“It incorporates elements of old country blues and old mountain barroom gospel, with a little dash of ’60s protest pathos,” Schmidt said in a phone interview with the Homer News.
On his Web site, Schmidt also describes his particular sound as similar to the sound bluesman John Lee Hooker would make while beating up saxophonist and popular punching bag Kenny G — “in a nice room with hardwood floors and high ceilings.”
Schmidt has played in venues from the major cities of New York and Washington, D.C., to smaller cafes around the country.
On Friday, Schmidt will entertain guests in the cozy confines of Amped Café on Pioneer Avenue.
Schmidt is touring the West Coast this month before heading to the United Kingdom in October.
The trip to Alaska will be the first for the musician, and Schmidt said he hears Homer could be the most beautiful stop during the five-stop trip through the state. He also will play live shows in Anchorage, Kenai, Soldotna and Talkeetna before an in-studio visit on the Talkeetna-based Internet radio station Whole Wheat Radio on Sept. 19.
“I’m thinking I’m going to like it a lot,” Schmidt said. “I’m very excited about being up there.”
Schmidt first thought about coming to Alaska after hearing about the privately run Whole Wheat Radio, which had been playing his music. After talking to Paulette Wellington of Homer, he decided to make the trip to finish his West Coast tour.
Schmidt’s tour comes two months after the release of “Parables and Primes,” his fourth album in six years. The album is the first, however, that he produced in his hometown of Austin.
“Production-wise, I think there’s a little bit more experimentation on this record than on previous ones,” Schmidt said. “We really approached each song as its own little sonic drama, and orchestrated them out fairly differently from one another.”
Schmidt, who names his 10th grade physics teacher alongside Jimi Hendrix among his list of influences, grew up in Austin, Texas. After stints in the University of Texas and a 100-member commune, Schmidt was smitten by a strong urge to write music.
Schmidt later decided to record his first CD live in one night. While some bands record their first album in a studio and later produce live cuts, Schmidt said his decision to do the opposite was based on finances — or his lack of them.
“I didn’t have much money, and I didn’t have much in the way of production skills,” Schmidt said in his online interview. “But I did have these songs readyÉ and folks seemed to like them.”
After moving to Charlottesville, Va., in the late 1990s, Schmidt helped start a music cooperative that sponsors a monthly showcase of local musicians and songwriters.
Friday’s show at Amped Café starts at 7 p.m. The cover charge is $5.
Chris Eshleman can be reached at chris. eshleman@homernews.com.
Folk guitarist and songwriter Danny Schmidt describes his music as a mix of different genres.
