O.G. - D4th Tune

1,000 Miles (cover of Dwight Yokum)


I've been spending a lot of time thinking about the songs we are finishing up for the next Danforths album, "Amphibian." It has been a long time in the making, close to two years now. Throughout the process it has been interesting to see how much the ideas have morphed and developed from their early stages. I am really eager to post them, but at this point I want to wait until they are completely finished. I can't spoil it.

This did get me thinking about the evolution of the Danforths as a group. Like the songs, the band itself has morphed and changed over time both in regard to it's members and it's approach. But as the old saying goes, "The more things change the more they stay the same." I went back and listened to some of the earliest recording from the Danforths (or the Chris Danforths as we were also known) and found that despite changes to instrumentation and recording methods there seems to be a common thread to the style of the music.

Hearing "1,000 Miles," the first song off of the first Christopher Danforth ep, brought me back to my role in the recording of this Dwight Yokum cover tune. Around the time of this recording, the majority of our close knit posse had graduated or were in the process of doing so, and everyone had started moving away from our college community in Fargo/Moorhead. Chris had moved down to the Twin Cities. A number of our other buddies moved to California. Our crew of friends, who were bound together by a love of making and performing music, was dispersed, and there was a real sense that this was the end of our musical endeavors with our close friends. Little did we know that it was the very beginning of a new era of creativity that would span a longer period of time than any of our previous projects.

Chris Danforth began making recording on a PC in his bedroom. Through this new medium, he began working with more abstract and electronic based sounds. This was a significant change to the types of tunes Chris had been best known for in Fargo/Moorhead, where many of the bands he had been a part of (the Women, the Scrodonauts, the Velvet Lush, and Wisconsin Dells) had their songs rooted in the live experience. As such, these earlier bands were based around how the songs could be played in a live setting focusing on guitars, bass, and drums. This new approach allowed Chris greater flexibility in regard to sound and structure.

He eventually came up to Moorhead to visit with some bits and pieces of his new material. One song he was putting together was this Dwight Yokum cover, which he asked me to sing. I had never heard the original, but figured I'd take a crack at it. Here is the result of that session. It was the beginning of looking at and working on music in a totally new way for us. I hope you like it.