel knows how to serve always sounds hip.