Dan Oakenhead is a rare, accomplished musical 'double threat'. He is equally at home as modern acoustic singer-songwriter and as instrumental composer of world music and out-of-this-world instrumental themes. Dan the songwriter gives us earthy and into-the-beyond modern acoustic songs and lyrics, often painted with the country-blues moods and mountain landscapes that you'll find on Sky Geezer and Wild And Secret Tales. Dan the instrumentalist and composer weaves musical tapestries through lush arrangements for guitars, piano, synths, Native American flute, and low whistles, haunting us as well with spacious solitary themes on the instrumental albums Over The Blue Edge and Pārasaṃgate. With this breadth of musical expression, you might imagine a wide array of musical influences, and you'd be right. Dan's inspirations include Gram Parsons, James Taylor, John Prine, CSN&Y, Dan Fogelberg, Jimmie Spheeris, Lyle Mays, Claude Debussy, Pat Metheny, Travis Terry, Davy Spillane, Michael McGoldrick, Sean Smyth, and Shannon Heaton. A lifelong wanderer of high wild mountains, mystical canyons and inner spaces, Dan lives, works, writes, and composes far and wide, and makes his home with his wife in Colorado.
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