I am not baseball trophies,
nor pictures of me with the trophy fish
hanging upside down off some island.
I can have those things if I want them,
but still I am not them. Still, I am not there.
I am not in your surveillance cameras
nor your miserable company databases.
My name is in your municipal courts, but that is not me either.
Do not think this an identity crisis:
hat would require me wanting an identity.
I once gave myself a nickname, but now I give myself no name.

I have seen what it means to live as a bird, as a fish,
yet I also know when both hit the surface simultaneously,
that moment where the talons graze the scales,
both beasts become one, become an essence.
And even that perfect display of perpetual naturalness
is defined by some of the pettier people.
They call it the moment of attack.
How sad that they can’t let that be!
Didn’t someone once say that
“Men are like birds when they try and sing –
both needing to fly using words and their wings.”
Wasn’t that someone me?

These are but a few malleable truths:
the streets I have walked down, the trees I’ve climbed,
the names I have been given, and the names I have chosen for myself-
yet the root of myself remains and only belongs
to that constant motion of nature.
I give myself to the earth and sky, not your diplomas, plaques, or headstones!
I offer myself up as a current to the wind!
May that wind carry me upward toward the undefined sky
and bounce back to you on your well defined satellites!

I will return to you many times over, as I have said before,
as a cat or a fish or a bird or a man.
But, tonight, let me be the electric residue of hissing static
left over on the TV screen the few minutes after
you have turned my image off the television set: still vibrant, visible,
yet undefined, perhaps fading, and impossible to touch.

With all the excitement with adding getting all the new songs ready and getting our suits pressed, I forgot to mention to y’all that we’re playing this amazing show in two days, Wednesday February 23rd, at the EARL in Atlanta. Here are the details:

Nerd Parade 9 pm
Dave Daniels & The PTA 10 pm
Imagination Head 11 pm

Live @ The EARL
488 Flat Shoals Avenue S.E.
Atlanta, GA
www.badearl.com for tickets and show info
Doors open @ 8 pm
$7 per ticket

This should be a crazy show. If you haven’t got a copy of our new CD, “Just like Ghosts”, it’s on sale at www.davedanielsmusic.com and you can also get one at the show. That said, come on out Wednesday! Imagination Head is a great up and coming band that is has been compared to Bright Eyes and Talking Heads, and Atlanta stalwarts Nerd Parade will open the show with some supersonic high energy goodness. I’ve seen them play before and the folks in that band actually cook ham for their fans on stage – No Joke! Need I say more?

As for us, we’ve added a brand new set list and we’re happy to welcome Nathan Sadler, previously of the Florida band The Soft Targets, into the PTA on bass and vocals.We really want you all to come experience the best of Atlanta music at the show this Wed. If you want to buy advanced tickets, click here…http://www.ticketalternative.com/Events/10231.aspx

With love and warmth!

Dave Daniels & The Part Time Association

We are quickly adding new shows this year. In order to keep things nice and neat, all official show dates will be posted and updated daily at www.myspace.com/davedanielsmusic

Other than that, the band is just getting about to get to work and learn some new songs for the upcoming shows this year. We’re happy to announce we’re joining forces with Andy Matchett & The Minks and some other friends for a ton of great FL shows, and currently working on alot of other projects this year including: more shows in the SE, a music video, updating this website and flooding the internet, creating a blog, and doing some radio performances. We are also working hard at getting some of the new LP, “Just Like Ghosts” on the radio through local and regional support.

In the meantime, all three CDs (”Tallahassee Twilight”, “Songs from Stone Mountain” and “Just Like Ghosts” are now onsale @ Amazon.com and Itunes, and more importantly, on this website. You can hear all of these records free throughout this website. We hope you enjoy it!
But mostly, we’re constantly writing new and improved music and working hard at bringing you better shows, for those of y’all who have been with us in the past, and to the new folks who are just starting to come out to shows.

It’s going to be a hell of year. Hold onto your hats.

Peace and Love,

Dave Daniels & The PTA

Driving to the Obama Inaguration with good friends. Freezing in the hot chocolate line for hours while Samuel L. Jackson passed by with police horse escort.
Playing a bluegrass style set in front of a sold out crowd at Eddie’s Attic with SunDown and my band, The PTA
Releasing the new CD (available now!) and The EARL CD Release show with Old Custer and Arum Rae. Great crowd!
Watching the Soulphonics @ The Highland Ballroom Inn in Atlanta
Playing with It’s Elephant’s @ their CD Release show @ The EARL, and following them around to many shows and getting my ears blown off (loving every minute of it).
Playing with Theologian, Musical Wonder Dog, and very good friend Rev. David Fountain @ The Bluebird Cafe twice (and killing it).
Working with Ninja Sound Masters Ben Holst and Martin Kearns at 800 East Studios (Atlanta) and Sony/Tree in Nashville.
Seeing Bruce Springsteen in Atlanta. Seeing Leonard Cohen at The Fox Theatre.
Losing my voice @ Paul McCartney concert on Piedmont Park.
Seeing Ryan Adams & The Cardinals’ finale show @ The Fox.

Reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by M. Chabon
Seeing “Where the Wild Things Are” at the drive-in with good friends.
Teaching my niece and nephew about the Beatles and Beach Boys on a Sunday afternoon car ride over Miami Beach. (”Put the Surf Guys on, Uncle Dave!”)
Touring down to Florida and playing with the PTA for the barnburning UF Frats and Sorororities.

Helping Chris B., drummer/bassist/Zappa-tista, move out of his house in 12 hours in the one day it snowed this year. Driving a Uhaul in the snow.
Finishing a thesis - 100 pages of fiction and poetry; still unpublished.
Buying a brown leather jacket
Chuck Berry mornings, Ella Fitzgerald nights

Sorry so long since I’ve written. I am exhausted from traveling, unpacking, and then spending the first 48 hours in Nashville meeting more songwriters than I’ve ever seen! This is a great city, and I’m excited about playing and finishing some new and older unfinished songs. Mostly, I’m glad to be playing live again. So here it is: I had the honor of being asked to play harmonica and keyboards for my boys It’s Elephant’s during their CD Release on Friday June 26^th at the EARL in Atlanta (www.badearl.com). Come out if you have any kind of desire to see flat out one of the best rock bands out there, anywhere. I played harp on their new record. It’s a heck of a sonic breakthrough for this stalwart Atlanta band that ain’t charging that much right now to see ‘em play. Catch ‘em while you can still get a good seat.

As for my music, www.davedanielsmusic.com is currently under construction, as we’re launching the new version of it this week. It’s gonna rock. New stuff- bootleg and demo music for free, old albums being reissued, and a journal page. We’ve been working real hard on it (also know when I ever use “we” I mean me and my crew, not Dave Daniels as an entity – I’m not that vain).  And, check it: I’m now on twitter – twitter.com/DaveDanielsATL.

The next show I’ve scheduled is in Atlanta @ Eddie’s Attic on Sat, August 29^th. Stay tuned for info on that one. I will update the website and myspace when I have the summer gigs all figured out. In the meantime, I’ll be playing keys and harp with It’s Elephant’s @ The EARL this Friday.

Speaking of new CDs, “Just Like Ghosts”, my new CD is now for sale at www.cdbaby.com/davedanielsmusic, Itunes, Amazon.com, and now in ACTUAL record stores: at Wax n’ Facts in Little Five Points - http://www.waxnfacts.com/ and Reactionary Records in East Atlanta Village - http://www.myspace.com/reactionaryrecords. The CD is only $10, but it’s cheapest on Itunes (hint).

Thanks for everyone for giving some great feedback on the record. I am so glad you like this record as much as we enjoyed recording it. I can honestly say it’s the record I’m proudest I’ve made so far. The band was so tight musically in the studio, and working with Ben Holst was any musician’s dream come true: a giant of a producer, musician, and friend. I can’t wait to work with him again on another record, sometime in the future. For now, I’m out there playing solo and band shows until the wheels fall off the car or my fingers fall off. So I should probably stop typing.

Goodnight!

-DD