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Bootsie Daniels marks 60th with tunes, fun
Bootsie Danielsis turning 60 on Friday, and he plans to celebrate Motown style.
Playing soulful oldies and some originals, Daniels will celebrate and perform at Floyd's Lounge with his band.
That's all he can tell you for now.
"I think my wife planned some-thing, my children planned something and they won't tell me what's going on, he said.
He's been on stage for 49 years now, even playing with music greats Otis Redding and Little Richard.
"I started in 1957 in Roanoke, Virginia," he said. I was 11 years old.
A Roanoke native, Daniels
began singing under the street lights, a popular place at the time. By the time he was 14, he had moved on to bands.
At 16, he became lead singer for Virginia's premier soul band, The Rhythm Makers of Lexington, and by 20, he headed for Ohio to tour on the music network, join- ing up with bands such as "The Years People" and "Bootsie and the Tangerray's."
It was a whirlwind from there, and Daniels soon found himself sharing the stage with music phe-nomenons Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Edwin Starr, The Drifters, The Coasters, Little Richard, The Tams, The Showman and Rufus Thomas.
Daniels spent the 1980's with group Wallace Redd & The Redd jazz ensemble.
But he couldn't stay away from his home state too long, and in 1990, Daniels came back and soon settle in the Staunton area. He joined Flashback before forming his own group, Bootsie Daniels and Smack Dab in 1998
The group was honored, awarded the Black Music Band Award of the Year in 2003. Today, his group, The Bootsie Daniels Band, travels with-in 100-mile radius of Staunton performing at places like Mulligans, Kathy's Lounge, the Clock Tower Tavern and more.
"I have excellent musicians with me now," Daniels said.
He encourages everyone to come out and help him celebrate another successful year.
"Not only help me celebrate my birthday but have a good time too." - The Staunton News Leader
Discography
The Don't You Ever be Afraid CD has radio airplay in Alaska on Wholewheat Radio, Belgium, Japan, England, France, & Scotland.
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Bio
Born, November 17, 1946 in Roanoke, Va. The year was 1957 when I started my singing career, and it was also a time that (Roanoke) the star city of the south played host to some of the most talented & gifted young black entertainers in the recording business, they needed someplace to show-case their talent, and Roanoke, Va was that place. I grew up in that era listening to James Brown, Otis Redding, Jackie Wilson, Wilson Pickett, Little Richard, & Wilbur Harrison and a few good local bands. With so many influential artist into R&B & soul music at that time, one could only hope to imitate their every move when they were on stage. I remember the very first time that I heard Sam Cooke sing (A Change is Gonna Come). I was hooked and I said, I wanted to sing like that. Sam Cooke would sing his songs with such passion and smoothness in his voice, and he pronounciated his words so crisply that there is little wonder why his music is still loved today by so many people, young and old. I must admit, I was one of the fortunate ones in our do-wop singing group to have a mother who played piano and sang, she loved all kinds of music from gospel to R&B & soul. My parents housed a many a seasoned artist as well as the up & coming young black artist. They came from all over to perform at the star city Auditorium. Many of the artist would sleep in their cars when they came to town, and when lady luck was on their side they would find someone willing to let them spend an evening at their homes until show time, and that was a plus. In those days Recording artist had it pretty tough because they did'nt have a long list of hotels & motels to choose from, nor did they have a string of venues lined up to play when they came to town, unlike today's recording artist. The only black owned & operated hotel in town was The Dumas Hotel located on Henry St. aka Frist St. Better known as (THE YARD) to the locals, and when the Dumas Hotel was full, the tired performers slept any-where they could, when the show was over. The majority of the people that ran the hotels & motels in Roanoke were white, and though not all of them were prejudice, they did not have a choice but to turn away the black artist, because they were told by the hotel owners, who could stay, and who could not stay. If they disobeyed, they were fired on the spot. That's the way it was in those days. One of the main reason's today why we play soul music & oldies, is to take our Audience down memory lane. We play originals to express our selves through our music. In the 60s oppertunity to open shows for a lot of R&B pioneers. Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Little Richard, The Tams, The Drifters and many other acts, doing that and performing since age 11 gives me the passion and drive to perform today. When I was on stage with the pioneers of R&B & soul music, I was told to never hold back anything give the people what they came there for. If you did hold back, you would hear about it.
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