Veteran blues man Dan Treanor has been entertaining and thrilling audiences for over forty years. Dan has played his unique style of the blues all over the world. At times in his career Dan has played with Son Seals, Buddy Guy and Jr. Wells, Louisiana Red, George “Boogie” Daniels, Ronnie Boy Fruge’, Jimmy Carl Black, Frankie Lee, Bob Margolin, Cory Harris, Tab Boniot and the list goes on and on. Originally from the Southern Colorado town of Pueblo, Dan started playing the blues as a teenager and has been at it ever since. In 1969, while serving in the infantry in Viet Nam, he started playing the harmonica and has been blowing up a storm ever since. Today he is considered one of the top blues harp players in the business and has been a Hohner Harmonica endorsee for the last twelve years. Dan also plays guitar, dobro, banjo, bass, keyboards and cane flute.
Fourteen years ago Dan started the Blues In The Schools Program for the Colorado Society. He has since presented his unique and entertaining program to over fifty thousand kids, from elementary to college levels. A few years back he started to hand build African string instruments. Originally, these instruments were to be used in his Blues in the Schools presentations but they quickly made their way into Dan’s live blues show. A new and exciting style of blues began to emerge and blossom into the music Dan makes today. Afro beats, African string instruments, Delta and Chicago Blues grooves, lots of harp and guitar and soulful vocals - 'Afrosippi Blues'.
In the fall of 2003 a call from a Denver booking agent put Dan and his band African Wind, together with R&B legend, Frankie Lee, to do a series of concerts in the Rocky Mountain area. Frankie Lee is a wonderful entertainer with a great voice and stage presence. While in Denver, Dan played Frankie some demos of songs he was working on. Frankie loved the sound so they went into the studio and created a CD. In April of 2004 at the W.C. Handy Awards, Dan and Frankie were signed by one of the top blues labels in the world - Northern Blues. The CD - “AFRICAN WIND” - was released in October, 2004 to much critical acclaim. It proved to be one of the freshest sounding blues CDs of the year as declared by the critics. It was nominated by the Independent Music Awards as the best Blues CD of the year for 2005. The title song, “African Wind”, made it to the finals of the 2005 International Songwriting Competition.
In early January, 2006, Dan and his band, African Wind, released a second CD - “MERCY“. “MERCY” was named Best Blues CD by Westword in 2006. It also was nominated for Blues CD of the year by the Independent Music Awards.
In September of 2007 Dan released a third CD in the ’afrosippi style’, "BROTHERS, BLOOD & BONE". This time he teamed up with the very talented Jack Hadley to once again step into the limelight with an innovative approach to the blues. The sound they have created is stripped down blues with an African feel that touches on bare-bones, Delta/North Mississippi hill country, raunchy style.
Dan has also added his harp and dobro talents to several major film soundtracks - 'Dances With Wolves', 'Glory', 'Gettysburg', 'How The West Was Lost', and numerous PBS specials. He has played as a session musician on over 150 recording sessions .
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