Growing up in Mississippi, he played, sang and wrote with his family's gospel band. He had his first No. 1 gospel song as a writer at just 17. After moving to Nashville, Danny wrote 6 more #1 Gospel songs before founding country-rock band Western Flyer. In addition, he sang hundreds of songwriter demos and background vocals before turning his attention more fully to songwriting.

And some of the most meaningful songs Danny has helped write may be ones you have never heard.

It Starts With Listening

Danny is one of several professional songwriters who works with Songwriting With:Soldiers, an organization that pairs professional songwriters with veterans and first responders to assist them in sharing their often very difficult stories through the creation of a new co-written song. Danny helps lead several SongwritingWith:Soldiers retreats each year.

The process is remarkably simple.

Someone brings a story....

The songwriter listens....

Together, they find the words and the melody.

At SongwritingWith:Soldiers retreats, participants' own words, stories and phrases become the foundation for the lyrics. Melodies are created together, often on the spot, and participants are credited as co-writers of their songs.

For Danny, the goal is not a hit.

He explained that when he writes these songs, it does not matter whether anyone ever records them. What matters is finishing a song that the person sitting beside him feels authentically tells their story. For example, Danny’s song, “Let Go Of The Pain, currently available on all streaming platforms, was written with Army Veteran Daniel Cummings, who bravely shared his struggle to find a way to deal with the pain caused by so much unfair loss in his life. No background needed. His personal story unfolds almost verbatim in their song.  

When the Story Becomes Personal

Danny participated in a SongwritingWith:Soldiers retreat for photojournalists in New York in 2022. What made this particular retreat unique is that, like deployed soldiers, these photojournalists are embedded and along for the traumatic ride, while unarmed; their only mission being to capture the devastation around them, to simply tell the story in pictures. And rather than remembering and sharing their stories in our sessions, they opened up their laptops and visually displayed all the photos they had taken of the wreckage they witnessed. 

Danny sat down with photojournalist Aristide Economopoulos. Aristide had photographed the aftermath of September 11. Together, he and Danny wrote "Ghosts In My Head," a song about the images and memories Aristide carried with him from that day.

But as they wrote, the story became personal for Danny, too.

Danny had lost friends in the attacks.

SongwritingWith:Soldiers later described the song as heartfelt and emotional in part because of that shared connection. When Danny performed it for the group at the retreat, the organization recalled that there was hardly a dry eye in the room.

It is a powerful example of what can happen when someone tells a story and someone else takes the time to really listen.

One person brings the experience. Another brings the craft of songwriting. Somewhere between the conversation, the questions, the words and the melody, they create something neither could have written alone.

More Than a Hit Song

Danny has written songs heard by millions of people.  But like most vocational songwriters, those songs are but a fraction of their life’s work. 

Whether it is helping a veteran or first responder share his or her “unspeakable” story in a new song, or writing a gospel song for Rock and Roll Hall Of Famer, Eddie Vedder, using a language he doesn’t speak, that is the magical power of the troubadour. 

Sometimes a song makes us turn up the radio, but for a songwriter, as long as it makes you feel something…laugh, cry, dance on a table, fall in love, make love, remember when, let go…that is the mission. 

Maybe that is part of the magic of a listening room, too.

You may walk in knowing the song.

Then the songwriter tells you where it came from.

And suddenly, you hear it differently.

We've saved you a seat.