Minto Country Music Wall of Fame

Danny’s interest in playing drums started at the age of 9 when he spent time following his Dad around at his Sunday band practices. At the age of 11 he hooked up with a couple of local friends Peter Nichols and Ronny Thibodeau to play music which he did by playing with a snare drum and a couple of cardboard boxes. These same boxes and snare drum were used to play their first school dance, along with two guitar players. Soon Danny picked up a set of drums for $25.00 and the band began practicing every day after school driving their parents crazy. At 12, Danny’s parents bought him a new set of drums for Christmas and at that time the band “Star Dust” added another player – Johnny LeBlanc on base guitar. They played locally for the next year or so in Minto and Chipman for dances.

At 13, Danny moved on to another band called “The Cougars” with Joe and Norman Vautour. They played Minto, Chipman, and Fredericton and were very popular. They played together for about two years and decided to take a break from playing. Soon, Danny joined another band called “Outlaws” and played local Legions and Lions Clubs. By the age of 16 he was again playing with Joe Vautour and Emile Cormier in the band called “The Cougars”. They played all the clubs in Fredericton plus Legions and Lions clubs and packed the places they played. This continued for a couple of years and they decided to stock up the band and go on the road. In 1979 they played all around the Maritimes and continued to draw large crowds and were very popular. In 1982/83 Joe decided to jump in deeper and recorded a new album that came out early 1984. With a new album and stage name “ Joey Knight and The Joey Knight Show”, and the addition of new members they decided to set up tours throughout Ontario, Western Canada, and parts of the USA. One of those stops would be Nashville for two weeks.

This led to being nominated for Back-Up Band of the Year in 1987 at the CCMA and opening up concert shows for acts like Mickey Gilley, Tanya Tucker, Kitty Wells, Box Car Willy, Steve Earle, Eddie Eastman, Bobby Curtola, Hohn Conlee, Michelle Wright, Valdy, Harold MacIntyre, Matt Minglewood, Gene Watson, Marie Bottrell, and Lee Marlow. Danny has also played and shared the stage with people like Donna & Leroy from the Tommy Hunter Show, Family Brown, Dallas Harms, Patricia Conroy, Blue Rodeo, Skip Ewing, Joan Kennedy, Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers, Michael Martin Murphy, Shirley Meyers, Chris Cummings, and Jason McCoy.

In 1990 Danny decided to pack it in and get off the road and come home and start a family. In 1991 he started working at Sears and got together with Ronnie (Day) Vautour and played for the New Brunswick Country Showcase for about two years. The two started up a local group called “One Way Rider” and they still play together after 13 years.

Now living in Fredericton with wife Wendy, son Shawn and daughter Melanie and working at Sears, Danny is still playing music now with JR Vautour doing festivals and theatre concerts and still enjoying it very much.