Most underrated band…or just an undiscovered jewel?

If I say the name “Daughtry” – does that ring a bell for anyone of you? The only thing that probably comes to mind – at least when you’re a resident of the United States,- is the name of its lead singer, Chris Daughtry. In 2006, Chris was part of the 5th Season of “American Idol” – and dropped out of the contest as 4th place, something that still totally escapes my understanding to this day forward. Even before he took part in the contest, he had a band that mostly kept its original lineup, and currently, the members of “Daughtry” are:

– Chris Daughtry (Lead Vocals, Guitar)
– Josh Steely (Lead Guitar, Backing Vocals)
– Josh Paul (Bass Guitar, Backing Vocals)
– Brian Craddock (Rhythm Guitar, Backing Vocals)
– Robin Diaz (Drums, Percussion)
– Elvio Fernandes (Keyboard, Acoustic Guitar, Backing Vocals)

Now, I stumbled over this talented bunch by pure accident, while looking up a song on amazon that the Lead Singer of Nickelback, Chad Kroeger, did together with Santana a few years back (“Into The Night”). And bless the lovely people behind amazon. As some of you might know, whenever you’re searching something on there, just at the bottom of the page, they are giving you suggestions of things/books/music/movies/whatever that you might also like based on what you were just looking up. And that day, amazon suggested that I should take a look at Daughtry’s debut album, “Daughtry”. At that time, I was not too much into the rock genre, I have to admit, but the cover looked intriguing to me, so I clicked on the song samples.

And I was hooked from the Get Go.

The vocals that Chris Daughtry displays in every single song are the thing that probably will always give me the biggest goosebumps. The power that he has in his voice is absolutely mindblowing, without ever seeming to loose their strength or get annoying as time moves on (god knows that there are some voices you can really get tired of when you hear them over and over). His talent is absolutely out of this world. Plus, if you listen to the lyrics of every single song, you just have to admire the astonishing writing talent that this man has developed – or always had. Me, personally, I always have at least two or three songs on each album in which I find myself and my personal situation at that moment – and I have to say, no one else than this band has ever achieved that for me.

Which makes me love them the most, and above any other singer or band that I have ever listened to, is the fact that no matter how many albums they release, the quality never fades; just when you think they have set the bar too high to be reached by upcoming stuff, they reach that exact bar with the next album, just like that, and even exceed everything you have heard from them before. Constant high quality lyrics and songs – I don’t really know any band who has achieved that before. I know there are a few out there that people moan about every once in a while, saying that they have “changed their original style”, that they are not the band that “we fell in love with in the first place”. And hands down, you can’t possibly always be positive about the development a singer or band is going through (just going to throw Miley Cyrus in here – best example of how you can easily trash your amazing talent in a heartbeat by making the wrong choices). But this band…let me put it this way: the moment they release a new album and I have listened to every single song a couple of times, I already die for them to release the next album. This is how amazing they are.

And to me, Daughtry is just massively different from all the Mainstream singers and bands. By far.

I can’t even say which one of their songs I love the most; just when I think of a certain one, another one comes to my mind, and then another and another. I have my favourites, of course, but honestly, I do not prefer any of them over any of the others, because they all are beautiful and amazing in their own way. Every single ballad has its own emotions that touch you deep down, being able to bring tears to your eyes; every single “up-tempo”, rocking song makes you want to stand up and do some headbanging, singing with the lyrics at the top of your lungs. For me, the every single song has its own little story, and the way Chris tells these stories is absolutely breathtaking; he seems to have a song for every situation of life – may it be a break-up, the problems of violence in the world, being in helplessly in love with someone, discovering someone close to you has betrayed you, anti-war situations…his lyrics come from everyday’s life, and you can just hear that they are coming from his heart, that he puts all his passion in every single song he writes.

I have never been to any of their concerts, sadly, but I have decided that one day, I will. And I have decided that one day, in 1 year, in 5 years, or in 10 or 20 years, I will also finally meet Chris. It’s one of the few big dreams that I have had since the moment I first heard his voice, especially since I’ve seen him killing it when he sang the US National Anthem at the Super Bowl in 2006. From the first second his voice filled my ear and my heart, this wish has been inside of me, and one day, it will be fulfilled, I know it.

The only thing that kind of saddens me is that I only know three people who have ever heard of the band, two of them who live in Germany, one in the UK. I know everybody has his/her own taste in music, each to their own, I would never want to dictate anybody to like the things I like. I just wish there were more people (that I know of) that see this amazing band for who they are, who discover their breathtaking music and talent and give them even more support than they already have in the United States.

I know I will support them until the day I die. I own every single one of their albums, and I will own every single one of the ones yet to come. Nobody has ever touched me as deeply inside with their music as Chris Daughtry and his boys, with a talent that is absolutely out of this world and songs that have helped me in quite a few situations of my own life, and I will never get tired to listen to what they have to say with their music, because what they do, what they love to do, will never fail to reach something inside of me that no other singer or band has ever reached before.

And for that, I am beyond grateful.

Albums:

1. Daughtry (2006)

2. Leave This Town (2009)

3. Break The Spell (2011)

4. Baptized (2013)

Dialogue In The Dark

While I was visiting my best friend in Hamburg this weekend, she came up with a new idea what we could do: “Dialogue In The Dark”. You ask – what is that?

Basically, it’s an exhibition, more like some kind of a tour, where you can see…nothing. You go through a couple of rooms that are pitch black, you don’t see anything at all, you can only rely on your smelling and hearing senses. A blind guide is walking you through all “exhibits”, asks you what you sense and feel, and you’re able to ask him/her questions about their job in these dark rooms, their life as blind or visually handicapped people.

I have to admit, at first I wasn’t sure if that was something for me. On the one hand, my best friend had told me about it (she had done the tour twice already), and the way she described it, it sounded really interesting; plunging into darkness to get a feeling how blind people cope in their every day life. On the other hand, when we were given our blindman’s sticks and the advise that when we couldn’t take the darkness anymore (we were a group of 8 people plus our guide, Mario), we would immediately be helped out of there…I felt a lump in my throat. I have never experienced seeing absolutely nothing, let alone being in complete darkness over a timeframe of 90 minutes with complete strangers. But I knew there was no going back once I held the stick in my hand.

And god, was I glad that I didn’t pull out there and then (which was maybe also because I had paid 19€ for he tour and I am not somebody to easily waste money).

It was one of the most interesting things I have ever done. Our guide – who was absolutely hilarious and had no inhibitions to make fun of being blind every now and then, – first made us all introduce ourselves, then we had to just listen to the sounds that were ahead of us. We slowly walked from room to room, including small bridges, a few small steps, round walls, a room full of different spices and smells and some kind of grocery store where real fruits and vegetables were on display (we had to guess what they were when we were able to get our hands on them). Plus, for a couple of minutes we were sat onto a small boat and our guide “sailed” us over to the other side, with a light breeze going around us, and after that, we rested in a room where a CD was played with a bit of music or just several sounds, like rain, or underwater/diving sounds, walking over a seashore, etc…

It was an amazing experience, and Mario, helped alot with that. He never failed to explain us everything, and he walked us through the darkness like we were the same – which, apparently, we were for these 90 minutes. One of the most remarkable things was the fact how insanely good his hearing is. There was one of these moments where we had to walk past him and he asked if everyone was there, saying their names when they went past him and through the next door. At one point, it was my turn, but before I said my name, I said something else to my best friend, and to my surprise, Mario went: “Tanja is there, too…” For a moment, I was almost speechless because he had recognized me purely because of my voice. Now I don’t know if his hearing is just stunningly developed or my voice is so weird it’s easy to remember – but it doesn’t matter. That moment impressed me a lot.

After the tour, we all went through the last door into a dark bar (funny, eh, considering that EVERYTHING during that tour was nothing but dark, ha-ha), and we got the chance for a face-to-face conversation (I am so not funny, I know) with Mario. He told us that he has been blind from birth on, and that he mostly does his grocery or clothes shopping with someone close to him, someone he trusts so they can tell him which is what and what color of clothes looks good on him or fits together with other colors. We were even told that there is a device that can tell you – simply when you hold it agains the fabric, – which color it has! It was weird to then think about that he had never ever seen ANY color at all, and it was interesting to ponder about how it would be if you had no idea at all about any color there is in the world  – something I just can’t imagine, to be honest. Not knowing about what red looks like, or blue, or the different kinds of red, like bordeaux or something…it’s just too much for me to even begin to realize.
Mario also told us that he had been a computer programmer for a long time and only quit the job because it didn’t go well with his long-distance-relationship. Overstimulation for me right there. I mean…you might think it’s not possible that you can programme anything on a computer when you’re blind, even if nowadays, there are ways to help with it, but I swear to you, he was serious. And I believed him. So did everyone else. It was mindblowing.

At the end of the tour/day, I can say: what an amazing experience. If anybody of you ever gets the opportunity to do a tour like that – do it, you won’t regret it. It was one of the most interesting things to slip into the role of a blind person, of someone who has to cope with their handicap 24/7, to get a feeling of how life could be.

Plus, it showed me once more how lucky I actually am. I am healthy, I can walk, I can hear, I can speak and I can see. I am so lucky. I do not even want to think about the possibility to be blind one day, simply because all my life I was able to see everything; my best friend and I agreed that it must be a lot easier for someone to be blind from birth than later, because then…well, let’s just say, for me, it is one of the most horrible things to know what the world looks like and then one day – everything’s pitch black. Just thinking about it and there is a shudder going through my entire body.

Now I have an even higher respect of blind people than I already did. What they are able to accomplish every day of their life – wow. Just wow.