DAN RUSSELL was almost drowned at birth. His Mother, Constance thought she was just answering a rather serious call of nature, before the midwife stopped her from proceeding in that fashion and, shortly afterwards, Dan Russell entered the world.

Surviving that narrow escape, Dan's Father, Victor then proceeded to bash his new born son's head on the door frame as the proud parents returned from the maternity hospital and entered their humble abode, a 15-foot static caravan! Dan's eccentricity and happy madness could well be acredited to the bash on the head.

Although not a musician, Victor had written lyrics as a young man, and was a creative writer who also had a massive 78 rpm collection of Trad Jazz music. The seed for Dan's musical passion would have been sown during his young years.

At age of seven, in 1963, Dan was introduced to the music of the Beatles by his friend Paul. He clearly remembers loving the song There's A Place, on an early Beatles E.P. that Paul owned. Shortly afterwards the two friends started collecting and swapping black and white Beatles bubblegum cards. The combined smell of gum and card in sweet shops still brings that memory instantly back to him.

In 1968, aged 12, Dan can clearly remember sitting in the back room of his parent's sweet shop on a Sunday afternoon, with the fading light of dusk coming through a window, hearing Glen Campbell singing Witchita Lineman, and then going home in the evening and watching a film starring Henry Fonda. To this day, Witchita Lineman is Dan's favourite all time song.

In 1970, Dan bought his first two singles - Indiana Wants Me by R. Dean Taylor, and Fireball by Deep Purple - two vastly contrasting genres.

In 1973, inspired by listening to the music on the Bob Harris Monday Night Show on BBC Radio One, Dan bought his very first album, Countdown To Ecstacy by Steely Dan. His love of 1960's and 1970's California music started here, and albums by all the bands that influenced his future songwriting quickly followed.

In 1975, Dan wrote the first of his, to date, 977 songs, "I Could Still Love You". In 1986, at the late age of 29, he made his "live" debut busking with a guy called Tom in central Bristol. He recorded solo albums for five years, before forming his first band with Keith Hewett - Sundown Pilgrims - in 1991.

In the last two decades he has released many albums with a variety of bands including Wine Dark Sea, DC8, Ukiah, Sunset Run, Sway, Longwave, Pacific Groove, The Creek.

"LET US GO forth to a CALIFORNIA DREAM! We will travel ALL OVER THE WORLD to get there, and you can be sure that everyone will be FOLLOWING YOU! Arriving in Santa Monica we find the KID FROM L.A. playing his guitar like Hendrix! And when we hit those notes just right we will believe I AM HE!

At times we will feel lonely waiting for love on this DISTANT SHORE, but when we travel North to SAN FRANCISCO we will gaze upon the Golden Gate, and that brings to our faces a THOUSAND YARD SMILE! We then travel east across prairie land, and then down into the valley to meet the magical CHIEF! We then climb a hill with YOSEMITE JIM and listen to his tales of when JIM GOT SLIM!

We then arrive back in SAN FRANCISCO, where OLD JIMMY DO told us how he got so high one time that he believed he was KING OF THE WORLD! We love to hear about his GENTLE FOLLY! We await our lovers to arrive and join us here in the eternal sunshine of the West Coast... BABY, BE HOME SOON! In this city of many creeds and COLOURS our blood is always red and runs just the same, and in this hippie paradise we are living in the SECOND SUMMER OF LOVE!

We meet the ethereal SATELITTE GIRL who has been in orbit since the Summer of 1967! We remember the loved ones we have lost, each a DRIFTER on the cosmic tide and smiling down on us from the heavens, or perhaps they are all just having a good time in a Dixieland bar in New Orleans, ON BOURBON STREET!

Then our lovers arrive at last and we meet them at the Granite Gate, where the City meets the Silver Oboe, and we feel our pony souls jump from their travelling trunks as we see them, and we all exclaim at once - SHE'S MY KIND! The girls remind us that the DIRTY MUDDY RIVER remains the same back in the old country, and continues to wash the city brown!

We spend the remainder of our days with our lovers, in the eternal sunshine of California, and then when it comes to our time for SAYING GOODBYE, we all climb onto our Skyboards and surf westwards into a Pacific Sunset, and smiling blissfully, with our hearts overflowing with love, we FALL OFF THE END OF THE WORLD!"

Dan Russell - October 2010.