Photo by Mic Smith
Resides in: Awendaw, where she’s artist-in-residence at the Awendaw Green outdoor concert venue.
Claim to fame: Acclaimed Americana singer-songwriter considered the state’s musical matriarch.
Sharing the gift: Swamp Sessions is the name of one of Howle’s albums, but it’s also the name of recording retreats she hosts for up-and-coming musicians at an off-grid cabin in the Francis Marion National Forest. For details, visit daniellehowle.com.
Latest project: Current, her 16th album.
On the third track of her most recent album, an upbeat ballad called “I’m Alright,” South Carolina singer-songwriter Danielle Howle croons, “I’m alright / Don’t get me wrong / I’m right here / Humming along.”
The lyric is both a gentle reminder and a defiant shout—Howle has been a fixture on the South Carolina music scene for more than three decades, and she’s not going anywhere.
Howle formed her first band at the S.C. Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities in Greenville when she was 16, recorded her first album with the band Lay Quiet Awhile in her 20s, then established herself as a Columbia-based solo artist with a penchant for musical collaboration. One night, as the frontwoman for Danielle and the Tantrums, she caught the attention of Amy Ray, half of the famous duo Indigo Girls.
“That night, we got signed, and I was so scared of what was happening,” Howle says. “Everything was so new. We started to go out of town and play. It still freaks me out to this day—this is what happens when an introvert gets an extrovert’s job.”
Many albums and tours later, she’s still writing, recording and collaborating with musicians across musical genres. As artist-in-residence at Awendaw Green, she helps host the popular Wednesday night Barn Jams and shares her experience through songwriting workshops, her Swamp Sessions recording retreats, and a creative writing trail. “I try to create events that engage the public in music education,” Howle says.
Her work, then, is no solo act. It’s about building communities through music.
“I said, ‘Why should I have all the fun?’ So I just started putting people together,” Howle recalls. “We get together, and I try to challenge them with interesting techniques I’ve learned over the years.”