Dan Gilliam
I was born on "the day the music died" Feb. 3, 1959. Buddy Holly's plane crashed in the wee hours of the same morning my mom gave birth to me. Because of my connection to this fateful day, I have always considered my music style to be a reincarnated mix of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper. Sometime around 1969 I fell in love with the music I was hearing through the earplug of my transistor radio. The songs of The Doors, Neil Young, Chicago and America gave me words for some of the unknown things I was feeling. At age 13, I picked up the guitar and discovered an avenue for self-expression in writing and singing my own songs. Artistic endeavors were my private ambitions. When my parents divorced in 1973, I would rely heavily on these diversions to help me survive the trauma of watching my world blow apart.
Over my 49 years of travels and travails, I have written and recorded 8 albums of original music to document my life journey. In 1986, after my brief career as a professional pastor I recorded my self-titled debut album, "Dan Gilliam" and sold about 100 copies to friends and family. The circulation of this cassette helped to open local doors for me in Cincinnati, OH and other Midwestern towns to perform my songs for drug prevention school assemblies. This led to the writing and recording of my second album, "A Good Used Brain is Hard to Find"(1988) containing songs I performed for school audiences in 40 states. Assisted and inspired by my bar-based classic-rock cover band "Pacer", I recorded "Storms and Love" in 1991, a collection of folk-rock love songs. In 1993, after snooping around the alleyways and back doors of contemporary Christian music, I wrote and recorded “Shake the Walls” which led to many performances at churches and Christian coffee houses. In the ensuing years, I found myself sharing the stage with many well known Christian artists such as Servant, Rich Mullins, Big Tent Revival, Jennifer Knapp, The Newsboys, Audio Adrenaline, Chris Lizotte, All Star United, Bleach, Sonic Flood, The 77s and Richard Swift. For the most part, however, I have performed my music and told my stories in relative obscurity.
"Farm Cafe" my bare bones 1995 recording was the beginning of me finding my true voice as a singer and songwriter. I sold over 500 copies of this album from the trunk of my car the first year and made a conscious decision that whether or not the world wanted another performing artist I was going to be one. In 1997, I traveled to New Haven, In. to record "The Color of God" at Monastic Chambers studio with Jon Gillespie and a few talented musician friends. Selling out my first 1,000 copies of this cd in less than a year allowed me to put aside the cash for my 1999 record "I Am Not Like God". Probably, my most professional recording to date, I was fortunate to have been helped by California-based guitar aficionado, Rich Nibbe, and cutting edge worship leader and songwriter, Chris Lizotte. In 2001, while living in Cottage Grove, Oregon, best known for being the town where John Belushi's "Animal House" and Buster Keaton's "The General" were filmed, I recorded my most recent record, "Simple God Songs". Mega-talented guitarist Keith Schneider, drummer Jonathan Behr, with inspiration from his brother, Richard Swift, all good friends of mine, contributed to this eclectic mix of musical stories. This album represented a return to my spare, folk-oriented style of writing and performing. As of today, none of these albums have been released on any record label and remain largely undiscovered and undocumented by the corporate music industry. Thanks to CDBaby.com, however, they are now all available for digital download, the song or the record, on any music purchasing web site.
I started to take painting seriously around 1995. Reading biographies of great painters such as Georgia O’Keefe, Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Pablo Picasso and American outsider artist Harland Hubbard, I was inspired from the beginning to be true to myself and find my own voice. Being an untrained artist I didn’t know what was and was not allowed, so I simply began to put paints on canvasses and place the finished pieces on stage with me at my concerts. As the result, over a period of 12 years I have sold paintings all over the country to people who fell in love with my art while listening to my music. I have also sold a few paintings internationally through eBay and my web sites.
My latest artistic venture is writing for publication. My first book, “God Touches: Finding Faith in the Cracks and Spaces of My Life” was released by Standard Publishing (Cinti., OH) in April of 2007. I am now in the process of writing my next book "Broken be Beautiful" an expansion of my spiritual and creative memoirs which I started in "God Touches". Pursuing a quiet life of simplicity and creativity is more than just what I do, it is who I am.
http://www.dangilliam.net
http://cdbaby.com/all/dangilliam
http://www.myspace.com/dancgilliam
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0784719632
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