Danno Simpson Is Bringing Authenticity Back to Country Music

If you were to imagine a blue-collar, bona fide country artist writing music about their turbulent life and a hard day's work, then Danno Simpson would probably fit the image in your head. 

When he released his debut EP, Honest Work, in 2020, Simpson had recently been kicked out of college and was broke, working as an irrigation technician, digging holes for a living. The EP, which he recorded in a buddy's apartment for $150 and a 24-pack of Twisted Tea, followed a year that found Simpson at his lowest, and is relatable to anyone who has felt stuck in life.

“It all culminated with me ending up in the intake at the Larimer County Jail,” Simpson says. “I had a real come-to-Jesus moment there, and that was where I decided I was gonna do songwriting, or at least give it a go professionally.”

He got sober and released Honest Work a month later.

The title track tells the story of a hole digger's day of work and sorrow. The genuine brutality of a blue-collar life is transcribed through such lyrics as “I try to sleep but I'm in pain and I can't make it go away, so I just hurt." His basis for the song was his boss at the time. 

“It started off as a 'fuck you'...and then I came to the conclusion halfway through writing the song that if you dug holes for twenty years in eastern Colorado, you’d be an asshole, too," Simpson says.
Country music changed after 9/11, moving away from its working-class roots and the emotions that come with living it. But not with Simpson, whose ability to channel raw emotion and experience into music signals a return to traditional country and separates him from most artists in the genre today.

Born in Texas, he moved around a lot until his family finally settled in Elizabeth, about twenty miles outside of Parker. It was through all that moving that his parents bought him a guitar to lessen the lonely burden that comes with constantly being the new kid. “From when I was twelve years old, we'd move to a new town, and I'd get super into the guitar for about six months, and then sports would kick up,” Simpson says.

Now Simpson tries to pick up the guitar daily and write something new. The songs he's working on may change day to day, but the process of him sitting down on his couch with the guitar and a yellow legal pad remains the same. These sessions often instigate semi-autobiographical storytelling, and so much of his catalogue relies on his own experience, thoughts and feelings.
Name a song of his, and Simpson could give you the wild story behind it. Names might be changed and some exaggeration may occur, but the sincerity remains. “If I have a character in a song that is doing something, it's a lot of fiction, but the nucleus of the song is always real," Simpson explains. "It always starts from some kind of experience."

That lyrical style is more reminiscent of a time in the country genre when music was written from the heart, and not for the radio plays. 

Simpson credits this to his idols, people such as Townes Van Zandt, Steve Earle and Guy Clark. They did not stray from deep emotions in their songs and did not need a catchy chorus to find commercial success.  “I've kind of considered myself like an acolyte of all those Hill Country songwriters of the ’70s,” Simpson says.

That vagrant disregard for writing a “catchy hit” has worked out in Simpson's favor so far. He released Honest Work without thinking anything of it. Within a year, he fostered a burgeoning career as a songwriter, and for the past two years, he's been supporting national tours with such bands as the Steel Woods, the Red Clay Strays and 49 Winchester. He’s also headlined institutions in the country music sphere. 

“The first real moment that I had where I was like, 'Oh, this shit's bigger than I think it is,' is when a venue called Luckenbach Texas hit me up,” Simpson says. Luckenbach Texas has staged the likes of Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett and Waylon Jennings.

As he's gained traction over the years, countless industry professionals have told him to leave Denver for a place such as Texas or Nashville. But even as he leaves the Mile High for another tour, this time on the West Coast, he’ll be back home on Saturday, October 12, to play Washington's in Fort Collins. Because he doesn't want to be another generic name on the radio — he wants to be the Colorado guy.

"I want to see If I can raise Colorado's notoriety for songwriters," Simpson says. "Because the talent here is unmeasurable. There's a lot of really, really good talent here, and a lot of songwriters coming out of Colorado, but they're not really getting the national attention that they deserve."

Danno Simpson, with Dylan Gosset, 7 p.m. Saturday, October 12, Washington's, 132 Laporte Avenue, Fort Collins. Tickets start at $100.