Danielle Howle--More Than a Poster Girl from South Carolina

Originally published in the Winston Salem Journal April 19, 2002

Danielle Howle was a little surprised to find herself a poster girl for the local Girl Scout Council a few weeks ago. But years of long, smoky nights in bars did not stop the Girl Scouts from viewing Howle as a girl who never turned away from what it means to be yourself.

“Growing up Southern and in the military, my parents had to drop me off somewhere, so I became a Girl Scout,” she said during a recent telephone interview. “Now I’m on a billboard along with part of the Girl Scout motto, ‘to be courageous and strong.’ Shoot, I’ve been written up in Playboy magazine and Rolling Stone, but this is the greatest honor of all.”

It’s a paradoxical tribute to a musician whose music and life are hard to categorize. She says that being an introvert as a kid led her to attend Columbia College, an all-girl private school. But the girl that was too shy to attend a large university grew up to tour with Ani diFranco, Indigo Girls, Throwing Muses, Fugazi, the Grifters, and Tsunami.

A veteran singer-songwriter at 34, she is on the road 250 days a year performing acoustic solo and with the rock-oriented Tantrums. As a live performer, it’s not just her music that brings crowds back; Howle’s storytelling and stand-up comedy between songs keeps audiences entertained, and she encourages them to participate.

“I figure, if I get to talk during the show then the audience should be able to talk to me too. Sometimes I can read the crowd, and people like that. Sometimes I let my mind become a blank sheet of paper and it gets filled up with what I need to say.”

Live at McKissick Museum (Daemon Records), was recorded in 1995 at the University of South Carolina and marked her CD debut. About to Burst, (Simple Machines Records) was Howle's first studio work as a solo artist. She downplays the fact that she was writing songs long before she bought her first guitar (an acoustic Yamaha that she borrowed $400 for a dozen years ago and still plays, along with a 1959 Jazzmaster). “I always went around humming and singing songs. I guess everyone has probably written a song in their life, but some folks hold on to the creation. I guess I just held onto music.”

Her songs are hard to classify, and there’s a reason for that. “I’m not here to follow other people’s rules, for better or worse. Sometimes things fail, and we learn from that. I am the complete opposite of a lot of the egregious lyrics that you hear on some alternative music stations. The bad drama and self importance that are so popular in commercial alternative stations disturbs me.”

Howle’s high profile appearances include Austin's SXSW, New York City's CNU New Music Festival, and National Public Radio’s Mountain Stage in Charleston, West Virginia. This year she tours in Canada and the U.S. accompanied by Winston-Salem bassist Andy Mabe, who plays with Clare Fader. “I prefer a smaller stage,” she said. “Having already rocked myself a little bit over the edge, I’d rather not go on at one o’clock in the morning.”

Howle’s sultry, melancholic voice is reminiscent of K.D. Lang’s best ballads, and her songs cross all borders of music genres, from the acoustic ballads on solo albums to the classic rock songs she writes and performs with the Tantrums, all of whom live in Columbia, S.C.

The new Tantrums CD, Skorborealis, was produced at Mad Anthony Productions in Durham, N.C. and includes several tongue-in-cheek country songs including one that complains, “Karaoke brought us together, now it’s tearing us apart.” Furr’s electric guitar on “Camero” and “Subclassic” is appropriately raunchy and in line with Howle’s husky vocals: “the drinks are cheap and the band is tight.”

Skorborealis includes a broader range of sounds than the band’s previous two releases, with more background vocals, instruments, keyboards, and a few more musical risks.

“It wasn’t just us presenting our songs like we play them live,” Tague said. “We took more advantage of the creativity a studio can provide without, I hope, going overboard. Some songs are better raw and pure, but some just beg for wah-wah on the snare drum and car crash noises, ya know?”

The dark, “Soft White China Patterns” (on his teeth) juxtaposes Howle’s lonesome voice against a lone drumbeat with an electric guitar lacing in and out. “People have different kinds of imperfections that truly are beautiful, and that song is about not being afraid of one’s imperfections,” she said. “Everyone is so shy about their imperfections. This song is about trying to get a person who’s shy about his teeth to smile anyway.”

Tague says The Tantrum’s biggest challenge right now is the loss of the band van (someone, probably a fan, crashed into it during a recent gig) “so now we all cram into several vehicles and show up like circus clowns.” What does he think is the best thing about the band these days? “We all feel like circus clowns…. And we have a new CD that we are all proud of. We seem to be playing better as a band live than ever before. I think we are getting better at listening to each other as we get old and bent up.”

Mulling over a question about where the band might go next, musically, Tague concludes, “I think Danielle should play drums and I should sing.”

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