Daniel Greeson

The latest release from Patuxent Records’ astounding youth movement is a self-titled fiddle album from Jamestown, NC bowman Daniel Greeson. For a musician not yet 18 years old, Mr. Greeson displays a remarkable command of bluegrass fiddle, and of the classic tunes and sterling players who have defined it.

In fact, one remarkable thing about this record is the degree to which it resembles the sort of fiddle albums that were popular in 1970s, long before Daniel was born. There are no fancy arrangements, tricky endings, or showy vocals. Just grab a handful of D (or A or G), wind ‘er up, and let ‘er go.

You can’t get far in bluegrass fiddle without Bill Monroe, and Daniel includes six of his tunes. Double fiddle from Casey Driscoll, another young virtuoso from the Washington State school of fiddle, helps out on The Old Brown County Barn, Roanoke and Panhandle Country, all performed with precision and panache. They even add a third fiddle to Panhandle Country, replicating Monroe’s original cut.

Daniel does an admirable, all-fiddle version of Jerusalem Ridge and one of Monroe’s more complicated tunes, Wheel Hoss. No shrinking violet, this young Greeson.

Clearly Greeson has studied the great Kenny Baker, who many feel recorded the definitive versions of Monroe’s music. The album closes with Dry and Dusty, one closely associated with Kenny which was used as the title cut of one of his albums in 1973. You hear Kenny clearly again here on Big Sandy River which he wrote with Monroe.

Benny Martin gets his due as well, with a fine take on his Martin’s Waltz, plus a brilliant, swingy rendition of Twinkle Little Star, one he was fond of playing. As does Bobby Hicks in a nice reading of Snowflake Reel with it’s oddball flat 6 chord.

Rounding out the project are familiar favorites Sally Goodin, Cattle In The Cane, and Two O’Clock plus a new tune from Frank Maloy, Magic Melody Reel.

An equally remarkable aspect of this record is the degree of talent on display by such young pickers. Greeson is assisted here by Brennen Ernst on banjo, and Taylor Baker on mandolin. They all three look too young to grow a beard, but can each execute traditional bluegrass music like they’ve been at it for decades. And Tom Mindte at Patuxent keeps finding them and introducing us to them on his label.

Ernst plays his banjo following the lead of Don Reno as much as anyone else, which you can hear clearly on the second part of Wheel Hoss, and as he melds Don’s Dixie Breakdown into Big Sandy River. Baker’s mandolin is a bit more on the modern side, smooth and clear as a bell. Taylor has two previous projects on Patuxent, and Brennen currently performs with Karl Shiflett. Expect these two men to leave a mark on our music, just as Greeson is likely to do.

A pair of old guys fill out the session band, with Danny Knicely on guitar and Marshall Wilborn on bass. Danny also plays second mandolin and third fiddle on Panhandle Country.

Every track here is full of life and excitement, and some mighty fine picking. If you like to hear young artists embracing the traditions that have been handed down, you can’t go wrong with Daniel Greeson. - Bluegrass Today-John Lawless

DANIEL GREESON
Patuxent Music- CD-254
Greeson first came to many folks’ attention with his work on the Close Kin project, Close Kin: Our Roots Run Deep. His chops are quite prevalent there, but, here, they are front and foremost. His tone is full and his intonation is spot-on. He gets all of the notes he needs, and he doesn’t play the ones that don’t need played. He shows more taste than most, including some well-established fiddlers. His backup band is up to the task, including the very talented banjo player, Brennen Ernst, Taylor Baker on mandolin, Marshall Wilborn on bass, Danny Knicely on guitar, mandolin, and fiddle, and Casey Driscoll on fiddle.

This is a program of bluegrass fiddle classics drawing from all of the renowned sources including Monroe, Bob Wills, Howdy Forrester, Benny Martin, and Kenny Baker. The young man wielding the bow here is accomplished and takes on each tune with skill and ease. “The Old Brown County Barn,” one of Monroe’s numerous tunes, kicks things off. Another highlight is the high-riding Frank Malloy tune, “Magic Melody Reel.” Fine versions of “Jerusalem Ridge” and “Snowflake Reel” show off this young fiddler’s talents. Casey Driscoll joins him on second fiddle for four numbers, where they nearly get as many harmony notes as Bobby Hicks does on “Maiden’s Prayer.” Taylor Baker’s mandolin is always tasteful, as is Danny Knicely’s guitar playing. The added treat is hearing the highly-articulated banjo playing of Brennen Ernst. He captures the melody completely with an uncommon discretion. His playing is reminiscent of other underrated banjo talents such as Tommy Neal and Kyle Dean Smith, both masters of the melody, while driving the tune with authority. This is a fine recording by a promising young talent. We should certainly be hearing much more from this young man. (Patuxent Music, P.O. Box 572, Rockville, MD 20848, www.pxrec.com.)RCB

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 1st, 2015 at 12:01 am and is filed under Reviews. - Bluegrass Unlimited

Daniel Greeson has been playing bluegrass fiddle since he was very young. Daniel at age 16 has already been noted as an accomplished musician. He has won many prestigious competitions. In 2010 he won the Youth Bluegrass Fiddle Divisions at three different competitions including the Galax and Mt. Airy Fiddler’s Conventions. He also won 1st place in the Adult Fiddle category at Happy Valley Fiddler’s Convention. The following year, in 2011, he won the Adult Bluegrass Fiddle category at several competitions, two of which were Mt. Airy and Ashe County Fiddler’s Conventions in North Carolina. He also earned the 2011 Champion Youth Bluegrass Fiddler title at the Fiddler’s Grove Competition. Daniel has placed in the top 5 of the Traditional Category at IBMA’s Grand Master Fiddler Championship in 2011 and 2012. He has placed 1st in Adult Fiddle Categories at Seagrove and won the 2012 Fiddler’s Grove Twin Fiddle Competition with JAM-Junior Appalachian Musicians’ Founder- Helen White. In 2013 he placed in the top 3 at Galax Adult Bluegrass Fiddle and 1st at Ashe Co in Bluegrass and Old Time Fiddle and at Happy Valley Fiddlers Conventions in both adult bluegrass fiddle and mandolin. He has established a name for himself at fiddler’s conventions throughout North Carolina and Virginia, competing in both adult and youth divisions.
Daniel’s resume holds more than just contest wins. He participated in Galax’s JAM program in 2007 and 2008. This entailed weekly trips to Galax to play music with other young people from the region. “It was a great experience to play with others,” he says of the program. This program opened the door for him to play on a song on the CD Christmas Along the Crooked Road. This recording includes artists such as Gerald Anderson, Wayne Henderson, Jimmy Edmonds, Steve Lewis, Josh Scott, Jeff Little, Spencer Strickland, and Helen White. Daniel says “It was an honor to work with all those accomplished musicians.” He currently performs with a youth band out of Virginia called OLDGRASS. In 2010, they won first place in the Youth Band category at Galax. In 2011 he travelled to Oklahoma as part of the 4-H Talent Revue. He was one of only two youths from North Carolina chosen to attend. Aside from keeping a busy music schedule, Daniel is a Junior - at Southern Guilford’s Medical Technology Academy where he plays golf. During the golf season, Daniel described his schedule as “One day it’s golf, the next day it’s fiddle.” From playing his first fiddle to winning an abundance of fiddler’s conventions, Daniel Greeson is a seasoned musician in the bluegrass world at only 16 years old. - Mountain Roads Recordings

Every parent's natural inclination, when discovering their offspring has a modicum of musical talent, is to immediately think of the word “prodigy.” If around age 5 or 6, said child can carry a tune or pick out a melody on piano, their career path is immediately set, as stardom is but a few years away. Instruments are purchased, rehearsal times are mandated, and lessons ensue.
And, typically, by the time the child enters puberty, he or she has either made the instrument an object of self-amusement or put it away entirely.
Yet, occasionally a child comes along that lives up to or even exceeds his parents' lofty yet unrealistic expectations. If one out of a hundred youngsters doesn't lose interest and does go on to great acclaim, Daniel Greeson may well be that one. At age 12, he's already on his way.
Daniel, son of Jamestown residents Russell and Elizabeth Greeson, picked up the violin - or as it's known in bluegrass parlance, fiddle - at age 6. And since then hardly a day has gone by when he hasn't had it tucked under his chin, bow in hand, fingers moving deftly up and down the fretboard.
Oh, maybe it wasn't so deftly at first, but mom Elizabeth, who works in administration for Guilford County Schools, says it took about a year for her younger of two sons to make the quantum leap into actual musicianship.
“It was about a year before he got good,” she said last Wednesday. “But it just kicked in all of a sudden one day.”
Daniel takes weekly lessons from well-known fiddler J.B. Prince, himself a prodigy who won so many contests at the Union Grove Fiddlers Convention in the '70s that the organizers asked him not to come back because he was discouraging the other contestants.
“Daniel is the youngest student J.B.'s ever taught,” said dad Russell. “He was hesitant at first, worried that a 6 year old couldn't keep his attention for 30 minutes.”
“J.B.'s a great teacher and an amazing fiddle player,” added Daniel. “He lives right across the street from my school (Aycock Middle), so it's really worked out great. I'm very fortunate to have him.”
Three springs ago the Greesons collectively decided that Daniel was advanced enough to begin entering some contests at the various fiddlers conventions and bluegrass festivals scattered around the Southeast. He consistently placed in the top five among his peers, taking a fifth at Galax, third at Yadkinville twice and second at Seagrove twice. And this spring he scored his first blue ribbon, taking first place at Mt. Airy.
“I didn't do too well my first time there,” he said, “so I really wasn't expecting to win. Third would've been fine with me, and when they called out my name I figured it was for third. So that was a real blessing.”
The young musician does more than take lessons, practice and enter contests, however. While enrolled in the Appalachian Juniors Program in Galax, VA, he was befriended by a group needing a fiddle player, and the band Generation Gap - so named because it consists of three adults, Daniel and a young lady a few years older than him, Stephanie Gibson, on banjo - was born.
“They were in my jam class,” said Daniel, “and I guess they took a liking to me. A few months later they called me and asked me if I wanted to be in their band and, of course, I did.”
Added Russell, “That allows them to enter contests as a group, not just as an individual, and that's important. He needs that experience of being in a group, because that's when it all comes together. Most of the time he just sits there with those walls, learning the songs J.B.'s taught him. It's hard finding kids his age who like that type of music, but Galax is full of them.”
The young fiddler also plays the first Saturday of every month with the Farlow Family Band.
“We get together with them at Snider Farms in Sophia,” noted Daniel. “We pick at a restaurant there, and all the proceeds go to the Victory Junction Gang (a camp for terminally and chronically ill children founded by Kyle and Patti Petty). There's a big Richard Petty race car tire there and they fill it up with money.”
Realizing that they do have a legitimately talented child (the parents do not use the word “prodigy”) on their hands, the Greesons have struck the right balance between being supportive and overbearing, taking great pains to ensure that he has a balanced, normal life. Daniel has been
in the Spanish immersion program at Aycock since kindergarten, is active in their church, Oakdale United Methodist, and seems to be taking an interest in sports.
“We look at his instrument like it's a sport,” said his dad. “It's something kids do to get involved with and stay busy with. If a kid plays baseball or soccer or any sport and goes on to get good enough to play professionally, that's great, that's outstanding, but if not, it's something they'll always have with them.”
At that, Daniel turned to his dad and asked, “What if I want to become a pro baseball player?” to which Dad simply nodded his approval.
Obviously talented, in love with his instrument and with bluegrass music, Daniel nonetheless harbors no starry-eyed illusions about fame and fortune.
“J.B.'s told me that being a professional musician is not an easy life, particularly in bluegrass,” said Daniel. “I plan to go on to college, but I do believe music will always be a part of it. I've always wanted to play professionally, but I don't know what will happen. I'll let it take me as far it as can and we'll just see where it goes. But either way I think I'll be OK.”
Whether a hobbyist or a pro, one gets the feeling that Daniel Greeson will do well in whatever avenue he pursues in life. - Jamestown News-Ogi Overman

Jamestown's Daniel Greeson found his calling as a bluegrass fiddler. - Greensboro News and Record