Veteran blues man Dan Treanor has been entertaining and thrilling audiences for over forty years. He has played his unique style of the blues all over the world. At times in his career Dan has played with Son Seals, Louisiana Red, George “Boogie Danielsâ€, Ronnie Boy Fruge’, Jimmy Carl Black, Frankie Lee and the list goes on and on.
Originally from the Southern Colorado town of Pueblo, Dan started playing the blues as a teenager and has been at it ever since. In 1969, while serving in the infantry in Viet Nam, Dan started playing the harmonica and has been blowing up a storm ever since. Dan Is a master of the Harmonica , The blues harp , Pocket Rocket , Mississippi Saxaphone or whatever you want to call it . He builds and plays Authentic African stringed instruments , which are featured on his many Cd's ..Including the most recent one 'Juke Joint Confessions' .He sings , he writes , he plays guitar,and is a great live performer . He is a Blues Historian , and History teacher, Dan perfected the idea of the now popular 'Blues In Schools' program ,and when on assignment explains the development of the music from it's cultural African origins right through to the electronic age. He is a wizard in the studio (His own Spider Haven Studio ) and has led bands 'Arc Light' in the 80's/90's and until recently 'African Wind'. Today he is considered one of the top blues harp players in the business and has been a Hohner Harmonica endorsee for the last twelve years. Dan also plays guitar, dobro, banjo, bass, keyboards and cane flute.
Twelve years ago Dan started the Blues in the Schools program for the Colorado Blues Society. He has since presented his unique and entertaining program to over fifty thousand kids, from elementary to college levels. A few years back he started to hand build African string instruments. Originally, these instruments were to be used in the Blues in the Schools presentations, to demonstrate the African origins of the blues, but they quickly made their way into Dan’s live shows. A new and exciting style of blues began to emerge and blossom into the music Dan makes today. Afro beats, African string instruments, Delta Blues grooves, R&B and Rock and Roll, lots of harp and guitar and soulful vocals - Afrosippi Blues.
In the fall of 2003 a call from a Denver booking agent put Dan and his band African Wind, together with R&B legend, Frankie Lee, to do a series of concerts in the Rocky Mountain area. Frankie Lee is a wonderful entertainer with a great voice and stage presence. While in Denver, Dan played Frankie some demos of songs he was working on. Frankie loved the sound so they went into the studio and created a CD. In April of 2004 at the W.C. Handy Awards, Dan and Frankie were signed by one of the top blues labels in the world - Northern Blues. The CD - “African Wind†- was released in October, 2004 to much critical acclaim. It proved to be one of the best blues CDs of the year as declared by the critics. It was nominated by the Independent Music Awards as the Blues CD of the year in 2005. The title song, "African Wind", made it to the finals of the International Songwriting Competation. In late fall of 2005 Dan and his band 'African Wind' released a second CD - Mercy. Again, it was nominated as Blues CD of the year by the IMAs.
In the fall of 2007, Dan released a CD 'Brothers, Blood & Bone' with the talented and soulful Jack Hadley.The sound they have created is a stripped down sound with African and Middle Eastern overtones that touch on bare-bones, Delta/North Mississippi hill country blues style.
Dan has also contributed his harp and dobro talents to the sound tracks of major motion picture releases - "Dances With Wolves", "Gettysburg", "How The West Was Lost".
In Febuary of 2009 Dan and the Afrosippi Blues Band had the honor of representing the Grand County Blues Society at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis!!!
If LoFi, soulful rhythms and gutbucket blues are your thing than Dan Treanor, Blues Ambassador, is here to serve you up a smoking’ plate of the real deal.
