Charlotte’s Josh Daniel turns daily live quarantine concerts into lucrative venue

In March, Charlotte singer-songwriter and guitarist Josh Daniel fired up Facebook Live and started streaming a concert from the porch of his home in the Plaza-Shamrock neighborhood.

He’s done one every afternoon at 5 p.m. since, and this past Tuesday, the daily acoustic concert series that’s become known both as the “Quarantine Sessions” and “Daniel’s Couch Tour” hit Day 50 after its premiere on St. Patrick’s Day as bars, restaurants, and music venues were undergoing restrictions.

Daniel says he’ll continue his streak until the restrictions are lifted.

“Every day I introduce songs I haven’t played,” he says. “People send in requests. My buddy has a spreadsheet of (the setlists). I’ve played 500 different songs. That’s an enormous amount.”

Each set consists of a handful of originals, classic-rock standards, jam-band favorites, and a healthy dose of Grateful Dead. But he tackles all genres, covering diverse acts like Prince, Chris Stapleton, Sam Cooke, Smashing Pumpkins and Herbie Hancock.

“On Day 30, I did ‘30 Days in the Hole.’ On day 46, it was ‘46 Days’ by Phish. On Sunday I’ll do ‘Easy Like Sunday Morning.’ On Friday, it’s ‘Friday I’m in Love,’” he says. Tuesday’s set included Paul Simon’s “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.”

“I think that’s why people keep coming back,” Daniel says of the 600 viewers that consistently tune in, some every day.

“People send me notes and tell us where they’re watching from,” he adds. Some have been with him since the beginning, which blows Daniel’s mind. “You’ve spent four days of your life watching me?”

Daniel marked Tuesday’s milestone episode by launching online auctions to benefit the Craniofacial Children Foundation, which offers the same surgery that his 2-1/2-year-old Sonny recently underwent to children in developing countries.

Sonny was born with Apert Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder characterized by craniosynostosis (among other things). The condition, his father said, causes Sonny’s eyes to sag and his palate is high. Craniosynostosis causes the infant sutures in the skull to prematurely fuse into bone, stunting brain growth.

While many children with Apert Syndrome undergo multiple surgeries from infancy, Sonny’s surgeon, Dr. David Matthews (who founded the Craniofacial Children Foundation), recommended monitoring his growth until his brain had no more room before operating.

The surgery happened to coincide with Day 14 of quarantine, as well as Daniel’s 41st birthday. Sonny spent six days in the NICU, with Daniel and his wife Kellie alternating shifts at Levine Children’s Hospital and caring for their 4-year-old daughter Maddie, back at home.

“Since the surgery, he looks different. He can breathe and speak better,” Daniel says. “It’s amazing. If you had this 100 years ago you were doomed to your brain not developing.”

While most musicians are struggling right now, the “Quarantine Sessions” have had the opposite outcome for Daniel, who’s had to hire help to keep up with CD and T-shirt orders since the concert series launched.

“It’s insane. This is the worst thing that could happen, and it’s turned out to be the best thing,” he says.

Currently a member of Winston-Salem’s Big Daddy Love, Daniel has been a fixture in Charlotte’s music scene since the ’90s, when he worked at CD Warehouse. He’s played music full-time since his days with progressive folk band the New Familiars, and his list of frequent collaborators look like a who’s who of the jam world.

(Those include Doobie Brothers bassist and New Grass Revival founder John Cowan, current “it” bluegrass guitarist Billy Strings, former Larry Keel and Natural Bridge mandolinist Mark Schimick, Leftover Salmon and Aquarium Rescue Unit drummer Jeff Sipe, and bassist Justin Powell. He joins the latter trio in Asheville on Friday for a full-band livestream at Ambrose West.)

“I’m lucky I’m singing and playing guitar. Drummers can’t go live and make money,” says Daniel, who normally begins a run of festivals in the spring. “I was playing four to six gigs a week the last few years. I’m going to keep going. A lot of (musicians) are wary of it, but this is the only way you can connect with people — and I’ve fully embraced it.”

Details: www.facebook.com/JDGratefulBand and www.joshdanielmusic.com.

Auctions to benefit the Craniofacial Children Foundation begin between now and Saturday and run for five days. Prizes include limited -edition silk-screen foil variant posters by artist Tripp Shealy, the opportunity to curate one of Daniel’s setlists, a private online concert, and a house concert within driving distance.

This story was originally published May 7, 2020 at 3:46 PM.