Darius

Darius is a writer of songs and poems. He has released five CDs and has performed at some of the USA’s most important rock music venues: CBGB in NYC, the Whiskey and Roxy in L.A., the Continental Club in Austin, as well as other venues like the South By Southwest Music Conference, New York City's New Music Seminar, and the Shrine Auditorium. He has played on bills with Don McLean, Lucinda Williams, Los Lobos, and Guy Clark, to name a few. He also played sitar on "Bad Karma" on the late Warren Zevon’s Sentimental Hygiene CD, along with the members of REM.

His first solo CD, Cardboard Confessional, helped make him a feature of the Los Angeles acoustic music scene of the middle 80s (which included so many important burgeoning artists, such as Lucinda and Victoria Williams, Rosie Flores et al). The CD came out on Gold Castle/Capitol Records (the same folk music label that featured artists like Bruce Cockburn, Joan Baez, and Don McLean, and went out of business in 1990). The CD was released nationally and received radio airplay in numerous American cities. See press excerpts below. The video for the song "White Boy Raving" was aired on MTV and other music video shows. It also made Billboard Magazine's Top Twenty Video List. The song was, perhaps, among the first recordings anywhere to fuse folk and rap forms. In 1997, his second solo CD, Garage Sale of the Soul, was released on F-Hole Records.
During the 1980s and 90s he played with his band, Darius and the Magnets, and then as a solo artist. The Magnets were part of the neo-psychedelic scene, the so-called Paisley Underground, that operated parallel to the Southern California punk scene of the early 1980s. The band, which played the L.A. haunts of the day (Madame Wongs, Music Machine, Club Lingerie, etc), released a single on Big Time Records of Australia (see the Hoodoo Gurus). There was also an EP as well as two videos, one of which aired on MTV’s Basement Tapes show.
More recently, until 2005, he was the singer and songwriter in Burning Bridges of Malmö, Sweden. Their CD, Poor Man’s Vacation (and other Tales of the Wild and the Weary), was released in 2003. The band performed at numerous festivals and clubs around Sweden from 2000 to 2005, opening shows for the likes of Sixteen Horsepower, Dr. John, Dale Watson, Pugh Rogefeldt, and others.
Darius is also a writer of poetry proper (poetry without musical accompaniment). If you’re interested in that more literary world, please visit his poetry only site: www.dariusdegher.blogspot.com
At present, he is living in Malmo, Sweden with his wife and two daughters. He is working on his next record, to be titled The Coyote Cantos, which will be released early in 2008 on Railroad Stew Records.
From reviews of Poor Man’s Vacation
“It’s gorgeous, earthy, and tasteful.” Lars Thulin, Ystads Allehanda och Trelleborgs Allehanda
“This music has grown straight up out of southern soil, without the dirt being brushed off. . . a brave debut in today’s musical climate.” Arvid Jurjaks, Borlänge Tidning, Espresso
“A good buy if you like both Merle Haggard and Neil Young.” Jonas Ohman Ginza, Countrykrönika
“ . . . this is music that goes straight to the heart via what one really wants, music from the borderlands between different cultures, countries, and tastes.” Rune Häger, Independent Music Journalist, Malmö
From reviews of Cardboard Confessional and Garage Sale of the Soul
”More down to the ground than even Dylan achieved in his talking blues days . . . Darius is a fresh new breed of folkie, proud of but not stuck on tradition.” Kurt Wolf, San Francisco Bay Guardian
”Every once in a while an album comes along with lyrics so wondrous, so vital, that they should be scripted on parchment, bound in fine leather and handed out . . . Darius -- songwriter or poet?” Robert J. Hawkins, San Diego Union Tribune
”Hearing Hollywood’s poet laureate in concert is always a treat . . . his lyrical abilities are still unsurpassed.” Rich Robinson, Los Angeles Reader”
”Cardboard Confessional is a veritable cornucopia of bright, lyrical wit and intelligently crafted songs . . . Darius is a unique talent.” Richard Foss, L.A. Reader and Bam Magazine
”Five fingers” (highest rating) “ . . . a breath of fresh air in a sea of smog. an LP that would surely ‘hit’ if less of us were so into the ‘me’ generation, though it still might.” In Concert Magazine
CONTACTS: 46-(0)40 - 91 69 15 e-mail: [email protected]
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