Band Update - August 14, 2015 - 'Walked out at low tide yesterday; the shore was covered with broken shells. Stepped in the water then I backed away, consumed by a feeling that I know too well...' 

I used to have a couple of lamps the bodies of which were old containers that could be filled with whatever  the owner wanted-or left empty. A few years ago my sisters and I gathered a couple of bags of broken shells during a vacation at Carolina Beach. I used the broken shells to fill the lamps in with, and the shells converted them from a couple of very plain lamps into things of beauty. 

A year or so ago I was walking on the beach at
Cherry Grove at low tide and noticed how the
setting sun was reflecting on all the broken shells
in the tide pools. The lyrics above came to me,
and I thought about writing a song about how
broken shells - and broken people - can still have
value and beauty. I called my songwriting partner,
Jemi Blue, about the idea and sang the first couple
of lines into her voicemail.

A couple of days later, she emailed me a wonderful set of lyrics for the song. I recorded a demo and Sean Williams produced a fabulous instrumental track for it. B. Keith Williams, Sean and I took the track to California and Probyn Gregory, Randell Kirsch and Phil Bardowell added backing vocals with Gary Griffin engineering and producing the session. Keith and Sean added some additional backing vocals in Macon.

I heard the final mix last night and am really looking forward to people hearing the tune. It may have been born from a guy drinking beer on the beach, but at its core it's a song of redemption. To my ear, it sounds like what might have resulted if Jimmy Buffet and the Beach Boys wrote a song together and asked Chris Isaak to produce the session for them. -Miami Dan

Band Update - December 5, 2012 - I wish it didn't take us so long to record an album, but we're closing in on finishing the new one and I hope it will have been worth the wait.  

Since the last update, we've finished the tracking on 3 new songs.  "Coulda Been Romance" is a fantastic tale of a summer love that got away written by our guitarist, Keith Williams, and featuring some lyrical changes and a new ending penned by yours truly.  "The Last Time" is a 60's style duet that will feature a surprise female guest vocalist.  We also tracked our first ever cover song.  Fans of the "Ally McBeal" t.v. show may remember Vonda Shepard's recording of the Leiber/Stoller song, "Neighborhood".  The song was never a major chart hit, but I've always loved it and I think it fits well with our new material.  All 3 songs were recorded at Shadetree Studios in Athens, GA.  We were pleased to have both Randall Bramblett and Jez Graham playing on the sessions.  Josh Birmingham sat in for Billy Rivers (who is currently working an unbelievably brutal overtime schedule with his job) on the drum kit and Sean Williams handled the bass guitar since Pat was engineering the sessions.  Sean and Keith came up with some really nice guitar harmonies in the solo's for a couple of the new songs.

We'll probably track at least 2 more songs before wrapping things up and moving on to the final vocal sessions, sweetening, and mixing the tracks.  I hope the Barry Darnell-produced track can be ready for this album, but we may hold it for the next one.  The new album is planned for a May/June release date - just in time to brighten your summer.  :)  

I'm happily placed at the beach until Christmas with a new guitar, an adequate supply of Captain Morgan, and a stash of new blu-rays to watch.  I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and a great New Year.

Miami Dan, North Myrtle Beach, SC

Band Update - July 6, 2012 - It turned out that Dave Marks and Probyn Gregory weren't the only ones who got sidetracked from the new Hayes St. Band album by the Beach Boys 50th tour.  I decided to follow the tour for a while myself and wound up spending most of the month of May and part of early June on the road.  I've also been spending some time on an outside project in California, so the new album has been on the backburner for the last several weeks.  

We've made a little progress since the last update, though.  With the help of Randall Bramblett we recorded "Ginger Rogers" at Shadetree Studio, with Pat Yoe engineering and playing bass, his brother, Brian playing acoustic guitar, Randall Bramblett playing organ and piano, and the other members of the Ashutto Mirra band sitting in as well - Doyle Williams and Scott Rainwater on electric guitars and Josh Birmingham on drums.  Randall came back and overdubbed a killer sax solo, and I think this is a song that people will like.

We also mostly completed a song called "Raised in Carolina" at Muscadine Studios in Macon, with Keith Williams' incredibly talented son, Sean sitting in on bass, and Tony Cooper of Big Mike and the Booty Papas playing piano.  Paul Hornsby came up with a fantastic bass line for the choruses, and all this song needs now is some vocal touch-ups.

Next week I'll be traveling to Macon for rehearsals on a Keith Williams song (recently retitled "Coulda Been Romance") that I hope to track during my upcoming trip to Georgia.

The great Mobile Slim himself (Barry Darnell) has also agreed to produce a track for the album.  We're working on identifying the right song.

I hope everyone likes the new look of the website.  Jemi Blue has been working hard on it.

Bye from the beach.

Miami Dan, North Myrtle Beach, SC

Band Update - January 7, 2012 - Now that the holidays are behind us once again it's time to get back to work.  Since the October sessions we've completed all the overdubs on "Knickers", "Good Run" and "Brothers Forever."  Our publicist and occasional co-writer, Jemi Blue, had 100 copies of "Brothers" printed up and we've distributed a few to friends of the band.

It's time to get back into the studio and we have a session scheduled for January 25th at Shadetree Recording Studio in Athens, GA.  At present we're scheduled to record "Ginger Rogers."  Producing and playing on the track will be the great Randall Bramblett.

We had hoped to be able to completely finish "Jericho" but fate intervened and forced postponement of the completion of that song when the Beach Boys announced the original members will regroup for a 50th anniversary tour and album.  Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Alan Jardine, Bruce Johnston and our friend and "Jericho" producer, David Marks will treat their fans to quite a show this summer.  David's involvement will require the completion date for "Jericho" to be pushed back.  We're also hoping that our friend, the talented multi-instrumentalist Probyn Gregory will be playing in the backing band for the tour.  If that happens, the recording of "We Tried to Take Love All the Way" will also be delayed, as Probyn is slated to produce that track.  The Beach Boys 50th may cause a delay in the release of the next Hayes Street Band album, but it's a small price to pay.  As long time fans of the Beach Boys, we're very happy for David and Probyn, and looking forward to both the tour and the new studio album.

In the meantime, we'll continue with the recording of the new tracks that don't involve either David or Probyn.  After "Ginger Rogers" I think we'll get started on "The Last Time" and a cover of the Peter Lacey tune "She's A Rainbow" which was written by our friend David Beard.

Wishing everyone a great 2012 from the coast.

Miami Dan, North Myrtle Beach, SC

Band Update - October 11, 2011 - I've always wanted to try a night session and Pat, Billy, Dwayne and I recently had our first two at Wild Bean Studio in Macon.  B. Keith Williams had gigs both nights and couldn't make the sessions.  These were also our first sessions anywhere outside of Muscadine Recording Studio and it felt a little like being naked recording without the guiding hand of Paul Hornsby and the presence of Keith Williams - both for the first time.

Once we got going, though, things came together well and we had two great sessions.  We did the tracks, lead vocals and a few overdubs for "Keep Your Knickers On," "Pretty Good Run," and a new Jemi Blue/Miami Dan co-write entitled "Brothers Forever."  "Knickers" and "Brothers" are keepers, but we'll probably re-cut "Good Run" at a slower tempo.  Goose Goodrich engineered and sat in on guitars along with Barry Darnell and Heath Abney, who we affectionately call "Seth."  :)  Barry also arranged and produced a fantastic horn section consisting of his Mobile Slim Bandmates Elbert "Wailer" Durham on sax and Tom "New York" Harling on trumpet for "Knickers."  Dwayne overdubbed some really hot B-3 parts and everybody was hitting on all cylinders.  Being a night person, I really enjoyed the night sessions and hope to be able to do more of them for the new album.  It's not easy to book studio time at night or to get working musicians of the Hayes Street Band together during prime gig time.

We're scheduled to go back in the studio later this month to put the finishing touches on "Knickers" and "Brothers" and to re-track "Run."  I'm not yet sure where the next session will be or what tunes we'll be doing, but it will be fairly soon.

Meanwhile, I recorded a new home demo of "Ginger Rogers" tonight at Brother at the Beach and am really excited about going to the studio with this song.  Anyone who liked "1944" from our last album will like Ginger, I think.  I started recording the demo at 7:00 this evening and was surprised to see the clock hit midnight when I finished the rough mix.  It's easy to lose track of time doing demos and takes a while when you're the only one in the studio and don't play the keys any better than I do.  :)

Also, Dave Marks has recorded new guitar tracks for "Jericho" in his home studio that will be included in the final mix.  We hope to be able to get Dave back to Georgia soon to finish "Jericho" and to help us with another track or two.

There's nothin' wrong with mixing a Captain & Coke at 12:22 a.m. is there?

Miami Dan, North Myrtle Beach, SC

Band Update - September 1, 2011 - We had a great session at Muscadine Studios in Macon a few days ago.  David Marks flew in from New York to produce the first track for our upcoming album.  The song is called "Jericho."  The studio line-up was Keith Williams on acoustic and electric guitar, Billy Rivers on drums, Sean Williams sitting in for Pat Yoe on bass guitar, Basil Dixon on percussion, and Marcus James Henderson of the Marshall Tucker Band sat in on flute and alto sax.  Paul Hornsby engineered the session.  Dave Marks will also be adding additional guitar parts at his home studio.

The song came out great and we hope to have David back soon.

We're hoping to have the next session sometime next month.  The next two songs up will probably be "Keep Your Knickers On" and "The Halls of Sanctimony," although that is subject to change.

We also have a couple of new songs we'll be tracking at some point, including "Pretty Good Run" and a possible duet with a surprise female guest artist entitled "The Last Time."  We met our first goal of starting the recording process in August and our plan remains to have the new album ready for a Summer 2012 release.

We'd like to send a big thanks to our good friend, Dennis Holseybrook at Scrub Radio for interviewing Billy Rivers and me on his show today.

We also want to thank David Mobley at the Songwriter's Webcast for putting our material in rotation on his station.

More updates when they happen.

Miami Dan, North Myrtle Beach, SC

Band Update - May 17, 2011 - With "Star of the Beach" completed and available for purchase, we're starting the planning of our next album.  At present, the plan is to record 7 or 8 Miami Dan penned tunes, 3 tunes by other band members and possibly 1 or 2 covers.

Working titles of Miami Dan songs being considered for inclusion are:

"Raised in Carolina"

"Ginger Rogers"

"Politicks (Don't Get Me Started)" - collaboration with David Beard

"Keep Your Knickers On"

"It Might Be Late"

"Jericho"

"'Til I See Them Again"

"Moved By the Spirit"

"Halls of Sanctimony"

"Don't Doubt Me"

"Just A Thought"

"6 Carolina Boys"

"A Mysterious Stranger"

"We Tried To Take Love All the Way"

"The Rock & Roll Sound" - collaboration with David Beard and Mark Moore

 Working titles of songs written by other band members being considered for inclusion are:

"I Don't Know Why Women Want Me" (Billy Ray Rivers)

"It Was Love" (B. Keith Williams)

"Slow Down, What's the Rush" (Patrick Yoe)

 We've already recorded rough demos for some of the songs at my home studio (Brother at the Beach) in North Myrtle Beach) and yesterday recorded a piano/vocal demo of "We Tried to Take Love All the Way" at Jez Graham's home studio, with Jez playing a beautiful piano part.  The style of this song is quite a departure from our previous recordings and Probyn Gregory has agreed to produce it.  I have high hopes for this track.   We have also spoken to the great David Marks about playing on the upcoming cd and possibly producing "Jericho".  Additionally, we're working on having a couple of exciting guest stars appear on our next cd.  More to follow. 

At present, the target date to begin recording is August, 2011.  We'll keep the website updated as things progress.

Miami Dan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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