The Latest Album from Danny Paisley — Bluegrass State of Mind
Born in Landenberg, Pennsylvania. You’ve been deeply immersed in traditional bluegrass your entire life, beginning with your father Bob Paisley and his Southern Grass band as a teenager (and now leading the band since his passing in 2004). Can you describe what bluegrass means to you on a personal level?
Bluegrass to me is a part of my heritage, part of my being, my soul. My grandparents played old-time mountain music — old-time banjo, guitar and sang. My father, of course, was a bluegrass guitar singer and well respected in the bluegrass world and played for well over 60 years. And I’m just carrying that tradition on now, passing it to my son. It’s just a part of my life so deeply that it really is who I am. I feel the songs, I’ve lived a lot of the songs and I sing them from the heart.
Representing the third generation in the band is your son, Ryan (playing the mandolin). Beyond your father, who were some of your biggest musical influences, both vocally and instrumentally, inside and outside of bluegrass?
Some of my biggest influences were, of course, the first generation — Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, Stanleys, Reno :-) The list goes on and on. I so much love the energy, the drive and the lonesomeness that they put into their songs. Also artists like George Jones and Vern Gosdin, who to this day I still love to listen to.
Of course, I also tended to listen to southern rock, and that was also the same feeling — the excitement, the freestyle of some of that music I love — and old-timey string band music. I love just the energy that came. But my biggest singing influences came from my father and probably just a group of the early bluegrass people that I was able to see as a youngster.
2025 is your 50th year in bluegrass. Comparisons to legendary country and bluegrass singers like Jones and Gosdin. Numerous accolades, including being the Reigning IBMA Male Vocalist of the Year. Your voice is one of the most distinctive in bluegrass today. How did you develop your vocal style?
For me, singing is my instrument. I feel the songs I’m singing. I feel the heartbreak in a sad, lonesome tune. I feel the excitement of a good driving bluegrass song. So, like an instrumentalist, I feel what comes out of me. I never set out to sing a song a certain way. I just start singing it and as I get into it. I just start to really let the words sink into me.
IBMA Song of the Year award in 2009 for “Don’t Throw Mama’s Flowers Away.” Guitarist, an adherence to the classic sound of traditional bluegrass. How do you define the Danny Paisley & The Southern Grass sound?
Our sound is harkening back to the earlier days of the old-time mountain string bands. With our fiddle player, TJ Lundy, he plays a style which is a bridge between the two. Our songs are more back from the era of hard living, hard work, hard play. Some folks say ‘bar room bluegrass,’ but I just call it ‘hard-living folks.’
Now with my son, he’s brought new, fresh ideas into the band while still respecting the past, which I embrace because I know that to move the music forward, we have to keep things fresh, alive — and adding little things and changing subtle little things, sometimes not by design, but just by continuously touring and playing songs.
Dedicated to preserving bluegrass. How do you balance preserving the sound your fans love with keeping things fresh and evolving musically?
Keeping things fresh and moving the sound forward with my desire to preserve the heritage — the tradition of the music — is a hard balancing act. I personally want to see the music be here forever, but I realize that there’s going to be change. As generationally more people find out and understand the deep feeling of the music, they all put their spin on it. And my real view is: respect and revere the past, but embrace the future and slowly start to change things to open people‘s eyes and ears. Also, for me personally, not getting stuck in a rut of playing a certain way — picking fresh songs is a major part of it.
Bluegrass State of Mind album. First since your successful throat cancer battle. Lead single, “Till Lonesome Comes Around.” How did you choose this song, co-written by David Stewart and Mark Brinkman, as the first single to introduce fans to the new music?
Well, that was easy. Two friends, David Stewart and Brink Brinkman, brought me that song and I immediately loved it — didn’t have to think one bit about it. It was classic bluegrass-sounding, knew that we could do it in our style — and boy, if that’s not a true bluegrass song to me. I have several of their originals on my new CD, Bluegrass State of Mind.
Road warrior, with a packed nationwide touring schedule. Can you share a memory of a particularly special performance or festival appearance over the years?
I’ve had the honor of traveling all around the world. I’ve been to Japan and Asia. I’ve been to Europe countless times, Scandinavia, and all across the United States, Canada and the Bahamas — played in Bermuda. I’m a lucky man. I’ve played from little firehouses to big concerts.
And I always laugh about that. As with many artists — one night we’ll be playing a show at a big concert hall and the next night we’ll be playing a little VFW hall, lol.
Last year we went way up in the Rocky Mountains to the world-famous Telluride Bluegrass Festival and played it and had an amazing time. Had to keep oxygen cans with us so we could breathe! At one of the shows, we left there, flew home to Baltimore, Maryland, and got on a cruise boat — and the next evening we were playing on a cruise ship headed to the Caribbean. And I always laugh — ‘We’ve seen it all boys, from the water to the mountains in less than 24 hours!’
What do you see as the future of traditional bluegrass? What excites you, and what challenges do you see for the genre?
How can you not be excited about the future of the music? We have such amazing talent out there now. We have Billy Strings playing huge venues, putting on terrific concerts at packed houses. Young artists like Molly Tuttle doing amazing things. It’s just — it’s amazing, the talent of the younger people coming in. And our music is vibrant. Got a lot of great musicians, great fans, new fans coming into it — and it’s an exciting time. I see it being very robust!