Danielle Lyn

Danielle Lyn has only been performing since June.

By Sarah Poulton

WARREN — Her raspy and out-of-pitch rendition of Aerosmith’s “Cryin’” hurt enough to make Steven Tyler bawl his eyes out, but Danielle Lyn could certainly belt out her originals.

The 20-year-old singer from Struthers has been recording since January, and released her EP “76 West” at ruKus, The Festival.

Her Jewel meets Blondie sound matches her punk-pop look and she sounds great as long as she doesn't try to sing metal. For being new to the scene, Danielle Lyn is someone you'll remember.

Danielle Lyn said she started recording in January and played her first show in June at The Cellar with Joe Bonnamossa, a blues guitarist. So far, she’s been doing 30-minute sets, but she hopes to make them longer and have more originals in time for VexFest IV.

For now, she's still writing and recording with her drummer and producer, Jason Levis. The former Cherry Monroe drummer helped her form the band and co-writes the melodies. She said she writes all of the lyrics, but struggles with the melodies because she is still learning the guitar.

“I'd have all these melodies in my head,” Danielle said. “I'd just kind of sing it out and he'd play it for me.”

Danielle said she had a blast at ruKus because she was singing for a great cause — the Hattie Larlham Foundation — and got a chance to see a lot of her friends. She said some of them, she hasn't seen in more than a year, but near or far, they are always supportive of her.

“We all used to go to a lot of concerts together,” Danielle said. “Now, they're coming to mine. It's awesome.”

Moe Angelo, The Kellys bassist, said he discovered Danielle through his wife. He said this was the first time he met her in person, and was excited about her involvement in ruKus.

“She’s done a really great job in promoting this thing,” Angelo said. “She is really different for this area. I enjoy it.”

Danielle said she'd never pass up the chance to play live, but ruKus was special.

“I think it's awesome,” Danielle said about the festival. “There's not too many things like this in Youngstown. I was excited about the benefit part.”

Like most bands at ruKus, Danielle Lyn brought her following. But instead of them driving to Warren from Youngstown or Niles, they came from Chicago and North Carolina.

Angela DaCorte of Crete, Ill., outside Chicago, spent nine hours in a car to see Danielle sing. DaCorte said she’s known Danielle for about two years — they met during a roadtrip to Pittsburgh with mutual friends.

“She’s a really talented, sweet girl,” DaCorte said. “I love her and I hope she’s a big star someday.”

Jennie Lanning from North Carolina flew into Philadelphia, then drove for six hours to see her friend. Lanning said she met Danielle at an Ingram Hill concert in Pittsburgh.

“I was pretty blown away,” Lanning said.



Comments
By JDLKLL ( anonymous )
on July 29, 2007 at 10:56 a.m.

I think Danielle Lyn did an awesome job! Getting better with every single show!

By scriptohio02 ( anonymous )
on July 29, 2007 at 11:36 a.m.

The show finally started when she took the stage. A+... including "Cryin".

By orley75 ( anonymous )
on July 29, 2007 at 2:40 p.m.

Danielle Lyn rocked the house. She did a great job on Cryin. She was the best act there.

By aviewfromtheback ( anonymous )
on July 30, 2007 at 12:06 a.m.

ruKus the festival was great and so was Danielle Lyn. She did great on "cryin" and I wish we could have heard more.

- valley24.com

By BILL RODGERS Tribune Chronicle


WARREN — Ten local bands will play at the Warren Community Amphitheatre Saturday afternoon, but they’re not even charging a dime for admission.

After months of organizing and fundraising accented by intermittent freakouts, Moe Angelo of indie rock group The Kellys has pulled off his dream of hosting a large festival in the amphitheatre of his hometown. Saturday’s ‘‘Rukus, The Festival,’’ will feature 10 local rock bands as well as area artists.

‘‘We’re trying to showcase talent in this area that doesn’t get showcased ever or hardly ever,’’ Angelo said. ‘‘I’ve been talking about it for a while, ‘Oh, let’s do something big! Let’s do something big!’ Now it’s finally coming together.’’

The afternoon-long concert begins at 1 p.m. and is free to attend, but volunteers will be taking donations for the Hattie Larlham foundation of Mantua, which provides housing, vocations and other services for adults and children with mental retardation and developmental disabilities.

Angelo helps manage vocational services for the foundation, specifically Hattie’s Cafe in Hudson. The cafe employs eight people with disabilities, according to the foundation’s Web site.

‘‘Yeah, the concert is free, but — hey — have a heart,’’ he said.

Painters, jewelers and photographers will be representing the area arts community at the festival. Angelo (bass) and Kelly McCracken (lead vocals) of Warren’s The Kellys said they brought together bands they’ve played shows with, were established in the area or were just getting started and showed some promise.

The amphitheatre, McCracken said, gives local musicians a chance to take their acts out of the late-night bar scene and into a different atmosphere. She said bands could use the outdoor venue to reach a new audience with families and children in a kind of summer fun, Woodstock-like environment.

Some bands playing in the festival echoed McCracken’s feelings. The Foo Fighters-sounding band Dimstarshining of Youngstown will be playing one of its final shows at the venue before two members move away, guitarist Noll Hartman said.

‘‘This is one of our grand finales. We’re excited to get in front of a new crowd and blast a couple more times this year,’’ said Hartman.

Danielle Lyn, whose band is a mixture of pop-rock and soul, feels the same way about the park venue. Angelo said Lyn had been working hard to promote the concert. It will be her first big show, she said.

‘‘It’s really exciting,’’ she said. ‘‘I think it’s cool that the show is free and it’s not something people can go out and do every day. Warren looks like a cool venue.’’

Khaled Tabbara, frontman of The Zou of Youngstown, said he has visited the amphitheatre and sees a lot of potential for the venue.

‘‘The first time I saw it, I said ‘Man, they must have some awesome concerts.’ Someone told me, ‘No, there’s not really a lot of rock going on here.’ I was disappointed, so it’s cool that we can use that space,’’ he said.

After filing paperwork, snagging bands to play the show, and raising money to pay the necessary city employees to staff the event, Angelo said he committed himself to the project in the attempt to bring something different to the amphitheatre.

In the same vein, that is what Howland-native Mariano Longo is trying to do with ‘‘Generation Us’’ at the amphitheatre on Aug. 3. Longo, a Howland High School graduate, has worked in Las Vegas for the past 13 years as a conductor-arranger for artists such as 1960s pop star Gary Puckett.

The Kellys will play at Longo’s concert while backed by a 30 piece orchestra. They will share the stage with Puckett and R&B singer Treasure Guffy. Longo told the Tribune Chronicle he drove through Warren seeing boarded up buildings and was struck by the amphitheatre in the park. He said he wanted to use the concert with the new venue to bridge generations and cultures in the city. Longo wrote orchestral pieces for songs performed by The Kellys. Angelo remembered seeing Longo with three big books of sheet music built for their songs. Longo played keyboard mock-ups of how it would sound for the August concert, and Angelo said he was instantly thankful they had rehearsals with the orchestra before the show.

Comparing it to a movie score, Angelo said he couldn’t imagine being confronted with something like that for the first time while on stage trying to perform it.

‘‘It sounds tremendous,’’ McCracken said.

The Kellys will be rehearsing with the orchestra after they play second stage at an Incubus concert in Cleveland on Aug. 1. The Kellys took second place in Project Rockstar, an Ohio battle-of-the-bands type contest sponsored by Guitar Center and the House of Blues. All three events are huge for McCracken, who said Incubus was her favorite band.

‘‘I could pass away the next day (after opening for Incubus) and it would be good for me,’’ she said.

‘‘No,’’ Angelo corrected her. ‘‘No. The next day we h - The Tribune-Chronicle

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Her family told her to give her career her all or go back to school.

By JOHN BENSON
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

Fledgling singer-songwriter Danielle Lyn may have called her debut release, "The 76 West EP," but perhaps "The 76 West to 71 South EP" would have been more apropos, considering the 2005 Struthers High School graduate appears destined for Nashville sooner or later.

Influenced by a unique mixture of Marc Broussard, Jonny Lang, Aerosmith and Hanson (hey, we all have guilty pleasures!), Lyn has been champing at the bit over the past few years in preparation for this moment.

"I'd go out and do cover songs at local clubs and bars when I was 16," said Lyn, 20. "They'd allow me to do it, but it was weird because I wasn't doing any of my own stuff. And then after I graduated from high school, I went to Youngstown State University, and I was just always distracted. I just really wanted to try to go out and do this myself."

After three semesters at YSU, in which she switched her major from journalism to communications, Lyn finally decided to pursue her dream earlier this year. More importantly, she had her family's blessing.

"They're super-supportive, and were kind of pushing me to do it more than anything else," Lyn said. "They were the ones who said, 'If you want to really go for it, we'll help you out. But if you're going to stop going to school and working on this full-time, you really have to put your all into it, or you're going back to school.' So that's why now it's just been nonstop. I'm doing everything I can and seeing what happens."

Lyn's ride began earlier this year when she teamed up with 10th Street Productions producer Jason Levis (formerly of Cherry Monroe) and started writing material that would eventually become "The 76 West EP." Among the tracks are the bluesy "So Done" and the collaboration with CBS Records artist Keaton Simons on "The Way She Lives."

Band link-up
Earlier this summer Lyn found herself a backing band, which has already played a handful of live dates. In fact, the act is scheduled to perform at the Mahoning River Blues Festival on Saturday.

"I'm hoping that we fit in there," Lyn said. "I've always been really influenced by blues, and our music is something new. There's not really anything out around Youngstown like what we're doing. There are a lot of local bands that are really good, but everyone is kind of in one genre, and we're out there doing all kinds of different stuff."

With live shows planned around the region, including a Dallas show in October, Lyn is hoping to attract label interest, and, specifically, Music City label interest. Though stardom may be elusive, Lyn appears to be moving in the right direction. In high school, she was voted not only the most likely to be famous but also the most talented.

Whether it's expectation, desire or a mix of the two, Lyn is ready for whatever the future holds.

"I guess my biggest fear would be having to go backwards, go back to school and get a 9-to-5 job," Lyn said. "I never thought I was fit to do that. I've always been one of those people who was really into traveling and just being out there and doing something different every day.

"My biggest fear is definitely having an ordinary life, and being forced to do that. So I'm crossing my fingers."
- The Youngstown Vindicator

If Youngstown native Danielle Lyn has it her way, it will not be too far down the road before she is out on a national tour promoting a full length album.

Lyn’s debut release, The 76 West EP, is rather impressive, composing of five soulful and honest tracks. The release may only be five tracks, but don’t let that fool you... each song is distinct and showcases the versatility of Danielle’s vocal range.

Overall, The 76 West EP is an applaudable debut and is recommended for fans of soulful rock and the occasional acoustic guitar.

Youngstown Source Rating: 3.5/5 - YoungstownSource.com