Danny Schmidt (born 7 October 1970) is an American singer-songwriter based in Austin, Texas, where he was born and raised. He now lives there with fellow musician and singer-songwriter Carrie Elkin. In 2007 he won the Kerrville Folk Festival New Folk award. Schmidt started playing guitar at the age of 12. At age 20, he discovered he liked the blues after tracking the music of Jimi Hendrix back through Muddy Waters, Mississippi John Hurt, and Lightning Hopkins all the way to old country gospel and spirituals. He bought an acoustic guitar and eventually discovered the likes of Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Tom Waits and John Prine who taught him about poetry and the melody of words. Schmidt released his first recording in 2000, an album titled Live at the Prism Coffeehouse. In 2001 he released Enjoying the Fall. 2003 brought his third collection of songs, 'Make Right the Time'. In 2005 Danny released 'Parables & Primes' a critically acclaimed album taking on mystical overtones and a sort of magical-realism reminiscent of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, or Aesop. 2007 saw the release of 'Little Grey Sheep' and 2009 the release of 'Instead the Forest Rose to Sing', his first release on Red House Records. In 2011 Schmidt released 'Man of Many Moons', also on Red House Records. Schmidt was part of the original King of My Living Room group of Charlottesville songwriters who would go on to do a series of concerts together. As well as Schmidt, the collection of artists included Brady Earnhart, Stratton Salidis, Jan Smith, Lance Brenner, Browning Porter and Jeff Romano. www.dannyschmidt.com
