The Iron Horse Music Hall Show Review

Glide Magazine
by Sheryl Hunter
January 23, 2015

Most people are familiar with the actor Jeff Daniels. Daniels first came to prominence in the 1983 film, Terms of Endearment and has been working steadily on stage and screen ever since. He’s coming off a particularly big year having won an Emmy for his portrayal of Will McAvoy in the HBO series, The Newsroom and scoring a box office hit with Dumb and Dumber To. But most people aren’t as familiar with Jeff Daniels the musician, an accomplished singer-songwriter and guitarist who been making music for as long as he has been acting.

Playing acoustic guitar and backed by his son’s five piece band, The Ben Daniels Band, Daniels recently took the stage at the Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton, Massachusetts. Daniels played a two hour set of his folksy songs, which range from the silly to the soulful and benefit from his adept finger pickin’ and his solid albeit raspy voice. (Daniels admitted to suffering from the flu.)

Early on in the show, he said to the crowd, ”I bet you’re thinking, he doesn’t suck so far!” And he was probably right, as many in the sold out audience were likely there out of curiosity and were pleased to find out he he’s not just some movie star dabbling in music just because he can, but actually is a talented musician.

You can hear the obvious influence of artists like John Prine and Lyle Lovett in Daniels’ work, but thanks to his son’s band there was traces of rock, country, and even bluegrass to be heard. Daniels first set of the evening drew heavily from his latest album, “Days Like These” his sixth and most stylistically varied work to date. Highlights included The bluesy title track and “There Ain’t Nothin’ New in New York City” in which he speak sings the lyrics (“This is as close to hip-hop as I get”) against Tommy Reifel’s jazzy bass line.

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