Dan Mahar

Hello babies, please allow me to introduce myself, my name is Dan Mahar. I was born on the south side of Chicago Jan. 18th 1955. I grew up there and elsewhere in the Chicago land area. My early influences came via the Top 40 radio. In my town WLS and WCFL ruled and rocked. I was blessed to be alive and aware during the 60’s when radio played music from artists who leaned heavily on the songwriting craft, good singing and good arrangements. Later on bands with improv skills became prominent and so radio changed from AM to FM as the preeminent source. My musical tastes and leanings were heavily informed by these attitudes. In summary of the influence section, let me say that jamming may help one develop a vocabulary on one’s axe but, the song gives the strings of memory something to play.
I learned to write and play by doing it, on the job training if you will. I did this in the honky tonks, bars, dance halls and ball rooms of Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska and God knows where else. In 1991 I signed on to play lead electric and acoustic for Capitol recording artist Billy Dean and for the next 4 years toured and performed on the Grand Ole Opry, The Jay Leno show, Austin City Limits and a lot of state and county fair main stages. I also got to know and hang with some of the best guitar players, songwriters and singers in the world. Nashville is a good place to learn how good you are and how good you can be.
I now live in Sioux Falls, SD with my wife and the Furry 4 (my pets) where I am fortunate to be able to perform and teach for my daily bread. I have a guitar in my hand every day which suits me just fine. In 2006, I released independently, my first record “Long Stone’s Throw”, which is a collection of blues songs I had in my song bag for a while. As of this writing, I have a new one in the mix phase called “Songs from the Second Half”, as well as a little one called “Someday I’m Gonna Know”, that I will take with me to Ireland for the “Pass the Hat and Play for Pints” tour with my old boss and friend, Billy Dean. Life is good as long as you do what you love. Thanks for stopping by.
Dan Mahar
Sioux Falls, SD