German singer/songwriter highlights Saturday’s Words and Music in Milford
Lassen County residents have a rare opportunity to hear a singer/songwriter from a foreign land when Lassen County Arts Council Literary Arts presents Words and Music from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 25 at the Milford Community Center. The free event features poetry, music, an open mic and more.
The featured musician, Daniel Weidauer, hails from Steinberg, Germany, a tiny little town near the border with the Czech Republic created by the merger of three even smaller villages in 1994. Almost eight years ago, he married a Susanville woman he met in Southern California. They lived in Germany for several years, but the couple returned to Susanville last June.
Weidauer characterizes his music as in the singer/songwriter vein, and he said he plays acoustic and electric guitar, bass and a little bit of harmonica here and there.
“If I don’t play with a band, it’s just me and an acoustic guitar,” Weidauer said. “It’s very basic and simple. When I work with other people, I’ll have full band arrangements. I really like the singer/songwriter stuff because everything starts with the acoustic guitar, and then you can add more things, like electronic instruments and other musicians and the songs sound more colorful than when it’s just me by myself.”
Weidauer said he comes from a musical family. His father was musically gifted, and “there was always music in our home or in our church.” When he was 14 or 15, he started teaching himself to play guitar, “and that’s when I first started writing my own songs. I’m 32 now, and I’ve been writing songs ever since, and making music with friends. We had a good thing going in Germany, so I’ve been trying to establish something here. So, we’ll see where the journey goes.”
He said when he was younger, he was influenced by American bands because most of the music he heard on the radio came from America. But as he got older, he’s moved on and now he’s influenced by everything he hears. He’s always written songs in English, because most of the artists he listened to were American or British, but three years ago he started really getting into German artists and writing songs in his native language.
In the past few years, the music scene in Germany has really exploded, and he said there are many fantastic artists in all kinds of different styles in his homeland.
He said his parents grew up in German Democratic Republic (East Germany) and weren’t exposed to much American music in their youth.
“There always were people who got their hands on albums from the West,” he said, “but it was very much controlled.”
You can find Weidauer’s music on Bandcamp, YouTube, Facebook, Apple Music, his own website and more.