01/01/2022
My hero and my friend, Dan Green, passed to the Other Side just the other day. He left us, 71 years young, on his birthday, next to his mixing board, his tool of choice for helping bring art into the world, and for helping so many others realize their musical dreams. He was first my hero, then my employer, then my mentor, and finally my friend, compatriot, and brother in arms. I first saw Dan performing solo. He sang a version of Springsteen’s “Racing In The Street” merged with one of his own tunes. He. Was. Amazing. I thought “Who IS this guy?” Wow. I had a fake ID back then, not for drinking, but for sneaking into bars to see music, and I was lucky enough to see him at The Black Forest Inn on a night when he brought a young Chicago singer songwriter up on stage to beat his guitar like a drum while she sang “The Hustle And The Bustle”. It was Sally Fingerette, and I think they had just started dating. She, and he, blew my mind, as a young high school aspiring songwriter myself. Much later, when Dan hired me to do some engineering on a Bitchin’ Babes record, my cup of gratitude runneth over. Before that, my band had worked with him at the Rich & High Street Amerisound, and he had already started to turn this star struck kid into his student, generously mentoring me in how to make art (and I didn’t even realize it. But that was just Dan. A heart of gold.) More luck; I actually ended up inheriting the old Amerisound space, 209 South High, a recording studio that Dan built with his own hands with his friend and bandmate, Joe Waters of The Recording Workshop. My band, Oswald & The Herringbones, had that space as our recording studio from 1989 to 2008 when the city bought the Trautman Building, only to tear it to the ground. But the history of that place! As my friends helped us load out of that studio, for the last time we sat on that brown s**g carpet and talked of all the Columbus music royalty that had recorded there. Sally Fingerette. McGuffy Lane. Willie Phoenix. Spittin’ Image. Mark Haines, Frank Pearce, Timberwolf, Strongbow, The Godz, Teen Dream, Ronald Koal… I mean, the list goes on forever (so don’t feel slighted… heck, I recorded at least a hundred client albums there myself, including Howlin’ Maggie and every note of their single “Alcohol” and others, but that was later.)
As my own studio business grew, Dan was nothing but gracious. We shared clients, equipment, techniques, lunches at Whole Foods, a passion for green energy (fitting, considering Dan’s name!) and so many jokes, and funny voices, and so much laughter. Dan taught me so much. To keep it fun and light in the studio so the artists keep joy in their creative heart as they express themselves in such a vulnerable environment; how to encourage, to support, to suggest in an egoless way… Dan was the man; the sweetest, warmest, most kind and generous soul ever to be grateful and lucky enough to count as one’s friend.
As so many others have so beautifully stated, Dan Green was and is an artistic hero and champion and boon to the Columbus music community, and his giant heart and sweet soul will be deeply, deeply missed. During this pandemic, with so much loss, I’ve taken heart in listening to NDE podcasts, and in light of that, I’ve been talking to Dan a lot these past few days, with hopes he can hear me. And feel my love. Miss you, buddy.
My friend DonCon’s beautiful song speaks for my heart right now. Don Conoscenti - “The Other Side”
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