Daniel and the Walking Trees

Daniel and the Walking Trees: Savory, groovy, heartfelt and heavy hitting singer-songwriter folk-rock. 

About Daniel: 

It may not be common knowledge, but the depth of a young stay-at-home-dad’s pent up artistic passion is an unmeasurable well. When time becomes precious, the product from within that opportunity is often distilled and intoxicating. Multi instrumentalist Daniel Rondeau, performing under the collective title Daniel and the Walking Trees, gives you the proof, in savory, groovy, heartfelt and heavy hitting folk-rock, nearly exclusively performed by Rondeau. Songwriters from Tom Petty to Damien Rice, groovers from Carole King to Spoon, and heavy hitters from CCR to Delta Spirit provide the polar influences that end up in blissful balance. 

Rondeau’s musical life started on half of a cheap electric drum set with his dad for a 20-member church in a small mountain town. His first performance with a band was on drums in high school in Granby, Colorado, with notable audience member Marvin Heemeyer, famed killdozer operator. Inconsequentially Heemeyer rampaged the tiny mountain town the next day. When the town's sole songwriter moved away, Rondeau learned enough guitar, singing, and songwriting to fill the vacuum. After graduating he did every mountain kid’s dream—escaping to the “big city” of Denver to pursue a music career. 

In the years that followed, Rondeau released and toured a total of six records, front-manned indie rock band Red Fox Run, drummed for Morning Bear, COVErgeist and JD Wells. He shared a stage with Damien Kulash (OK GO) and Walk the Moon, performed South by Southwest and CMJ Music Festivals, and several rounds of the Denver Post’s UMS. Rondeau collaborated music projects with Imagine Dragons, Flobots, and in 2012, began working with Denver-based music nonprofit Youth on Record, teaching music to at-risk high school populations in Denver Public Schools. Rondeau released music independently and with labels like Andy Rok’s CAM Records and The Seldom Seen Records. In 2014 Rondeau released Red Fox Run’s self-titled record; their most success and decorated album, with well-respected Producer Joe Richmond (Churchill, The Fray, Wildermiss, Tennis), engineered with Tessitura Studios. Quickly after the release, the LP garnered high praise from fans and critics alike, with Colorado Music Buzz calling it: “time capsule worthy,” and Matador Networking listing Red Fox Run in the “Top 8 Bands Crushing it Right Now…one of this years fastest risers.” 

Right before the launching point of his musical career, Rondeau took time off his music to focus on his family, personal values, and face down a consuming addiction, later transitioning his lifestyle to that of a full time stay-at-home dad. Red Fox Run members meanwhile took in Emma Cole as front lady and transitioned to Wildermiss, which is now seeing a thriving career. Rondeau kept his music warm by playing at nearby neighborhood alley-bar De Steeg, pushing his multi-instrumental skills to the limit by playing a one-man-band performance. A few wholesome and challenging years later and with a blooming motivation, he began to hole up in his shed in the pre-dawn hours with two microphones, learning the trade of recording, and tracking nearly all instruments himself. 

Weeks later Rondeau has emerged with his first single, “Carried Away,” clean, groovy, soulful, and sounding much better than it had any right to. With his intoxicating new song, Rondeau is now feverish to share his music with the world, with more rushing down the pipeline. 

About The Walking Trees: 

The musical project is based on the story in the book of Mark (8:1) where Jesus rubs his spit on a born-blind man’s eyes to give him sight. The first attempt is somewhat of a failure, making the healing miracle into a two-step process. Jesus asked the blind man if he could see, and he replied, “I see people, they look like walking trees.” Jesus repeated the process, and when he took his hands off, the blind man could see perfectly. Rondeau’s essential character is sculpted in the first of the two steps. The Walking Trees phase is a blurred, confusing, scary mess, but it’s also got the potential and hope for perfect clarity and wholeness. Rondeau writes in the ‘walking trees’ phase. Upon completion of a song, his thoughts are composed to the point of acceptance of grace, wholeness, and motivation to become a better person. Rondeau usually finds himself as the hypocrite in the narrative, with the challenge that we all can apply to ourselves as well, but only if we want to.