Dan Treanor and African Wind

Veteran blues man Dan Treanor has been entertaining and thrilling audiences for over thirty five years. Dan has played his unique style of the blues all over the world. At times in his career Dan has played with Son Seals, Louisiana Red, George “Boogie Daniels”, Ronnie Boy Fruge’, Jimmy Carl Black, Frankie Lee and the list goes on and on. Originally from the Southern Colorado town of Pueblo, Dan started playing the blues as a teenager and has been at it ever since. In 1969, while serving in the infantry in Viet Nam, Dan started playing the harmonica and has been blowing up a storm ever since. Today he is considered one of the top blues harp players in the business and has been a Hohner Harmonica endorsee for the last ten years. Dan also plays guitar, dobro, banjo, bass, keyboards and cane flute.

Ten years ago Dan started the Blues in the Schools program for the Colorado Blues Society. He has since presented his unique and entertaining program to over thirty thousand kids, from elementary to college levels. A few years back he started to hand build African string instruments. Originally, these instruments were to be used in the Blues in the Schools presentations but they quickly made there way into Dan’s live blues show. A new and exciting style of blues began to emerge and blossom into the music Dan makes today. Afro beats, African string instruments, Delta Blues grooves, lots of harp and guitar and soulful vocals - Afrosippi Blues.

In the fall of 2003 a call from a Denver booking agent put Dan and his band African Wind, together with R&B legend, Frankie Lee, to do a series of concerts in the Rocky Mountain area. Frankie Lee is a wonderful entertainer with a great voice and stage presence. While in Denver, Dan played Frankie some demos of songs he was working on. Frankie loved the sound so they went into the studio and created a CD. In April of 2004 at the W.C. Handy Awards, Dan and Frankie were signed by one of the top blues labels in the world - Northern Blues. The CD - “African Wind” - was released in October, 2004 to much critical acclaim. It proved to be one of the best blues CDs of the year as declared by the critics. It was nominated by the Independent Music Awards as the Blues CD of the year in 2005. In late fall of 2005 Dan and the band will release a second CD - Mercy. This time the great R&B vocalist, Rex Peoples will lend his considerable talents to the music. The sound they have created is stripped down blues with an African feel that touches on bare-bones, Delta/North Mississippi hill country, raunchy style.

If LoFi, soulful rhythms and gutbucket blues are your thing than Dan Treanor, Blues Ambassador, is here to serve you up a smoking’ plate of the real deal.

We play all through out the Rocky Mountain area. Have toured Europe twice.

Delta and Chicago blues, West African Griot music and American folk.

Vintage tube amps. I hand make the African string instruments I play.