All Work and all play

Lake Oswego singer - songwriter shares his passion on his new CD “ Some Things Take Time”

By Nicole DeCosta

The Lake Oswego Review, Jan 15, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (1 Reader comment)

VERN UYETAKE / Lake Oswego Review

Pianist Daniel Work performed at Billy Bangs’ restaurant last week. Since moving to Lake Oswego two years ago, Work — who also plays the guitar — has recorded a full-length album, started a singer/songwriter showcase and opened a music studio out of his house.

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An arpeggiated guitar rhythm stirs the cold air. A calm voice vibrates off the walls in the small bathroom. Papers are strewn across the tile floor in the hotel.

“You can pretend but eventually you’ll be yourself / It’s the reality / I won’t pretend to be somebody else / I’m loving life being true to myself.”

With the young kids – and his wife, Deb – asleep in the adjoining room, Daniel Work tweaks a new song he’s working on called “You Can Pretend” in some West Coast hotel suite. Many songs were written this way, late at night after a full day of house hunting.

And now, two years later, Work is settled into Lake Oswego releasing his full-length album appropriately titled “Some Things Take Time,” featuring 12 songs hand-picked from his arsenal of tunes from 20 years of songwriting.

The CD is a testament to why he moved from Arizona in the first place – “to do music full time.”

“I really want to be a part of something larger,” said Work, 48. “It’s never been about wanting to be a star or a big shot. I just want to make great music.”

And he came to the right town.

New city, new tune

After owning a media production company in Tucson for 16 years – producing presentations for Fortune 500 company gatherings – Work was ready to change gears from producing videos, events and presentations. He traded his corporate gig for guitar and piano and headed west to continue with similar projects, but making sure they were all music related.

“My premise was that I wanted to do music full-time as a performing musician, singer songwriter, recording artist,” Work said. “And I know its feast or famine.”

But he’s up for the challenge, and he’s been busy since moving to Lake Oswego:

n Opening Smiley Note Studios, Inc. out of his home for local musicians, Work creates music videos, Web sites, audio recordings, graphics, and facilitates equipment rentals, TV/film licensing and event production. In other words, Work can record an album, design the graphics, produce the live concert and video tape the event.

“The focus is to do media production to support other artists,” he said.

n Recording his first, full-length CD, Work describes his music as, “thoughtful, rock-band oriented, singer-songwriter music for the tragically un-hip.” Others compare Work’s tunes to Steely Dan, Tom Petty, Jackson Browne and Sir Paul McCartney.

“I think there’s a lot of people in their 30s to 60s that just love music and an adult contemporary, commercial sound,” Work said. “I’m excited to get an audience of people who love Billy Joel and Huey Lewis.”

Since hearing “Penny Lane” by The Beatles, Work was hooked on music.

“The Beatles were so good at being simple but powerful at the same time,” he said.

And after writing tunes for more than 20 years, Work is ready to share his musical spectrum with the world. The 12 tracks on Work’s album take listeners on a musical journey though uplifting messages – such as “Have A Wonderful Day,” to “A Letter,” written after his father died. Work’s piano-based songwriting is weaved with acoustic and electric guitar melodies from local guitar pro Tim Ellis, who couldn’t name his favorite song on the CD.

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