ROOTS MUSIC WITH A ROCK AND ROLL LIFESTYLE
Coming from a family roots band, Daniel Huscroft started off playing fiddle for years. With a singing voice touched with a slight rasp, growing up working on his grandpa’s sawmill seems to have had its influence when he decided to pick up an electric guitar and make a little more noise.
“I find I relate a lot to the blue collar scene. I’m artsy but at the same time I like the down-to-earth… I drive an old pickup, I like chainsaws, I have two big dogs, I kind of like wearing gum boots versus shiny shoes,” he admits. “When I put out my album, I was with a drummer and bass player and then my sister kind of came into the picture and we hadn’t played together in like 10 or 15 years. All of a sudden, it was like, ‘Well what if I do an acoustic record?’ And we just did it all strings.”
Deeply embedded in his songwriting is a sense of uninhibited sincerity. “I just love to play music. Like, I’ve got my guitar in my hand right now, I didn’t go to work today, I just stayed home and played music all day, till in my work clothes, just in case, I don’t know why,” he chuckles. Huscroft is the type of musician who walks into a room not with the intent to put on a show, but, rather, to put himself out there. “If you’re happy in your life then that’s going to come through if music is your venting point, and for me it is.”
More recently, he recorded nine songs with a three-piece band that he’ll be touring, which he describes “a little more country-blues-rock.” The set we can look forward to will be all electric with drummer Nick Stetz (of Leeroy Stagger) and bassist Jeremy Friesen, with both of whom he’s had great reception here before.
“I spent some time in Alberta, I lived there for five years, I spent all last winter in Edmonton and I really enjoyed my whole time there. They like to have fun… I’ve done house shows where people are just quiet and attentive and listening, and those are nice. But, definitely, I like to have fun, so I like to see people are, too.”
Hit the Palomino on the 11th to see him share a bill with JJ Shiplett.
By Cait Lepla
