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Little Big Man: Revealing the not-so-hidden talents of Daniel Barnes
In ROAM's Warm 2004 edition, little did we know that one of the biggest sensation's of MerleFest 2004 was going to be one of the youngest performers ever to take the stage. In that issue we published a photo of Daniel Barnes, a then-nine-year-old musician from Myrtle Beach, SC. To be honest, we selected it because it was a cute photo, but soon we were besieged with requests for the Warm 2004 issue. People wanted to know more about the boy wonder who was tearing up the Little Pickers and Traditional stages at MerleFest 2004.
It turns out that young Daniel has squeezed a lifetime of talent into his nine young years. He plays the fiddle, piano, bagpipes, banjo and guitar and taken the stage with such musical luminaries as Merle Haggard, Charlie Daniels, Marty Stewart and Lorrie Morgan. Daniel and co-writer Richard Tinsley have won Adult Level First Place in the Nashville Songwriter's Association International songwriting competition, He also is in a band with other young musicians, named A Pain in the Grass, which plays schools, hospitals and other community functions.
We had the pleasure of meeting Daniel's mother Carol and his grandmother, Phyllis Barkley, shortly after the conclusion of last year's festival. During that visit, they told us that several musicians who graced the stage at MerleFest made the trip to the Barkley House, a former bed and breakfast in Taylorsville, NC, which his grandmother owns, just to jam with the nine-year-old prodigy. Carol and Phyllis said the visiting musicians probably had an even better time jamming with Daniel than he did. Like, most boys his age, Daniel probably would rather have been playing videogames than his guitar and fiddle to all hours of the night. Daniel may not have realized what all the fuss was about. But those lucky enough to see Daniel at MerleFest 2004, or jam with him that night in May at the Barkley House, had the rare pleasure of basking in the light of a star on the rise.
