Many of you will remember a very young and eager lad from Doncaster called Daniel Martin back around 2006 as he had been visiting and participating at various Shadows clubs at that time, culminating in becoming the lead guitarist for The Foot Tappers and being invited by Bruce Welch to play lead guitar in Phil Kelly's absence due to illness.
I gave him a job with Past Masters playing and honing his skills by giving him stuff other than Hank tunes to play, explaining that if he wanted to make a living as I do, he would have to expand his repertoire somewhat and take an interest in other genres of music.
He also deputised on drums for Past Masters and to this day in my opinion is one of the best drummers we have had, nothing flashy, but stable and musical.
Just after I became ill in 2013 he helped keep my band together, along with Adrian Fountain, eventually forming his own outfit with Adrian and going over to Nashville to see how it's done. Between them they put on some great country shows here in the UK , bringing over talent from Nashville and then Danny and Adrian went their own ways after I introduced them to Dave Berry's lead guitarist who got them into the Cruisers for a few years. Ade went on to The Fourmost and now The New Amen Corner and is very busy, whilst Danny went to Ireland and reached great heights on their country scene.
Adrian still plays with me in Past Masters when available so we're in touch all the time, but I was pleasantly surprised yesterday to receive a CD from Danny, his new offering of 'The Man From Nowhere' that he put together during lockdown. I have to say that I'm delighted that he took my advice all those years ago and has become a very proficient guitarist and his CD stands up there with any of the other I have as a 'good listen', with a nice choice of material and not swamped in echo. I know Danny's been listening to Albert Lee and it shows, you couldn't have a better mentor to build up those fast licks. While he's been doing that I've been learning pedal steel and it isn't easy, but as I can no longer do the speed thing because of damaged fingers, it gives me a focus and something to while away the time between concerts.
Anyway I'm beginning to ramble, what this is about is to let you know that one of our own is doing something worthwhile through gaining experience from here amongst us and I'm proud of him. You can get Danny's CD at Leo's Den and it is worth checking out.