Photos courtesy of ThinkPress, Mr. Daniels’ Press Agency.
CHELSEA, Mich. — Emmy-winning actor, musician and Michigan native, Jeff Daniels confirms fall tour dates with his son’s band. The Ben Daniels Band (BDB) will headline the shows, with the senior Daniels as an opener and support. Typically, Daniels sticks close to his Michigan stomping grounds, but this tour kicks off in Chicago and winds through Indiana, Wisconsin and even Cleveland, Ohio.
“In getting ready to go out … with Ben’s band, I didn’t want to do the standard ‘opener-headliner’ deal,” says Daniels. “Instead, I wanted to take what I do on my own, blend it in with what Ben’s band does and come out with a new show.”
With Tommy Reifel on bass, George Merkel on guitar, Wesley Fritzemeier on drums and mandolin and singer/songwriter Amanda Daniels on vocals, BDB’s live show never fails to take over the venue. The band consistently produces anthems with arrangements that pull people inside their sound.
The senior Daniels’ face is notably splashed across American big screens, primetime TV and Broadway stages. Col. Chamberlain in Gettysburg, opposite Jim Carrey in Dumb and Dumber, and the fast-paced social commentary of Aaron Sorkin in HBO’s The Newsroom, show off Daniels’ range as an actor. His range as a performer is much broader, his portfolio much older.
“In 1976, I bought a Guild D-40 from Herb David’s Guitar Studio in Ann Arbor, Michigan, threw it in the back of my old Buick and moved to New York City,” writes Daniels on his website. “That guitar led me to a creative outlet, became a solace, my church, a road into the artist I didn’t know existed. I put every song I ever wrote into a big, black notebook. I will be dead in the ground before anyone sees or hears those attempts. And yet, like Lewis & Clark, I found my way to my version of the Pacific. Been on that beach ever since.”
With an intimate, acoustic feel to each of Daniels’ semi-biographical songs, he speaks to the heart of the Great Lakes. “Acoustic guitars love opera houses and clubs,” Daniels says, having toured both the upper and lower peninsulas since 2005.
No doubt, seasons on the lakes inspired tracks like “Sailing," featured on Daniels’ most recent album Simple Truths.
“We’ve been through a Hobie 16,” recounts Daniels, “a couple speed boats and a double-decker pontoon boat.”
The song captures the rhythmic nostalgia of being on the water so many boaters feel but find difficult to describe.
To purchase tickets, visit the Jeff Daniels website. Confirmed tour dates are as follows:
October 26 Chicago, Ill. @ City Winery – Chicago
October 27 Woodstock, Ill. @ Woodstock Opera House
October 28 Stoughton, Wis. @ Stoughton Opera House
October 29 Oshkosh, Wis. @ Grand Opera House
October 30 Minneapolis, Minn. @ The Dakota (2 shows)
October 31 Chippewa Falls, Wis. @ Heyde Center for the Arts
November 1 Dubuque, Iowa @ Heritage Center’s John and Alice Butler Hall
November 2 Delphi, Ind. @ Delphi Opera House
November 3 Kalamazoo, Mich. @ State Theater
November 4 Three Oaks, Mich. @ Acorn Theater
November 5 Saugatuck, Mich. @ Saugatuck Center for the Arts
November 6 Fremont, Mich. @ Dogwood Center for the Performing Arts
November 7 Manistee, Mich. @ Ramsdell Regional Center for the Arts
November 8 Cheboygan, Mich. @ Cheboygan Opera House
November 9 Traverse City, Mich. @ City Opera House
November 10 Clinton Twp, Mich. @ Macomb Center for the Performing Arts
November 11 Coldwater, Mich. @ Tibbits Opera House
November 12 East Lansing, Mich. @ Pasant Center (2 shows)
November 16 Cleveland, Ohio @ Music Box Supper Club
November 17 Bay City, Mich. @ State Theatre
November 18 Lexington, Mich. @ Lexington Village Theatre (2 shows)
November 25 Ann Arbor, Mich. @ The Michigan Theatre
