Dan Penn

DAn Penn

Songwriter/producer Dan Penn has been a quiet force behind Southern soul music for over thirty years. Always moving just out of view of the limelight, Penn has produced and written hits for the Box Tops, Solomon Burke, Aretha Franklin and Ronnie Milsap, among others. (AllMusic)

Dan Penn speaks in the softest of southern drawls. His manner today is sagelike, a fine whiskey that’s mellowedin a fine oak barrel. The wiry speed demon of yore has been replaced by a ruminator with a trucker’s gut. The fire still crackles when his poker face breaks and the corners of a grin creep around the toothpick he chews. Once the wildest of them all, or perhaps the most driven, Penn today spends time in his garden and working on vintage cars. (Robert Gordon, It Came From Memphis, p. 155) Outstanding. File under: Memphis via Muscle Shoals

.An introduction      Discography      In the music library: Blue Nite Lounge      Close To Me: More Fame Recordings     

Do Right Man      The Fame Recordings      Moments From This Theatre (Live in Europe) (with Spooner Oldham)     

Nobody's Fool     The Complete Fame Singles Volume 1:  Close To Me; Let Them Talk; (Take Me) Just As I AmDiamonds

A Road Leading Home: Songs by Dan Penn: Is A Blue Bird Blue     The Sound Of The City - MemphisBuckaroo Bill

Links: Wikipedia     Official web site     Facebook (Dan Penn Fan Club)     AllMusic     Discogs     45cat     

Roots of American Music Trail      Ponderosa Stomp

© Ian Hughes 2015