When the disastrous flood of 2013 ripped through Lyons, local musician Danny Shafer and his family had to immediately evacuate their home, escaping in just enough time to grab pets and Shafer’s guitar.
That same guitar graces the cover of Shafer’s fifth solo album Weddings, Floods and Funerals. The album, which, coincidentally, came out on the two-year anniversary of losing his home, is the result of the hard work Shafer did putting his life back together.
“I knew you had to keep on moving no matter what you’re going through — keep on working and showing up all the time,” he says. “I’ve seen other people do it, so why not me? It was just my turn to do that.”
Not even in the heat of the moment did Shafer take a break.
“The day we evacuated from our house in Lyons, I got a call that a band had cancelled downtown, and I went and played a full-length gig,” he says. “The whole band showed up and played. We did what we do. I think that’s really important to create, to keep on doing shows, while having all kind of different experiences in my personal life. That’s what this record is about.”
It has been a tough two years for Shafer, full of milestones. First Shafer and his wife celebrated their wedding. But a few weeks later, the flood hit, and Shafer and his family lost almost all their material possessions. If that wasn’t enough, a few weeks after that Shafer heard the news that one of his closest childhood friends had committed suicide.
“We’re trying to get through all the emotional upheaval. It has been all the good, all the bad, all the struggle, all the coming home. All that ‘everything’ life is supposed to have happened in one five-month lump. You’re not supposed to experience that stuff so fast,” Shafer says with a laugh. “Here we are, not necessarily on the other side of it but learning survival and how to live with the changes.”
Before tragedy struck, Shafer and his family had been happily living in Lyons in the Riverbend Mobile Home Park, which Shafer loved because it was affordable and conveniently down the street from the school his two children attend. Shafer says they were planning to be there until the kids graduated high school — or longer.
But the universe had other plans. Returning home after the flood, Shafer says there was no damage to assess, just loss. Their house was unsalvageable, his wife’s car turned on its side and his van, containing his musical gear, had floated 50 yards away and was filled with mud and broken glass. But the hardest thing to lose was their sense of home.
They spent six months in Longmont before they were able to come back to Lyons. Shafer says he’s happy to be far enough away from all the events to look back with any sanity. Through all the heartache, he’s learned the value of a supportive community.
“We were shocked, heartbroken and lost. And I’d say we still are. But we’re also stable,” he says. “We’ve learned how to live with it. We’ve worked really hard with support to be where we are today. I’m very proud of the community that we have that has shown up for a lot of the people who needed it. It was absolutely amazing and humbling.”
All that time away from home, Shafer kept working. He started recording this new album and kept playing gigs — this year alone he’ll play almost 300. The album itself isn’t about the devastation he went through — Shafer says he wasn’t interested in writing about the flood. Instead, there are some new songs and some old songs, with the album representing Shafer’s perseverance.
“When the going gets tough, the tough gets working,” he says. “I needed something to do. I needed to throw myself into everything. I had to throw myself into the project, into the music, into gigs. I had to go 150 percent for a while, in order to have things come back together at all…
“What I want to say with this record is no matter what happens, it’ll always be some good, some bad and some loss. And in those things, life doesn’t stop. It’ll move on without you if you stop.”
That mindset is an integral part of Shafer’s work ethic, which was inherited from his parents. A cop and a nurse, Shafer’s parents spent his life working hard and instilling in him the same principles.
“Working class values are everything that my music, my life and my attitude is based on,” he says. “I believe in working every day. I believe in being honest with it. I believe in not asking too much and not asking too little. I believe in fair and square.”
While most people don’t consider music a typical working class job, Shafer treats it as such. It’s not a glamorous job, he says. It’s just about getting the job done, whether or not there’s a crowd or the club is beat up or how tired you are. The same goes for making his music.
“I don’t think songwriting is a big trick,” he says. “I think it’s something that people naturally do and work on so it becomes a skill.”
He’s spent the last 15 years as a fulltime musician, and he respects the chance he got to fulfill his dream of being one.
“I try to take all the opportunities that I can,” he says. “It’s just like any other job. You show up on time, you return messages, you have your gear and your van together, you start your show on time, you say thank you as many times as you can, and you go home. And I love that about playing music. That’s what it’s all about for me — to normalize a job with no rules. Trying to make it into something where I can be creative and change night to night, but it has all those working class values.”
And similar to most jobs, Shafer couldn’t hide while recovering from all his heartache. He used the opportunity to spur his music and write Weddings, Floods and Funerals. In his work, his inspiration sprouts from the small everyday moments that most people overlook.
“My music is about capturing a moment and making it into a song and holding on to those moments and holding on to that time,” he says. “There’s a lot on this record about first times and home and small towns.”
Shafer draws a lot of his subject matter from small towns. Growing up in a big city, Shafer’s perspectives started to shift after moving to Gold Hill 10 years ago, then eventually to Lyons.
“Coming straight from Chicago and landing in small town life was a shock to my system,” he says. “It’s taught me more about people than living in a big city ever did.
“You can’t hide. You really are a part of people’s lives in a small town. We take part each other’s lives, with the kids and at the school and at the coffee house or at the post office or if their car doesn’t start. It’s much more meaningful than the anonymity of a big city.”
It’s that exact homey feeling that Shafer sincerely hopes Lyons retains. He says he knows it’s a complicated issue, but he feels there’s still a lot more to be done to rebuild the town. He misses the tight-knit community and desperately wants the return of all his neighbors and displaced citizens.
The hometown, personal touch is a building block of Shafer’s music. It’s immersed in a handmade, familiar feeling that Shafer strives to capture in every song.
“I hope to be genuine, and I hope to get it across in the music,” Shafer says. “I try to write simple songs. I don’t want to be a complicated human being. I want to be easily relatable.”
Above all, from this past two years, Shafer is grateful to be restoring his life, and he is thankful to be doing what he loves. Not everything is back to normal, yet as his family continues to recoup, their freshly planted roots continue to grow stronger.
“Even though I’m a musician, and I’ve spent a lot of my life driving from place to place playing, I love the feeling of home,” he says. “I love the feeling of knowing that I have something consistent. I have a home base that allows me to go out there. I like the feeling of travel but of knowing where I really belong. I have that now. I know who I belong with and where I belong. I’m a very lucky person to know those two things.”
ON THE BILL: Danny Shafer CD Release. 7 p.m. eTown Hall, 1535 Spruce St., Boulder, 303-443-8696.
