| Don Baney (Photo: Enoch Wu/Sentinel-Tribune) |
Don Baney has been pounding on the drums for almost half-century.
Watching the Beatles on Ed Sullivan "sparked my interest." Seeing jazz great Gene Krupa on Jack
Parr "sealed it for me."
His father encouraged him to play guitar – and he did eventually add guitar to his arsenal – but seeing
Ringo Starr up on a platform a few feet higher than John, Paul and George, made an impression.
His admiration or the Fab Four hasn’t faded any. "I adore them as much as I ever did."
That influence can be heard on a few tracks on his new CD "Highly Articulate Outburst." The CD
is issued under his stage name Donnie Dark.
Baney started playing in bands at 17, and toured with Ebenezer.
His playing in bands has ebbed and flowed over the years, this being an ebbtide period.
"I’m not so keen on playing (live shows) so much anymore," he said. "It seems like I never
get to play what I want to play."
Playing in blues bands, he concedes, "is a lot of fun."
Beside Baney has far too much fun working in his converted tool shed studio, putting together music.
The Beatles are an influence here as well. He looks back in wonder about how, with the technology they
had, they were able to construct the complex tracks they did. "I just tear their stuff apart,"
he said.
He started recording cassettes back in 1996, but this is his first compact disc.
"I’ve been doing this a long time," Baney said. "I just wanted something to show for it.
Something to leave behind for my kids."
Aside from a cover of the Beatles’ "No Reply," all the tracks are his originals.
The songs are a mix of recent creations while others are of an earlier vintage. "Someone Like
You," he said is about 30 years old. The ballad "All the Rest of My Life," that’s
decorated with some harpsichord played by Tyler Hamlin, and the acoustic folk song about that crook
"Bernie" are the newest tunes on the record.
As usual he overdubs himself playing drums, guitar, bass, keyboards and even some saxophone squawks on
the closing "Final Outbursts."
He enlists the aid of a few friends, guitarists Brent Domann, Paul Sanders, Ben Omlor and Dave Foreman,
bassist Doug Baker, and a contribution by Sax O’Brien.
Baney has a fairly casual approach to composing. "I usually just sit with my guitar and watching TV
and kind of running chords," he said. "I’m not really paying attention and they just kind of
pop out. I like that I don’t have control over it."
That’s as far as the music is concerned. "The words, I labor with them."
He’ll changed lyrics even as he’s in the studio recording.
"I’m writing like crazy," he said. He has enough material for another CD, which he’s putting
together now.
After that, he said, it may be time to play live again. "I wouldn’t mind putting a band together to
do some dates."
