Danny Beirne has been around the block. He has played for two U.S. presidents, opened and/or played with numerous internationally renowned entertainers (view list), released three albums with his east coast-based band, Skip Castro, in the 1980's, worked in the early 1990's with MCA recording artist Tommy Conwell, whose song I'm Not Your Man, was a number 1 hit, had a solo career blossom and thrive in the new millennium with the releases of two highly acclaimed CDs, and he just keeps going. He continues to wow concert and club audiences with his infectious, expressive singing, his powerhouse piano-playing, and a manic, carefree stage persona.
How do you describe Danny's performance? Arresting? How about mind boggling? Devastating? Suffice it to say that Danny never fails to turn heads when he steps up to the keyboard. He has a dead-on, take-no-prisoners approach to the piano that is at once zany, gonzo, melodically brilliant, chordally dense, and rhythmically mesmerizing. Like the jazz and blues greats to whom he so frequently draws comparisons, after you've heard him play, you instantly recognize his style. To watch and listen to Danny build a piano solo from a few carefully chosen licks through some hypnotically inspired chops to a lightning-fast, banging crescendo is to be born again with a new belief in an awesome, as yet fairly unknown talent.
Danny's uniquely expressive singing style is simultaneously articulate and soulful. He feels the lyric and tackles his melodic chores with gutsy abandon. His vocal style is fearless, abrasive, yet can mellow to a breathy yearning with his quieter ballads.
Then there is the breadth of Danny's song-writing style, or should we say, styles. In his catalog he has left virtually no musical genre's stone unturned. Danny has written in the country, rock & roll, pop, alternative rock, blues, soul, swing, and even the spiritual traditions with artistic éclat and a sincerity rarely seen in today's music scene. Danny weaves these diverse styles into a stunning musical fabric all his own. His songs run the gamut of the human emotional experience (it makes sense that by the sheer number in his repertoire - untold hundreds including a rock opera penned in his early teens - he ranges from songs of pure joy to cries of despair) but running through them all is a sense of strong pop melody and soul.
Lastly, something about Danny's appearance begs to be mentioned. It is wild, sometimes demonic, then a moment later blatantly clownish. His crazy, curly red locks are an instant attention grabber, an immediate point of interest.
