GRAND ILLUSION John Daniels – Lead guitar, rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar, mandolin

Guitarist extraordinaire John Daniels has been a mainstay of the Buffalo, NY music scene for decades, most notably as the axe-smith in the award-winning HEART tribute band BAD ANIMALS, where he performed with his wife and renowned female vocalist CAROLYN DANIELS throughout the 1990s. A few years after the band won the award for Top Rock Band at the Buffalo Music Awards in 1994 this dynamic duo hit paydirt together again after forming the massively popular regional cover band PASSION WORKS that performs to enthusiastic audiences to this day.

As a local favorite and perennial nominee at the BMA for his guitar work, John continues to perform in PASSION WORKS with GRAND ILLUSION drummer and bassist JON WHITE and RIC STAVE respectively. When an opening became available for a guitarist in GRAND ILLUSION, it was a “no-brainer” to consider who the obvious first choice would be, so when the band approached him to fill the slot, John’s enthusiastic response was overwhelming, locking him in as half the band’s top-shelf guitar duo.

Performing regularly in two different bands with the same drummer and bassist, adds a familial style and cadence, a “chemistry”, these three seasoned professionals bring to the table, that is unmatched in any STYX tribute band, or any other band for that matter, on the scene today.

As the sole guitarist in PASSION WORKS covering both lead and rhythm guitar parts, John’s ability to create a fully textured sound helps produce an amazing dynamic thickness to any cover tune, and his style recently has been compared to guitarists ALEX LIFESON of RUSH and even QUEEN’s BRIAN MAY. So, in the context of these STYX arrangements, with the addition of a second guitarist, John’s experience and prowess in being able to squeeze every drop of sound out of every note enhances GRAND ILLUSION’s sonic impact to never before attainable new heights.

As mutual admirers of each other’s work over the years, John and GRAND ILLUSION lead singer/keyboardist RICK ALLEN couldn’t be more thrilled to finally be working together, and as for the band as a whole, this awe-inspiring collective force presents a level of entertainment far and away greater than the mere sum of its 5 parts that must be seen and heard in person to truly be appreciated, and the band is elated beyond words that John Daniels is now an inimitable element to this amazing mix of seasoned pros.

Band Contact: Rick Allen Buffalo, NY 716-208-6582 [email protected]