The Fare Forward Interview with Fr. Timothy danaher, OP
Fr. Timothy Danaher, O.P. is a Dominican Friar and member of the Hillbilly Thomists. He grew up in Steubenville, Ohio, and presently works as chaplain of Aquinas House at Dartmouth College.
Interview Conducted by Anna Heetderks
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Fare Forward: How did the Hillbilly Thomists originally come together? And how did you become a part of the group?
Fr. Timothy Danaher: In our seminary in Washington, D.C.—the Dominican House of Studies—we would play Irish music as brothers on Thursday nights after dinner. We did this for years. That started to change to folk music, and then eventually it changed to actually playing some local gigs. The first one was out in Front Royal, Virginia; it was a fundraiser for St. Gregory’s Academy. There were a lot of homeschool families involved. It was a picnic, there was a petting zoo. One of our priests from Ireland played the fiddle, but we were still doing mostly Irish music then, and all covers. Our second gig was at Capuchin Cafe, which the Franciscans did in our neighborhood, [for] this local young adult mixer. So we mostly played music just for ourselves, for fun, for years on end. That eventually became recording albums. The second album, we started to do originals. We did all covers on the first album except for one song.
For the first couple of years we were just playing music in this side room of our seminary after dinner, and we were trying to work through these two songbooks put out by St. Gregory’s Academy. It’s a boarding school. It’s quite eccentric, and they have a lot of Scottish Irish tunes. So some of it was working through the songbooks to learn the songbooks. We would do this for some of our seminary parties as well, and play Irish music. But that’s the origin of it all.
FF: What was your role in the group when you first joined? And has that stayed the same? Has it changed among the members?
TD: Back then, we’d all just sing along. Probably one or two of us would play guitar. Maybe one of the guys did an Irish flute a little bit, but that’s still kind of our emphasis. We’re mostly singers who happen to play instruments. I personally fill in on a variety of instruments. I’m not great, but I’m good enough at four or five of them. So I fill in as needed.
FF: Do you have a favorite instrument to play?
TD: Well, my favorite instrument to play is drums, but it’s hard to sing while you drum. And we already have a drummer, but I have occasionally filled in on drums. They would say I’m one of our main singers; they would emphasize my singing.
FF: Where did you encounter music growing up? When did you first start playing or singing music?
TD: I’m from a musical family; both my parents sing and play guitar. We’d sing in the living room. I did, in freshman year of high school, teach myself guitar. My mom showed me a few chords. I also learned chords on the piano. She taught me that as well, just to get me started. In high school, I was in an embarrassing sort of jam band where we would play these 20-minute versions of “House of the Rising Sun,” or stuff by The Who or Led Zeppelin. Mostly just because we had a bunch of high school classmates who wanted to try out electric guitar, drums, long wandering solos—not much singing. So I definitely was in a band in high school. We didn’t even have a name, but that was real.
I think we got a lot of glitches out of our system. You know, it’s the same thing: Drummers always play too loud. Solos go on too long. It’s very undisciplined. I did play a number of bar gigs in high school. My uncle owned a restaurant, which is an old Jaguar museum, turned into a restaurant. We also played some local events. There was a home and garden convention that we played one time, but that’s when you get people together and you play acoustic sets. So you’re playing largely The Beatles, James Taylor, you know, it’s all cover band stuff. But I did perform beyond my family living room, moved to other family’s basements where we would do these jam sessions, and then moved to actual public spaces sometimes.
Nothing original. I wrote probably like three original songs for girlfriends back then, but you know, they were my only audience for that. Those were never recorded. I don’t even know if I remember them. I remember the basics. I could probably dig them up.
FF: I’m curious about your musical influences then and now, especially regarding your work with the Thomists.
TD: I think a lot of us, myself included, had Irish influences that the actual Irish would mock as very American Irish. The Clancy Brothers were the primary ones, that sort of stuff, St. Patrick’s Day music. I mean, I was not raised with a lot of old-time country, gospel, Americana. We try to position ourselves in that genre now, but frankly, a lot of our guys in the band have recently been getting into that music to catch up.
None of us were really raised with that, except maybe one or two of us. I think a lot of us were raised on some Irish music, classic rock, just standard stuff. I mean, I was playing, “Here Comes the Sun” at bar gigs. I wasn’t playing “You Are My Sunshine.” I also think that there was some surge in interest in bluegrass and Americana music because of the movie O Brother Where Art Thou by the Coen Brothers. I think everyone got interested in that genre a little bit, but it didn’t last. It was like a six-month phase and then you move on. But I think most of us were raised more on folk and folk rock, mostly classic rock and Americana stuff. Not the actual stuff we play now.
FF: What sorts of music do you enjoy personally now, if that’s different from what you just described?
TD: Ever since college, I’ve listened to a lot of indie rock. This year, I’ve been listening to Fleet Foxes, Bonny Light Horseman. I listen to a lot of Latin music—and that’s not a genre; that’s an entire world. I listen to a lot of Mexican genres, like Son Jarocho, which is from Veracruz. I listen to Colombian Cumbia, I listen to Colombian Pacific music. I listen to Son Cubano, some classic salsa. I listen to a lot of soul: original American soul, but also some of the new soul movement.
In the morning, we have Mass as priests, morning prayer and Mass, then breakfast. Then after breakfast, we record.
FF: You mentioned that the Thomists for a while just played covers and then eventually started writing their own music. What is that songwriting process like and what sort of sources do you all draw on for inspiration?
TD: Every one of our band members writes separately. One of us usually records a demo on his cell phone and shares it. If we’re going to go into a recording session in the summer, something like two months beforehand, people work on their demos, share them in a group chat on WhatsApp, and everybody else just listens.
FF: Is there any collaboration?
TD: No, not beforehand. We write separately. Then, we have a house—the Dominican priests have a house they share in the Catskills. We arrive for a two-week session, and the rhythm of the day is usually the night before, we’re just jamming out on different demos and trying to develop them. So that jam session at night does develop them some—adding harmonies, adding instrumentation—but it doesn’t change radically. It’s not like we’re composing together. We’re instrumentalizing together and arranging together. In the morning, we have Mass as priests, morning prayer and Mass, then breakfast. Then after breakfast, we record. We try to record a song that morning, break for lunch, and then record another song in the afternoon. So we have a rate of about two songs per day.
We do something like 16, 17, 18 takes per song, so it gets to be repetitive. It’s work; it’s very much work. And then by the time we do dinner and hang out at night, we’re already jamming on new songs to see, of the seven we jam on to be like, Hey, let’s try these two tomorrow to record them.
It’s an interesting process. Lone demos beforehand, jamming at night, and then morning and afternoon recording.
FF: And how often do you record?
TD: We’ve been recording basically every other summer. I should add that we do largely live recording. Oftentimes we’ll record as many instruments and voices as we can in one take. We’ll sometimes layer in later a guitar solo, some fiddle parts, drums. But we will try to have as many instruments and voices together as we can for the groundwork recording. There are a lot of tracks where you have four instruments, solos, drums, voices, and that’s all. And then what you can do is get a bunch of those recordings and, say, the first verse on one version was great, but there’s a better solo from maybe the fifth recording. You can just splice that right in. But you don’t splice in the solo. You splice in the full track with everybody going at once. So you can kind of cobble together in pieces a whole song and you don’t even notice.
I think that human beings naturally think and process and meditate as they go through the day. It’s not just when they gather in church. So, whether you’re driving or in the kitchen or working, I think our music speaks about life and religious themes. Our music is meditative.
FF: You mentioned that at the beginning of the Thomists, you were playing a lot in communal settings. What is the role you see for distinctly Christian music outside of a formal worship setting?
TD: I think that human beings naturally think and process and meditate as they go through the day. It’s not just when they gather in church. So, whether you’re driving or in the kitchen or working, I think our music speaks about life and religious themes. Our music is meditative. So does that aid people’s meditation? I think so.
It’s music, but it’s a sort of text. It’s similar to a podcast or audiobook. It’s a sort of audio text that’s catchy and musical, but we’re purposely lyrical. We’re not trying to be obscure.
It’s supposed to aid people’s meditation on life, on the things of culture as they go about their day. We all look for resources for that outside of church. It’s just one of those resources.
Music has an interesting way of getting your attention compared to poetry. Poetry relies entirely on words and structure and rhythm. And it has its own way of trying to emphasize words and meanings. I think lyrics on their own are not as powerful as poetry, but when paired with music, they have kind of an equal power.
FF: Would you describe the songs as distinctly Thomistic? In what ways if so?
TD: I think some of them are Thomistic deliberately, but most are not deliberately. Aquinas for us is sort of like having a full map, a full atlas of theology, but it doesn’t mean that every sentence we sing is Thomistic. Our mindset tends to be Thomistic, broadly speaking, but I think most of our songs are also biblical. They are experiential. The majority of them are not heavy handedly Thomistic.
FF: What is your favorite setting in which to play music?
TD: Living rooms. I don’t mind playing live shows, but I don’t prefer it. I would rather play campfires or living rooms with 12 people than anything larger.
FF: But what’s the coolest venue you’ve ever played?
TD: See, people want me to say the Grand Ole Opry. In terms of audio-visual equipment and the crew on the ground, that was in fact probably the most professional, the best sound. But my favorite concert personally was the pier at Tybee Island, Georgia. We got to play overlooking the water with the summer sun, with beach goers kind of wandering through. Best show to me. I even said to the guys, “Best show we’ve ever played.” We’ve played a number of high schools where we rent local AV equipment. And that’s usually a less full sound, usually comes out a little bit too treble. It’s what we have to do, but it’s not ideal.
We played a theater twice called The Athenaeum in Chicago. That’s a neat venue because it’s an old theater and it’s two tiers, and the tiers are so close to the stage that people are almost on top of you. And they have a pretty good sound system. I would take that over things like The Opry; we [also] played the Bijou Theater in Knoxville. Again, these are really professional and historic places, but the Athenaeum in Chicago is an old theater. The sound is good and you feel surrounded. It’s strange because the bright lights are on you, so you can’t see most people, but it feels like they’re reacting and responding just beyond the lights. So, in terms of the feel of a live show, after Tybee Island Pier, I think the Athenaeum in Chicago is the coolest atmosphere to play in.
We played the University of Notre Dame, which was state of the art. But I have not been to a theater like the Athenaeum where it feels like you’re surrounded by friendly thieves. You know? It’s like they’re in the dark hiding. They’re right there, but it’s like they’re surrounding you. It’s this really interesting feeling.
FF: That’s lovely. Do you usually go on tour, or do you tend to play more one-off shows?
TD: It’s become alternating summers. One summer we tour, the next summer we record. The touring and the shows have started to become just about every year. At least, we do fewer shows on a recording summer. I personally with my work cannot make most of those, but there’s been more and more shows added.
I wrote a song, “Love Is Patient,” that has, in a funny way, been played at a lot of weddings. It is a funny feeling. I wrote that song on Route 70 across Pennsylvania while it was snowing. It’s just strange to think how those voice memos made it into people’s weddings.
FF: I’d like to know what your favorite Thomists song is. Maybe your favorite to play live or your favorite lyrically.
TD: I think our prettiest song is “Marigold.” I really think that’s the prettiest. I think the grooviest song is “When We All Get Together Tonight,” which is about the party of the Prodigal Son after he returns home.
Those come to mind. I wrote a song, “Love Is Patient,” that has, in a funny way, been played at a lot of weddings. It is a funny feeling. I wrote that song on Route 70 across Pennsylvania while it was snowing. It’s just strange to think how those voice memos made it into people’s weddings. There’s neither pride nor shame in that for me. It’s just sort of interesting, I guess.
We have a song too that we used to sing at the end of a lot of our shows. One of our brothers, Justin Bolger, wrote a melody to the old hymn “Just As I Am,” which is a Charlotte Elliott poem that might be the most deeply Christian. It’s sort of a half cover; we didn’t write the lyrics. Those are the songs that come to mind for me.
FF: Where would you suggest a new listener start with the Thomists? Whether that’s an album or a particular song?
TD: If somebody’s brand new, they should listen to our recording on YouTube at the Grand Ole Opry. I think that captures in a half hour some of our dialogue and humor. It captures our personalities as well as our music. You can also visually see us playing. To me, that’s sort of the best introduction. And then it also covers, you know, six or so songs, which are pretty different from each other. So I think it’s the best quick intro summary. You can actually see us and who we are and the best quality recording.
FF: Could you talk a little bit about your new album?
TD: So, there’s two parts. We have a Christmas album coming out soon and hopefully another album this spring, which is still being edited. We’re going to arrange another summer tour. So there will be an album and a tour this summer.
Photos by Lawrence OP on Flickr, Paul Padgett, Matthew Barrick, and Dominican Friars on YouTube.
You can stream the Hillbilly Thomists’ music here.
