Austin, Texas-based folk-Americana singer-songwriter Danny Schmidt has announced details of a UK tour next month in support of his new album ‘Standard Deviation’ which we described as a collection of “songs of the troubadour, the worldly-wise minstrel, sung with strength, intelligence and insightfulness” and a “lyrical work of art.”
The album is Schmidt’s tenth studio record, and the second independent release since leaving Americana roots label Red House Records. The new songs have the same sort of lyrical complexity that has distinguished Schmidt’s earlier work, but this time they’re draped in the ear-candy production of strings and steel guitars and ethereal harmonies.
It tackles some difficult themes and subjects, from gentrification to infertility, radical honesty to quantum entanglement. But more than any other, the themes of fatherhood and family weave through the record, as Schmidt recently became a first time father, sparking meditations on human connectedness, and on the transformation of identity into the role of Papa, and on the blinding love released by that process.
Named in the Chicago Tribune’s 50 Most Significant Songwriters in the Last 50 Years, Schmidt has amassed a cult following for his poetic lyrics, with comparisons made to Leonard Cohen and Townes Van Zandt, and with fantastical narratives reminiscent of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Salman Rushdie.
Danny Schmidt UK Dates 2019
Fri 3 – Winchester, The Hyde Tavern
Mon 6 – Hawick, Scottish Borders, String Theory @ The Heart of Hawick
Tue 7 – Edinburgh, House Concert
Wed 8 – Glasgow, Glad Café
Thu 9 – Abington, South Lanarkshire, The Wee Gig, 85 Carlisle Road
Fri 10 – Kirton-in-Lindsey, Lincs., Town Hall Live
Sat 11 – Cambridge, Studio concert, 5th Studio
Sun 12 – Whitstable, Whitstable Sessions @ St Mary’s Hall (Umbrella Centre)
Mon 13 – High Wycombe, Kingsmead House Concerts
Tue 14 – London, Green Note @ The Water Rats
Wed 15 – Crawley, The Hawth
