The Dan Vaughan Band

The Dan Vaughan Band is the new addition to the Fairfield University music scene. Dan Vaughan, the New Jersey native, who is majoring in finance at Fairfield, leads the group. The first album "Here's To You" shows a lot of promise and invokes the feeling of a young Jack Johnson.

The first song, "December's Broke and Beautiful," has a really natural poetic feel to it that just takes you away. "Escalators" is another song to watch out for because it has a great upbeat feel to it and is incredibly catchy. Most of the songs center on love and the sort of iconic females that every female wishes to be just so she can have a song written about her.

Each song on the CD demonstrates the band's diversity within the genre of modern rock folk. The irony of the "John Mayer generation" genre is that it seems to want to rebel against the status quo without leaving behind its rainbows and polos. This shows itself on the track "Here's to You," where the lyrics talk about his parents not understanding why he plays music and pushing him to get back into the corporate line for life. Unlike the Woody Guthrie's, who became wonders and really left society, our new generation of musicians express frustration but then seem to just get over it.

Overall, the music of the Dan Vaughan Band will feel like something you should have heard already and want to hear again. The Dan Vaughan Band will be touring most of the East Coast this summer. For those of you interested in hearing the Dan Vaughan Band, the CD is streaming at www.DanVaughanBand.com. The group will also be appearing at the Acoustic Café, April 21 at 8 p.m.
- The Fairfield Mirror

On Friday night, it was Pete Yorn meets Dave Mathews Band at the Acoustic Café in Bridgeport. Fairfield sophomore Dan Vaughan and his band, Permanent Daylight, played set to a crowd of some 60 standing, dancing and cheering fans.

It was only the second show Vaughan had played at the venue, but to him the atmosphere was the most recognizable difference.

"It was good; the place only holds 100; we're 60 percent of the way there. Last time we had 40 [people]," he said.

As the band played songs from its recently released CD "Here's to You," the crowd sang along with the infectiously catchy "Escalators," a crack-a-beer-and-kick-back-at-the-bar jam that sounded like a conversation any of us would have.

The playlist rolled along melodically energized, feeding the band's drive to impress a somewhat local crowd for Vaughan. "She's Ahead of Me" relied on Vaughan's bitingly subtle words along with well-placed guitar strokes. An urgently carefree pace accentuated by tambourine shakes set the tone for those in attendance to jump out of their seats and break into random dance. "What I'm Thinking" worked off of light acoustic riffs that did not need to overpower the crowd to spur them on. The band later roused them with a cover of Jimi Hendrix's "All Along the Watchtower."

When Vaughan and Permanent Daylight appeared to have finished, they were cajoled into an encore of sorts by the buzzing, somewhat intoxicated, mostly student crowd.

Swinging across the dance floor, people were singing along and losing themselves in Vaughan's soothing lyrics of refined experience. It was as if he was talking to everyone in the café that night, a story they had all heard, lived even, until he showed them again.

There was no urgency in his words, no haste in his pick against the strings as he made his confession into the microphone before the frenzied crowd.

The opportunities are limitless for Vaughan, who, after his local show Friday, played New York's Crash Mansion Saturday night. The band as a whole was not easy to dissuade of this accomplishment either.

With a show coming up at the Crash Mansion in NYC, where The Fray played in October, Vaughan's band seems to really have their foot in the door.

Vaughan looked forward to the show from a marketing standpoint. "We have a guy from Sony coming to look at us tomorrow night," he said.

But Vaughan was quick to distinguish between the business aspect and the part he most enjoyed, playing.

"We sign contracts, we market, we promote, we build, we have a good time at the shows but the rest of the time it's all business," said Vaughan who feels that local shows are his favorite scene.

"In New York, it's more serious. It's not really that fun; I prefer to play the Fairfield show," he said in reference to other possible gigs at Fairfield.

Where does the band go next? Besides continuing to set gigs, the band sees a full-length CD in Spring or Summer of the coming year, as well.

And Vaughan realizes the legitimate opportunity Permanent Daylight has toiled for.

"I think we can go pretty far," he said. "As far as right now, we have a good foundation," he continued, saying that most bands that play in the city consist of 21 year-olds, or older. Dan Vaughan and Permanent Daylight though have not adhered to this model.

"For people who are under 21, it's hard to break into clubs in New York," said Vaughan. "The band that played the other night after us was 28 [years old] so we're getting ahead."

The life of a musician is not an easy one, as Vaughan acknowledges, but he is content with the learning experience he is living.

"It was never about making money for these shows," he said. "It's more so the fact that you can kind of create a small business out of your band. For me that's a huge learning experience."

Vaughan and his band got their break from iTunes, which offer songs from "Here's to You" for purchase in its music store.

"With our CD getting released on iTunes, that gives us major credibility because not everyone gets on there," he said. "There's a review process; we'll get our first quarter earnings in January and iTunes has the choice to market us."

And despite discussions with managers over his solo career, Vaughan remains loyal to his band.

"Most managers I talk to, they'd rather represent me as a solo artist because it's easier," he said. But Vaughan wants more than just short-lived fame, choosing instead to build up a fan base with his band.

"With the way the record industry is going, with a lot of bands that build up a live following, the solo thing is the quick way to get there," he said. "The band is the way to stay."

When asked what it meant to have their sound compared to Dave Mathews Band by their peers, the band was ecstatic.

Vaughan, meanwhile, felt their sound was a mix of singer-songwriter interface with an important emphasis on live performance.

Where he will end up, he does not know but he remains - Fairfield Mirror (Fairfield University)