Information about Daniel Amos

Members

Daniel Amos (aka D. A., Dä) is a rock band formed in 1974 by Terry Scott Taylor on guitars and vocals, Marty Dieckmeyer on bass guitar, Steve Baxter on guitars and Jerry Chamberlain on lead guitars. Current members include Bassist Tim Chandler, guitarist Greg Flesch and Drummer Ed McTaggart. Over the course of 30 years, they have experimented with country rock, christian rock, and alternative rock.

Beginnings

It could be said that the roots of Daniel Amos began to grow out of Jubal's Last Band, an acoustic quartet consisting of Taylor, Kenny Paxton, Chuck Starnes and Steve Baxter, who spent their time performing for Bible study groups and at coffee shops throughout Southern California. In 1974, JLB recorded a demo tape together and eventually lost Starnes and Paxton. Bassist Marty Dieckmeyer and guitarist Jerry Chamberlain were brought in to fill the empty spots. Sometime in the middle of 1975, Jubal's Last Band (minus Baxter) auditioned for Maranatha! Music and Calvary Chapel in hopes of signing a recording and performance contract. Another band at the meeting, led by Darrell Mansfield, had a similar name - Jubal. The two bands decided to change their names to avoid confusion. Mansfield renamed his band Gentle Faith (taken from the name of co-band member Henry Cutrona's earlier band), and Jubal's Last Band became Daniel Amos.

Maranatha Records era

Daniel Amos succeeded in landing a recording and performance contract and quickly recorded their first song for the label in 1975, Taylor's "Ain't Gonna Fight It." A full album, produced by Al Perkins, followed. The band released their first, eponymous album (Daniel Amos) in 1976 (produced by Al Perkins) and enlisted Ed McTaggart on drums. Previously, McTaggart had been the drummer for Bill Sprouse Jr.'s The Road Home.

By 1977, the band had begun to shed their country sound with the album Shotgun Angel, which took some fans by surprise. Shotgun Angel was half country and half rock-opera. Side 2 of the LP featured lush orchestrations and a string of rock songs linked together in a way reminiscent of The Beatles Sgt. Peppers album. The band even made a number of concert performances at this time with a full orchestra backing them.

Switch to Solid Rock Records

By 1978 the band had recorded their first entirely rock effort, Horrendous Disc, with help from newly added percussionist, Alex MacDougall, and keyboardist Mark Cook. MacDougall is a well respected percussionist that has toured with Loggins and Messina, Leon Russell and The Beach Boys, among others. Cook had been the keyboardist for the Warner Brothers band Spring Canyon. Also around this time, the band began to tour with singer/songwriter Randy Stonehill. DA would perform their own set and serve as Stonehill's backing band on the tour. That tour, known as the "Amos n' Randy Tour," became legendary for DA and Stonehill fans.

Although Horrendous Disc was recorded for Maranatha! Music, the label ended up dropping it because of a major change in the focus of the label. The label decided to stop releasing albums by rock and roll acts and wanted to focus on praise music. The band shopped the new record around to several labels, including Warner Brothers, but settled on Larry Norman's Solid Rock Records. Solid Rock ended up delaying the release for nearly three years and the album was not seen on record store shelves until a week before the release of the band's newly recorded fourth album ¡Alarma! in 1981.

¡Alarma! Chronicles

¡Alarma! was the first of a four part series of albums entitled The ¡Alarma! Chronicles, which also included the albums Doppelgänger, Vox Humana, and Fearful Symmetry. The band raised eyebrows on the tour that followed each release by presenting a full multimedia event complete with video screens synchronized to the music, something that was unusual in the early 1980s for any band. The stage setup also included mannequins, a 3D slide show and actors portraying game show announcers and models for the song "New Car!" By the end of the four part album series, new band members Tim Chandler and Greg Flesch joined the band to fill vacant positions previously held by Dieckmeyer and Chamberlain. Keyboardist Rob Watson would also occasionally join the band in the studio or on the road.

Swirling Eddies/Stunt Records

The band released Darn Floor-Big Bite in 1987. Although Darn Floor was an artistically ambitious and critically acclaimed effort, it sold poorly. They began a followup in 1988 but abandoned it in favor of a chance to do something different. Many of the band members became The Swirling Eddies for a string of releases through the early 1990s. In 1990, D.A. would form their own independent record label, Stunt Records, with help from friend Tom Gulotta. One of the first albums released by Stunt was the half comedy, half rarities and best of compilation from Dr. Edward Daniel Taylor, The Prickly Heat Telethon of Love. Over the years that followed, Stunt became the primary source for new DA material, including the live albums, Live Bootleg '82 and Preachers From Outer Space!. Jason and Eric Townsend, producers of the DA Tribute CD , would join the Stunt Records organization in 1999 to help with promotion and production work.

In addition to recording several albums by The Swirling Eddies, the members of DA returned in 1991 with Kalhöun. 1993's MotorCycle followed, which also marked the return of Chamberlain, who would hang around long enough for two additional DA releases in the 1990s, BibleLand in 1994 and Songs of the Heart in 1995. Songs of the Heart was a concept album that followed the fictional couple, Bud & Irma Ackendorf, on a trip down the historic Route 66. The concept was explored in greater detail in the 2002 3 CD "book set" entitled When Everyone Wore Hats. That collection not only included the entire 1995 album, but also the entire album reworked as an acoustic band, three new songs, an interview of Taylor by Starflyer59's Jason Martin, photos, expanded liner notes and a newly written short story by Taylor.

¡Alarma! Chronicles boxset

In 1999, the band released all four parts of The ¡Alarma! Chronicles on CD packaged together in a 200 page hardcover book which featured color photos, interviews and the entire ¡Alarma! Chronicles story. Writers John Thompson, Bruce Brown, Randy Layton and Brian Quincy Newcomb also contributed new essays for the book. The book collection, certainly an unusual release in the music world, received praise from fans and music critics and went on to sell out in a very short amount of time. Over the years that followed, copies of the book set would show up on Ebay selling for hundreds of dollars.

2000-Present

In 2001, DA released what many critics called their best album to date, Mr Buechner's Dream, named after author Frederick Buechner. The album also pays tribute to Walker Percy, T. S. Eliot, G. K. Chesterton, Flannery O'Connor, Lewis Carroll, Dorothy L. Sayers, and other authors that have inspired DA's lyrics for years. The album was released on Stunt Records, with distribution by longtime friend Dan Michaels' label Galaxy21 Music.

In early 2004, Stunt Records began the long and difficult task of digging through the vast DA archives and remastering most of the back catalog for rerelease. The first release in the series, a 30th Anniversary Deluxe edition of the band's first album, Daniel Amos, was released in June 2006. The 2 disc special edition included an expanded booklet of never before seen photos, additional liner notes and an entire extra disc of bonus material including early demos and live recordings from the pre-DA years. Work began on the next reissues in the series immediately following its release. Plans are underway to create a deluxe edition of Horrendous Disc with Solid Rock Records, and Darn Floor - Big Bite with Arena Rock Records.

Discography

• Daniel Amos, 1976 debut album
• Shotgun Angel, 1977 album
• Horrendous Disc, 1978, 1981 album
• ¡Alarma!, 1981 album
• Doppelgänger, 1983 album
• Vox Humana, 1984 album
• Fearful Symmetry, 1986 album
• Darn Floor - Big Bite, 1987 album
• Kalhöun, 1991 album
• MotorCycle, 1993 album
• BibleLand, 1994 album
• Songs of the Heart, 1995 album
• Mr. Buechner's Dream, 2001 double CD. CD 1 entitled: Mr. Buechner's Dream, CD 2 entitled: And So It Goes.

Live Albums

• Live Bootleg '82, 1990
• Preachers From Outer Space!, 1994 An historic night, recorded live at the Anaheim Convention Center, Easter Weekend 1978

Special Releases

• The Revelation, 1986, re-issued 2000

Compilations

• Dr. Edward Daniel Taylor - The Prickly Heat Telethon of Love, 1990
• Orphans of God, tribute to Mark Heard, 1996
• Our Personal Favorite World Famous Hits, 1998
• Surfonic Water Revival, 1999

Videos

• Daniel Amos Live in Anaheim 1985, 2003 DVD
• The Making of Mr. Buechner's Dream, 2005 DVD
• Instruction Through Film, May 2007, DVD

External links

• Official Band Website
• Daniel Amos at MySpace.com
• Trouser Press entry

•  • [ e] Daniel Amos
Terry Scott Taylor | Ed McTaggart | Greg Flesch | Tim Chandler
Marty Dieckmeyer | Mark Cook | Steve Baxter | Jerry Chamberlain | Rob Watson | Alex MacDougall
Production & Art Direction
Al Perkins | Jonathan David Brown | Mike Stone | Gene Eugene Ojo Taylor | Tom Gulotta | Eric Townsend | Jason Townsend | Doug TenNapel | Brian Heydn The Green Room | Whitefield Studios | Mama Jo's | Martinsound | 3-D Studios | Neverland Studios
Discography
Studio albums: Daniel Amos | Shotgun Angel | Horrendous Disc | Alarma! Doppelgnger | Vox Humana | Fearful Symmetry | Darn Floor - Big Bite Kalhun | MotorCycle | BibleLand | Songs of the Heart | Mr. Buechner's Dream
Live Albums: Live Bootleg '82 | Preachers From Outer Space!
Related Articles
Lost Dogs | The Swirling Eddies | Dr. Edward Daniel Taylor | Stunt Records Larry Norman | Randy Stonehill | Tom Howard