Dan Colehour

Biography of Dan Colehour

Dan Colehour has a pausing presence that is at once youthful and wise. His slow humble grin, his strangely patient reflective blue eyes, his naturally fair but sun weathered skin, and his dusty blond mass of lazy curls make it hard to guess if he’s closer to sixteen or sixty-five. There’s not a particular feature that that pegs him as young or old: Dan has the makeup of an old soul in a young body.

Dan’s beautiful songs and voice mirror his physical presence. The human experiences Dan describes in his songs will make you believe he’s on the waning side of living: he and/or his loved ones have endured all the hardships in life that one man can stand. At the same time, the faith he renders in these very same songs will make you believe that your own youth is again at your fingertips, and that anything is possible – especially redemption.

Dan had a variety of influences. He remembers fondly, in first grade, not knowing how to spell the word “cent” but being able to recite all the lyrics to the Beatles “Hey Jude” and Merle Haggard’s “Daddy Frank.” A few years later Dan found new musical inspiration in his older sisters’ tastes, with artists such as Fleetwood Mac, The Eagles, Jackson Browne and Bruce Springsteen, being among his favorites. Dan Colehour’s authenticity comes blaringly across in his songs. Dan grew up in Mt. Vernon, Iowa “among the hogs, the corn, and the grain,” as he puts it. These and more images of life in the Midwest dance in the mind’s eye upon listening to Dan’s beautiful story-telling country-rock songs that he sings with a voice that is passionate, brave, sublime, and sprung directly from his heart.

To make the whole package complete, Dan’s dead-on energetic rhythm guitar playing drives each of his songs like drum playing often drives an entire band. In fact, Dan played the drums in his hometown band until he was 21. At that time, a band mate handed him a guitar and suggested that since Dan was gifted with such an extraordinary voice, he should learn to play a singer’s instrument. Then, Dan says, he “wrote a couple of songs and thought the experience was pretty cool.” That was a lucky day for those of us who love damned good poetic country rock.

Fast forward a few years, and you would have found Dan down in Austin, Texas making the weekly rounds at all the local singer songwriter venues…playing his latest composition for his friends and peers. Eager to learn more about song writing and ultimately follow his real dream of making his own records, Dan pulled up his Texas roots and moved to Nashville. Since moving to Nashville, Dan has had several songs recorded by artists such as Trisha Yearwood, Montgomery Gentry, and Tommy Shane Steiner. Dan himself was signed to DreamWorks Nashville. In 2004, the DreamWorks label underwent some major changes and Dan found a home at Carnival Recording.

Dan tells the truth, his truth, and human truth with his voice and lyrics. He writes what he knows and sings what he knows. That is why his art is so powerful and affective.

It would be great to muse over each and every one of Dan’s songs: each of them is somewhat of an epic tale in itself worthy of in depth exploration. At the same time, all of the feelings Dan evokes in the listener make talking about his songs a bit of a moot point. It’s all there in the approximate three minutes of his performing one song – as an audience member your body grooves to the rhythm of good old country rock like nobody’s played in decades, your heart palpitates with the entire spectrum of forgotten human emotions that Dan so eloquently colors in his songs, and you at once feel younger and wiser. Yes, a little bit of Dan Colehour has sunk into your soul for good, and your mundane, bungled-up, back breaking, heart-wrenching life seems suddenly exquisite, and damned well worth living.