Dan W. Folger

Dan’s family - which included one older brother and one younger sister - moved to Midland,Texas before Dan started to school. By the age of three, Dan was playing piano “by ear”. When he heard a song on the radio that he liked, he would sit down and play it with ease and florish. He also enjoyed playing the harmonica.

By his teens, he had met Roy Orbison and Joe Melson, who lived in nearby Odessa, Texas. They would occasionally practice in the Folger living room.....which was a thrill for Dan's sister and her girlfriends. This was in the days before Roy became the huge star that he later became, but the music was exciting and wonderful from the earliest days.

After Orbison and Melson moved to Nashville, they encouraged Dan to move there, too. They put him in touch with the people at Acuff-Rose Publications and Hickory Records, where he was placed under contract. In those days, recording sessions involved full orchestras, session musicians, backup musicians... over-dubbing and multi-track equipment was far in the future. Dan worked closely with Don Gant, Wesley Rose, and many of the finest record producers of that era. His writing partners were Joe Melson and Mickey Newbury, mostly. It was an exciting and innovative time, and Dan gained a reputation as a songwriter to watch. He recorded four records [8 songs] for Hickory, and one for Elf Records. This activity occured in the first half of the 1960's.

Dan's songs has been recorded by many artists including Roy Orbison, Tom Jones, The Boxtops, Mickey Newbury, Nick Cave, Frank Ifield, Kris Jensen, and Sam the Sham and the Pharoes. His singles have been repackaged by Bear Family Records, on two LPs, along with several other Hickory artists, in 1980.

After leaving Elf Records, Dan joined a band called The Gators , which consisted of Dan on keyboards, Steve Bess on drums and vocals, Paul Jensen on guitar, and Quitman Dennis on bass guitar, sax and flute. They recorded "The Gators in concert" on Bulletin Records, and promoted it by touring all over the Eastern Seaboard of the US, mostly the military bases,. This LP is much sought-after, and only two copies have been found to date. It contains some of Dan's finest work, on "I keep forgetting", "Over the mountain", And "Down in the Boondocks" , along with a beautiful piano solo of "Last Date".

Dan joined several other rock 'n'roll and country-rock bands in the 1970's, and toured all over the USA. In the 1980's he was with a couple of different Christian bands, and still involved in this arena. He has worked with some very talented musicians over the years. He still performs in a Christian-rock band , and he still writes music and plays keyboards and guitar.

Dan is very quiet and does not promote himself in any way. Musicians who have worked with him in the past two decades don't even know about his early career, because he does not tell them. Until the internet came along, Dan was completely unaware that other people have been enjoying his music throughout the years. He was very pleasantly surprised to learn that the music has survived in the hearts of music lovers all over the world. Although he still receives small royalties from his songwriting, he was even unaware that the Bear Family compilations had been released until just recently. He currently lives in Tyler, Texas, and he recieves his mail at his sister's address.

In addition to his innovative songwriting and other musicial gifts, Dan has been an inventor of many unusal and wonderful things, although he has not applied for patents. He has lived the life of a gloriously-unique gifted and independent person with one abiding relationship... his relationship with with the Lord, and his studies and journey in the area of spiritual development.

To contact Dan or his sister:

e-mail [email protected]

[c] 2002 Brinda Kippa