Old songs, new sound: Dani Echo releases latest collection of lovably weird folk tunes
Released under the moniker Old Man Creaky Bones, "Cold Commodities and Knowing Pains" is a collection of 14 songs written over the past 10 years but only now fully realized and recorded. Echo will perform tracks from the album for the first time this Friday at Harvester Arts.
Dani Echo doesn't let anything go to waste.
Certainly not clothing, which Echo and her partner Hallie Linnebur collect and resell at The Hereafter vintage clothing store at 120 N. Hillside St. in Wichita.
And never a musical idea, either. Not even a 'bad’ one that Echo, who uses she and they pronouns, shelved eight years ago.
“There were a handful of these songs I wrote that were a little too late [to make another of Echo’s albums] or that a bandmate didn’t like, or that I just liked one line from,” Echo said.
Then came a reevaluation of her sounds, which shapeshifted again after the 2023 album “Muse of the Month.” Those old, lingering song fragments have been rearranged, repurposed and redone for Echo’s newest album, released under the moniker Old Man Creaky Bones. “Cold Commodities and Knowing Pains” was released the first weekend in August, with a public debut of some of the songs coming on Friday. Echo’s next live performance — one of only a handful this year – will take place at Harvester Arts as part of a closing art reception. The event will double as a release party for the newest tunes.
The nom de plume Old Man Creaky Bones comes from a throwaway line Echo shared with her partner on a cold Wichita day. They were sitting outside and shivering, and as Echo stood and groaned on the way up, she exclaimed “Look at me, I’m Old Man Creaky Bones.” The name stuck.
The music itself comes from a variety of places. Echo grew up in nearby Clearwater and moved to Wichita in 2012. They performed in a few Wichita bands, but none likely to be remembered, Echo said. Inspiration wise, one can hear elements of Bob Dylan, Joanna Newsom or Devendra Banhart in Echo’s solo work. The songs might also be described as an underground, strange pop twist on Tom Waits. When pressed, Echo would rather offer a QR code that points a potential listener to the music itself.
Echo makes the music they like, and they are in on the joke. “Cold Commodity” is the opposite of a hot commodity, and the album begins with a track called “Folk is Dead Inside.” But the album itself is alive with a propulsive pace and winking jokes throughout. Without heavy-handedness, the songs reflect on the collective moment. That might be the idea behind the second half of the album’s title — “knowing pains” means you’re in on the joke, too.
Currently, “Cold Commodities and Knowing Pains” is available for purchase on the artist’s Bandcamp page and via blood-red cassette tapes that Echo is hand assembling. They are available at The Hereafter, Vortex Souvenir and The Record Ship.
Cassettes make sense for a few reasons. CDs are dead, for one. There’s a bit of a handmade, DIY vibe to creating a tape, including the cover art. And vinyl is expensive to press, particularly at the pace that Echo performs and promotes.
Echo describes herself as a somewhat reluctant performer, a 50/50 mix of stage fright and a desire to see her songs realized in a public space.
“You have to be really serious, and get the songs right, but you have to flip and have some levity on stage,” Echo said. The show at Harvester Arts will be one of about 10 that Echo performs this year.
But that shouldn’t be confused with a lack of musical productivity, as Echo said they write a song — or maybe just a useful fragment of a song — almost every day.
“The cupboard is not bare,” Echo said. “I don’t like wasting ideas, even bad ones.”
The Details
"Cold Commodities and Knowing Pains”: Celebrating the newest album by Dani Echo
7-9:30 p.m. Friday, August 30, at Harvester Arts, 215 N. Washington Ave. in Wichita
Local musician and vintage clothing store co-owner Dani Echo will debut songs from their new album “Cold Commodities and Knowing Pains,” a collection of 14 songs written over the past 10 years but only now fully realized and recorded. The event takes place as part of the closing reception for the group art show “Llama(ra)das de Aparemiento." Also playing: darkwave/dreampop/shoegaze act Brave Boy.
As “Llama(ra)das de Aparemiento" contains mature subject matter, admission is limited to those 18 or older.
18+
Free
Learn more.
Kevin Kinder never learned to play an instrument but has written about music for more than two decades just the same. He’s a freelance writer and journalism educator.
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