History
Walter Daniels was born in Chicago. Daniels became inspired to play the harmonica while in high school, when he witnessed a performance by Johnny Woods on a Public Television documentary about the blues. Harmonica players John Mayall and Paul Butterfield were later inspirations, as were Muddy Waters, Johnny Winter, and John Lee Hooker. Early on, he moved to Austin, Texas, and attended the University of Texas where he studied music theory and tenor saxophone. While still a student at the University of Texas, Daniels became a part of the Austin music scene, and in the mid-80's became involved with a local cowpunk band called the Hickoids, playing feedback-laden harmonica on the band's Waltz-a-Cross-Dress-Texas EP. Around this time, Daniels also contributed to an acoustic string-band called the Hokum Boys, who produced mainly old-time country music. Daniels continued on in the country music format with the Hank Street Ramblers, releasing a single on Double Naut records entitled "Got an Itch to Floss". The late 80's saw Daniels focusing on rock music, pairing up with Austin songwriter Alejandro Escovedo in Escovedo's Buick MacKane project. Around this same time, Daniels contributed to the punk band Jack O' Fire with fellow Austin musician Tim Kerr.
In the early 90's, Daniels teamed up with rockabilly frontman Evan Johns in a group called the Gay Sportscasters, releasing two singles on the Only Boy label. In 1994, Daniels began performing with Big Foot Chester, where he served as bandleader, vocalist, and harmonica soloist. In 1995(the same year his daughter, Lily, was born), Daniels went into the studio with Memphis garage-rockers the Oblivians and songwriter Jeffery Evans, contributing harmonica to the Walter Daniels Plays With Monsieur Jeffrey Evans & The Oblivians At Melissa's Garage EP.
During the 1990s, Daniels began employing the harmonica to experiments with free improvisation, originally on a track called "Spider Hop," released as a B-side to a single by Walter Daniels & the Gospel Clodhoppers. Daniels' free improvisation continued in collaborations with North Carolinian composer Eugene Chadbourne, avant-garde trombonist David Dove, and Houston-based, steel guitarist Susan Alcorn, and together in concert the group performed the music of Willie Nelson, Ernest Tubb, Bob Wills, and Austin music legend Doug Sahm. This collaboration culminated in the release of the Texas Sessions studio recording. On the 3rd of January, 2000, Daniels' second daughter, Emma Lou Daniels, was born.
Daniels continues to collaborate extensively and has worked with artists as diverse as Texacala Jones, the Hard Feelings, John Permenter, Hunt Sales the Leroi Brothers, Roy Loney, and Earl Poole Ball.
Read more about this topic: Walter Daniels
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