BRANDON DANNALS BAND
Brandon Dannals, guitar/vocal
Laced with a witty sense of humor, Brandon Dannals aims to delight his audiences with flare and flavor! Brandon Dannals has been a solo guitarist singer/performer/entertainer for 28 years and counting! His sky high energy now has landed in Nevada County and is sure to make you smile and get you off your seat with the BrandonDannalsBand! Standing by his phrase “Music to Capture Your Heart Yet Rock Your Socks Off!” offers constant invitations to sing along! Get your oldies, folk-rock and rock n’ roll requests out there because he is often called the “Human Jukebox Experience”
Entertaining people around the world built his confidence as a freelance folk and rock n roll singer and guitarist. His background ranges from singing in Hawaiian traditional music (stemming from his dad’s musical heritage) and traditional ballads, folklore and pop/rock music in Spanish of most recently he learned touring in Mexico and Latin America.
Brandon has toured in Europe as well delving into jam sessions which challenged him to be an eclectic musician. Traces of American roots and pop music shaped his presentations and he is passionate when delivering! One of Brandon’s strong objectives is to be consistently improving his Spanish and comunifying. He is grateful when others would like to join him for jam sessions!
Greg Kurtz(lead guitar)
Greg Kurtz’ family greatly encouraged the pursuit and enjoyment of all types of music. His first album was Beatles ’65, after that The Bay City Rollers and onwards to Led Zeppelin, The Who, Black Sabbath, Rush, Yes, The Dixie Dregs, on and on… his first instrument was the piano, then viola and finally guitar. He studied privately with jazz greats such as Dean Devner, Davis Ramey, David Fromer and the great Joe Satriani. This lead to the forming of original music bands like Razz, The Burning Cavemen, Glass Shadow, Sideways, and Lunar Sea. He also assisted Chris Isaak on a small tour as road crew. Greg would say that over the years his big influences were Neal Schon, Jimi Page, Hendrix and Ty Tabor. He believes we should never stop growing and developing as artists. The efforts we make echo throughout time and become the gift for generations to come.
Justin Burkett (bass &vocals)
Justin Burkett often seen with his own duo ‘Nerve Ascending” is a multi instrumentalist singer songwriter and producer from Los Angeles. Inspired by the Beatles at a young age, music has been his life long companion. To date he has 3 self released albums. In 2015 he quit normal life to follow the muse to promote his album folkin’ around. It was that tour which led him to northern California. He took up the bass for recording purposes and in 2022 was invited to play with the Brandon Dannal’s band.
Jason Fordney: percussion
Jason is an east coast transplant to Northern California, where he moved in 2017 after several decades playing in rock bands in the Washington, D.C. area. Over the years he has honed his craft of playing drum set and percussion, including tours up and down the east coast to performs at well-known clubs such as the Bayou in D.C., CBGBs in New York City and the Trocadero Theatre in Philadelphia. He is versed in classic rock, jazz, jazz-rock and Latin rhythms and has gained recognition for distinctive, high-energy and precise drum parts for both cover songs and originals. A writer/editor and photographer by trade, he also enjoys mountain bikes, dirt bikes and trying to keep up with his 7-year old daughter.
HO’OKIPA
https://www.hookipamusic.com/
Going back to his families roots he has joined Ho’okipa meaning “to entertain” under the shortened name “Kamu” from his middle name Kamuela .
From crashing waves on white sand beaches, cool rain on lush green mountains, and backyard jams come Andy, Steve, Toutai, Kamu and Koa. We are Ho’okipa!
Ho’okipa meaning “to entertain” is a four to five piece group performing classic Hawaiiana tunes in the Hawaiian and English Languages. Lush vocals of pure beauty are accompanied by the sweet harmonizing of ukuleles and guitars played in the old style. All string, all sing, all the songs of past and present Hawaii!
There is a unique rhythm and flow to island living reflected in the songs and melodies. Aloha is happiness, Aloha is the goal, and nothing represents Aloha better than many voices blending as beautiful, powerful, transporting harmonies. You will find yourself in the islands at ease kicking back with family and friends…this is the music of Ho’okipa
Life’s a beach…see you there!!
Life’s a Beach!
JUNTOS
https://dannalsbrandon.wixsite.com/juntosband
Brandon also sings and plays guitar with “Juntos” a latin persuasion of rich and sweet vocals and rhythms of native Argentinian and Colombian women strumming charango and adding percussive grooves! Juntos meaning “together” offers classic boleros from groups like “Los Panchos” and classic latin pop such as favorites from “Mana”
This is the interweaving of native South American instruments like the charango with sweet voicings of Latin pop recordings, boleros and a jolt of Afro-Colombian percussion!
Hosting a vibrant group of women of diverse backgrounds and nationalities including natives of Argentina Patricia who lifts you off the ground with her sweet “dulce” vocals and Verónica with her energetic charango sharing background vocals. Driving this four piece we have Andrea a Colombian Mestizo artist, actress, anthropologist and vocalist who has performed percussion all over Europe and the Americas getting everyone foot stomping and hand clapping!
Sharing an invigorating passion for music and a deep love for culture, the band is fronted by Brandon Dannals’ smiling face sending your spirit into the stratosphere. He coined the term “Comunify” meaning to unify communities thus the name meaning together “Juntos”. Brandon has performed with his rock’n’roll band the BrandondDannalsBand at Hot Summer Nights as well as showcased his witty humor when emceeing at weddings in Grass Valley and Nevada City. He has also toured extensively through Wyoming and South Dakota performing at Sturgis, Central America, Southern Mexico, Spain, Ireland, England and Poland. Together we are fired up to bring you a taste of traditional and contemporary Latin Music for your Worldfest experience!
https://drive.google.com/drive/search?q=juntos