Walter Daniels is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 musician

Musician

A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....

 and harmonica

Harmonica

The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...

 player noted for introducing the instrument into a number of styles of music not usually associated with the harmonica, including punk rock

Punk rock

Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

, and avant-garde

Avant-garde

Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....

 free improvisation

Free improvisation

Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any rules beyond the logic or inclination of the musician involved. The term can refer to both a technique and as a recognizable genre in its own right....

.

History

Walter Daniels was born in Chicago. Daniels became inspired to play the harmonica while in high school, when he witnessed a performance by Johnny Woods on a Public Television documentary about the blues. Harmonica players John Mayall

John Mayall

John Mayall, OBE is an English blues singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, whose musical career spans over fifty years...

 and Paul Butterfield

Paul Butterfield

Paul Butterfield was an American blues vocalist and harmonica player, who founded the Paul Butterfield Blues Band in the early 1960s and performed at the original Woodstock Festival...

 were later inspirations, as were Muddy Waters

Muddy Waters

McKinley Morganfield , known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician, generally considered the "father of modern Chicago blues"...

, Johnny Winter

Johnny Winter

John Dawson "Johnny" Winter III is an American blues guitarist, singer, and producer. Best known for his late 1960s and 1970s high-energy blues-rock albums and live performances, Winter also produced three Grammy Award-winning albums for blues legend Muddy Waters...

, and John Lee Hooker

John Lee Hooker

John Lee Hooker was an American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist.Hooker began his life as the son of a sharecropper, William Hooker, and rose to prominence performing his own unique style of what was originally closest to Delta blues. He developed a 'talking blues' style that was his trademark...

. http://www.syarecords.it/walterdanielsinterview.htm Early on, he moved to Austin, Texas

Austin, Texas

Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...

, and attended the University of Texas where he studied music theory

Music theory

Music theory is the study of how music works. It examines the language and notation of music. It seeks to identify patterns and structures in composers' techniques across or within genres, styles, or historical periods...

 and tenor saxophone

Tenor saxophone

The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...

. While still a student at the University of Texas, Daniels became a part of the Austin music scene, and in the mid-80's became involved with a local cowpunk

Cowpunk

Cowpunk or Country punk is a subgenre of punk rock and New Wave that began in the UK and California in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It combines punk rock or New Wave with country music, folk music, and blues in sound, subject matter, attitude, and style...

 band called the Hickoids, playing feedback-laden harmonica on the band's Waltz-a-Cross-Dress-Texas EP. Around this time, Daniels also contributed to an acoustic string-band called the Hokum Boys, who produced mainly old-time country music. Daniels continued on in the country music format with the Hank Street Ramblers, releasing a single on Double Naut records entitled "Got an Itch to Floss". The late 80's saw Daniels focusing on rock music, pairing up with Austin songwriter Alejandro Escovedo

Alejandro Escovedo

Alejandro Escovedo is an American singer-songwriter.-Biography:The son of Mexican immigrants to Texas, Escovedo is from a family that boasts several professional musicians, including brothers Coke Escovedo and Pete Escovedo, and Sheila E...

 in Escovedo's Buick MacKane project. Around this same time, Daniels contributed to the punk band Jack O' Fire with fellow Austin musician Tim Kerr. []

In the early 90's, Daniels teamed up with rockabilly

Rockabilly

Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, dating to the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development...

 frontman Evan Johns in a group called the Gay Sportscasters, releasing two singles on the Only Boy label. In 1994, Daniels began performing with Big Foot Chester, where he served as bandleader, vocalist, and harmonica soloist. In 1995(the same year his daughter, Lily, was born), Daniels went into the studio with Memphis garage-rockers the Oblivians

Oblivians

The Oblivians were an American punk rock trio that existed from 1993 to 1998. In the 1990s, their blues-infused brand of bravado, crudely-recorded music made them one of the most popular and prominent bands within the underground garage rock scene....

 and songwriter Jeffery Evans, contributing harmonica to the Walter Daniels Plays With Monsieur Jeffrey Evans & The Oblivians At Melissa's Garage

Walter Daniels Plays with Monsieur Jeffrey Evans & The Oblivians at Melissa's Garage

Walter Daniels Plays With Monsieur Jeffrey Evans & The Oblivians At Melissa's Garage is a 10" album by Memphis garage-rock band the Oblivians. The album was released in 1995 by Texas record label, Undone. The album features Austin-based harmonicist Walter Daniels and Memphis-based vocalist Jeffery...

 EP. []

During the 1990s, Daniels began employing the harmonica to experiments with free improvisation, originally on a track called "Spider Hop," released as a B-side to a single by Walter Daniels & the Gospel Clodhoppers. Daniels' free improvisation continued in collaborations with North Carolinian composer Eugene Chadbourne

Eugene Chadbourne

Eugene Chadbourne is an American improvisor, guitarist and banjoist. Highly eclectic and unconventional, Chadbourne's most formative influence is free jazz. He has also been a reviewer for Allmusic and a contributor to Maximum RocknRoll.Chadbourne started out playing rock and roll guitar, but...

, avant-garde trombonist David Dove, and Houston-based

Houston, Texas

Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...

, steel guitarist

Steel guitar

Steel guitar is a type of guitar or the method of playing the instrument. Developed in Hawaii in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a steel guitar is usually positioned horizontally; strings are plucked with one hand, while the other hand changes the pitch of one or more strings with the use...

 Susan Alcorn

Susan Alcorn

Susan Alcorn is an American composer, improvisor, and pedal steel guitarist active in contemporary music and free improvisation.-Life:...

, and together in concert the group performed the music of Willie Nelson

Willie Nelson

Willie Hugh Nelson is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie , combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger and Stardust , made Nelson one of the most recognized...

, Ernest Tubb

Ernest Tubb

Ernest Dale Tubb , nicknamed the Texas Troubadour, was an American singer and songwriter and one of the pioneers of country music. His biggest career hit song, "Walking the Floor Over You" , marked the rise of the honky tonk style of music...

, Bob Wills

Bob Wills

James Robert Wills , better known as Bob Wills, was an American Western Swing musician, songwriter, and bandleader, considered by music authorities as the co-founder of Western Swing and universally known as the pioneering King of Western Swing.Bob Wills' name will forever be associated with...

, and Austin music legend Doug Sahm

Doug Sahm

Douglas Wayne Sahm , was an American musician from Texas. Born in San Antonio, Texas, he was a child prodigy in country music, but became a significant figure in blues rock and other genres. Today Sahm is considered one of the most important figures in what is identified as Tejano music...

. This collaboration culminated in the release of the Texas Sessions studio recording. [] On the 3rd of January, 2000, Daniels' second daughter, Emma Lou Daniels, was born.

Daniels continues to collaborate extensively and has worked with artists as diverse as Texacala Jones, the Hard Feelings, John Permenter, Hunt Sales

Hunt Sales

Hunt Sales is an American rock and roll drummer who has played with Todd Rundgren, his brother Tony Sales, Iggy Pop and Tin Machine.- Personal life : Hunt Sales is the son of 1950s/60s television comedian Soupy Sales...

 the Leroi Brothers, Roy Loney, and Earl Poole Ball. []

As Jack O' Fire

'Singles'

• Bring Me The Head Of Jon Spencer 7" (Undone, 1992, UR-002)
• Clothes Make The Man 7" (Estrus, 1993, ES 743)
• She's Gone 7" (label ?, 1993, cat.no.?)
• Cool 7" (No Lie Records, 1993, NL-002)
• Wired 7" (Dishy, 1994, cat.no.?)
• O.K. Class ... Let's Review 7" (In The Red, 1994, ITR 023)
• Punkin' 7" (Estrus, 1994, ES 755)
• I'm Younger Than That Now 7" (Undone, 1994, UDR-0005-7)
• Soul Music 101 Chapter 1 7" (Sympathy For The Record Industry, 1994, SFTRI 253-1)
• Soul Music 101 Chapter 2 7" (Sympathy For The Record Industry, 1994, SFTRI 253-2)
• Soul Music 101 Chapter 3 7" (Sympathy For The Record Industry, 1994, SFTRI 253-3)
• Tiger In Your Tank 7" (label ?, year ?, cat.no.?)
• The Lost Lessons 7" (Shake Your Ass Records, 2004, SYA 008)
• The Lost Lessons 7" (Solid Sex Lovie Doll Records, 2004, SSLD 015)

'Splits'

• Integrity, Soul, Attitude 7" (No Lie Records, 1993, NL-003)

'Albums'

• 6 Super Shock Soul Songs 10" (Estrus, 1993, ES 102)
• Hot Rod Songs For The Soul Riot 10" (00 Records, 1993, 007)
• The Destruction Of Squaresville CD (Estrus, 1994, ES 1213)
• Soul Music 101, chapter 4 10" (Sympathy For The Record Industry, 1995, SFTRI 334)
• Forever CD (Sympathy For The Record Industry, 1996, SFTRI 405)
• Beware The Souless Cool CD (1+2 Records, 1996, 1+2 CD 059)

With the Oblivians

Oblivians

The Oblivians were an American punk rock trio that existed from 1993 to 1998. In the 1990s, their blues-infused brand of bravado, crudely-recorded music made them one of the most popular and prominent bands within the underground garage rock scene....

 and Monsieur Jeffrey Evans

Monsieur Jeffrey Evans

Jeffrey Evans is singer and songwriter best known for his Memphis, TN based band 68 Comeback and The Gibsons Bros., South Filthy and his current solo career....

• Walter Daniels Plays With Monsieur Jeffrey Evans & The Oblivians At Melissa's Garage 10" (Undone, 1995, UDR-0008-10)
• Melissa's Garage Revisited
  Melissa's Garage Revisited
  Melissa's Garage Revisited is an LP/CD released by Memphis garage-rock band the Oblivians. The album features Austin-based harmonicist Walter Daniels and Memphis-based vocalist Jeffrey Evans. The album was originally released as an EP in 1995 by Texas record label, Undone...
  
   LP/CD (Sympathy For The Record Industry, 1999, SFTRI 590)

With the Revelators

• The Revelators Featuring Walter Daniels 7" (Sympathy For The Record Industry, 1997, SFTRI 512)

With '68 Comeback

'68 Comeback

68 Comeback is an American garage rock band formed in Memphis, Tennessee in 1992 by singer, songwriter, and musicologist, Jeffrey Evans. For the purposes of the band, Jeffrey Evans is frequently billed as either "Monsieur Evans" or "Monsieur Jeffrey Evans." The group contains a revolving cast of...

'Singles'

• Someday My Prince Will Come .... 2x7" (Sympathy For The Record Industry, 1996, SFTRI 390)

'Albums'

• A Bridge Too Fuckin' Far 2xLP/CD (Sympathy For The Record Industry, 1998, SFTRI 422)

As Big Foot Chester

Singles

• Harpoon Man 7" (Sympathy For The Record Industry, 1996, SFTRI 419)

'Albums'

• Devil in Me CD (Sympathy For The Record Industry, 1996, SFTRI 420)
• Tabernacalin' CD (Sympathy For The Record Industry, 1998, SFTRI 520)

With The Hard Feelings

• Fought Back And Lost LP/CD (Sympathy For The Record Industry, 2000, SFTRI 604)
• You Won't Like It LP/CD (Dropkick/Beerland, 2001, BEHIND19/BEER01)
• Rebels Against the Future LP/CD (Dropkick/Beerland, 2003, BEHIND28/BEER02)

As Walter Daniels & the Drunken Angels

'Singles'

• Ain' t It Grand To Be A Christian 7" (Solid Sex Lovie Doll Records, 2000, SSLD 006)

With The Crack Pipes

• Every Night, Saturday Night (Sympathy For The Record Industry, 2001, SFTRI 646)

As South Filthy

'Singles'

• Soul Of A Man 7" (Wrecked Em Records, 2003, wrecked 004)

'Albums'

• You Can Name It Yo' Mammy If You Wanna ... CD (Sympathy For The Record Industry, 2002, SFTRI 701)
• Crackin' Up + You Can Name It Yo' Mammy If You Wanna 2xLP/LP (Rockin' Bones, 2005, RON 062-1/RON062-2)
• Undertakin' Daddy (Beast Records, BR-087)

As Walter Daniels & The Gospel Clodhoppers

• Harmonica!! b/w "Take Your Foot Out Of The Mud & Put It In The Sand" 7" (Ghost Highway Recordings, 2010, GHR-04)