Danny Schmidt

Danny Schmidt
Schmidt playing a house concert in Boalsburg, PA in 2008.
Background information
Birth name	Danny Schmidt
Born	(1970-10-07) October 7, 1970 (age 46) Austin, Texas, US
Origin	Austin, Texas
Genres	folk, indie folk
Instruments	vocals, guitar
Years active	1996–present
Labels	Red House Records
Associated acts	Carrie Elkin, Paul Curreri, Devon Sproule
Website	dannyschmidt.com

Danny Schmidt (born October 7, 1970) is an American singer-songwriter based in Austin, Texas, where he now lives with his wife, fellow musician, and singer-songwriter Carrie Elkin.

Schmidt was born in 1970 and grew up in Austin, Texas. He started playing guitar at the age of 12. At age 20, he discovered that 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 Dylan, Neil Young, Tom Waits, and John Prine, from whom he learned about songwriting.

After three years of college he joined the East Wind Community in the Ozark Mountains of southern Missouri for a year. He then became part of the Twin Oaks Community in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia for about four years, where he met fellow singer-songwriter Devon Sproule. At 25, Schmidt began writing songs—a developing talent which ultimately earned him the 2007 Kerrville Folk Festival New Folk award.

In 1999, he settled for a while in Charlottesville, Virginia where his songwriting flourished and he started sharing his songs with the public. That year he released his first recording, 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, Schmidt released Parables & Primes. 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.