FACes & PlaceS
LOCAL COLOR 2004

John Danaher
by Marilyn Bullock

If music is his life, the New Hope Community has become his family. After having toured with dozens of famous rock and jazz bands, John Danaher now lives and works in New Hope - having woven himself securely into the fabric of our town.

John was born in Chestnut Hill, a suburb of Philadelphia. Although the family moved several times during his childhood (ending up in Lower Bucks) John was always surrounded by music. John’s grandfather played piano for Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians, the famous big band orchestra of the 20s and 30s, and later in life was the house pianist for the Buck Hotel in Southampton. John also had cousins and uncles who were mummers.

A nurse by profession, his mother wrote music and was a piano teacher and choir director. In her spare time, she brought the neighborhood kids together to perform in elaborate musical productions which she produced. Every Sunday, the family had a “massive jam session.” John sang in the church choir and/or school chorus all through his school years. No wonder Mr. Danaher ended up with a musical career!

When John was 16, he and his buddies came to New Hope to hang out. These were the times when it was common to find musicians playing on the streets and on the church steps of the Methodist Church (now Marsha Browns.)

During his early twenties, John took music and theater classes and worked in the theater department at Bucks County Community College. He also worked for several music and productions companies developing good connections within the music and band industry.

John performed at local venues, mostly playing guitar and singing solo or with a small group. In 1977 John had the opportunity to perform solo in front of an audience of 3,000 at the Bucks County Folk Song Festival. He didn’t know it was a competition, so consider his surprise when, one week after his performance, he was notified that he had won second place!

In 1980 John moved to New Hope after returning from a two month tour with the Dixie Dregs and the Dooby Brothers bands. He met his wife while working at the Philadelphia Folk Festival. In 1981 they moved to Santa Cruz, CA to do a home birth with their son, Sol.

While living in Santa Cruz, he worked up and down the West Coast, gaining more valuable experience playing and in production. Hollywood and San Francisco were real “eye openers.”

Unfortunately, the music business does not lend itself well to marital stability. After his marriage dissolved, John went back on tour with a number of bands, including: Huey Lewis and the News, Graham Parker, BB King, Jefferson Airplane, and Grover Washington, Jr. All the time he was on the road, John was fine tuning his own guitar playing. “It was a real good education,” he recalls wistfully. His last technical tour was with Grover Washington, Jr., in 1991, 1992, & 1993. In 1994 to 1995 he headlined in Finland as “Acoustic Merge” (just a violinist and himself.)

After that he took a hiatus from touring to “sleep in my own bed.” He began doing historical restoration in Bucks County and Ithaca, NY.

John has called New Hope his home base for twenty-four years. Now he lives here full time and keeps busy working several jobs and volunteering throughout the community. He continues to work on historical renovations in New Hope and the surrounding Bucks County area.

He is currently managing and booking performances at the Gerenser Theater on the corner of Bridge and Stockton Streets in New Hope. He performs solo and with his bands, "Accoustic Merge" and "Quiet Men" (Irish music.). He is working on a CD to be released in the spring. In 2004 alone, he worked on the Sculpture New Hope 2004 project, the Showcase the Arts of New Hope event, the 4th of July town-wide celebration, the September 12th Treasure Hunt event, and the fund-raiser for the Princeton Breast Cancer Alliance.

Contact John via email: mergingmusic@earthlink.net or quietman@irishnation.com. For bookings the S. J. Gerenser Theater, call Merging Music at 267-987-7855.