Green Daniel

Nashville music producer, songwriter, and artist, Green Daniel has gone from making things happen in Nashville recording studios to letting things happen in his Sumner County art studio. Starting out as a 19 year-old radio personality at Denver’s powerhouse KOA, Green moved in and out of the broadcast and music industries for years while keeping his first love, making art, in the background. “In those days, art didn’t pay very well. Of course, neither did the music industry, particularly in the Rocky Mountains”, he says. “The difference is that a move to Nashville helped the music business improve. Art still doesn’t pay.”

Through Nashville’s music channels, Green has used his production, arranging and publishing skills to help mold the early formations of several hit songs, even writing one which found its way to the top of the country charts. He admits that those country music successes seemed a bit illogical to some of his early jazz mentors, but he is quick to recognize that those experiences were crucial to his creative development. “Meeting Woody Herman and meeting Harlan Howard were both pretty awesome affairs for me. Art is art and it doesn’t matter where it’s born.” Green Daniel is in a good place, these days. He muses that, as he grows closer to the time when most people are winding down their careers, he’s just getting started again. “Throughout my years in high school, I was absolutely consumed by three subjects: jazz, art, and one particular arty girl. All three of these subjects were constantly on my mind, and all three were a little heady for a small town in Western Kentucky, where I grew up. I have to pinch myself when I realize that today, in 2010, after all sorts of detours, I finally have all three of these early passions in my life.

Green Daniel produced the Christina Watson album, “A Flower Truly Blue”. Christina will perform some of their co-written songs with her trio at the NJW reception on August 6th.