Dan Tuffy is an Australian singer-songwriter based in The Netherlands. Perhaps best known as a member of legendary 80s and 90s psych folk rockers, Wild Pumpkins at Midnight, or the front man of alt. folk group, Big Low, he released his first solo album in late 2016.

Formally credited to 'Songs From Dan', Songs From Dan is now regarded (and listed on streaming platforms) as a Dan Tuffy album. Sophomore album, Letters of Gold, came out in 2020, followed in June 2023 by Country Star. The latter album is formally credited to Dan Tuffy & Song Crew, but is listed on streaming platforms as a Dan Tuffy album, entitled Dan Tuffy and Song Crew: Country Star.

Here's Dan, telling his own story...

"This is where you are meant to write in 2nd person and use adjectives make yourself sound brilliant. I’m not going to do it. I’m just going to tell you my story – short version that is. I grew up in the river town of Kempsey in northern New South Wales, Australia. I don’t miss Australia much, but I really miss the valley I grew up in. I love that part of the world and its people. I carry it with me and it has gotten me through some stuff I can tell you. Seriously. Sounds cliché but its true.

"I left the pretty valley and headed south to Tasmania to study botany and ecology when I was a young fella. Love the bush. Ended up living in a caravan at Fortestcue Bay there on the Tasman Peninsula for a while, where I had the good fortune to be getting paid for looking after an isolated wilderness campground. Right up my alley. I got to know the names of all the animals, birds and plants in the area and was a very happy little naturalist.

"Joined a folk/punk band in Hobart in 1983 called Wild Pumpkins at Midnight – I had no idea what I was doing, but apparently I could play the bass OK. We used to rehearse by firelight down at Fortescue or, much to my despair, in a dingy little basement in Sandy Bay, Hobart. I was very reluctant to leave the bush and come into town. Ask the rest of the band about it. I was always late. It frustrated the hell out of them.

"We started getting successful so we moved to Melbourne. Spent a few years there cutting it up. Almost hit the big time. We used to pack them in at the Punters Club in Fitzroy in the late 80's early 90's. I love Melbourne too. Best place in the world for making music if you ask me. I just didn’t know it back then. So, in an upsurge of ambition and reckless adventure, the entire band relocated first to London and then to Holland in the early 1993. Did pretty good on the European club scene for a while, especially in Germany. Somehow in the middle of all that I managed to fall in love and father 2 children. I had no idea what I was doing then either, and I was away a lot on tour, and when I got back I usually couldn't wait to go straight back out there. I was earning zilch. Miraculously we are still together as a family. The band broke up. You could say that my marriage outlived my band. Many don't.

"In about 2002, I met some musicians here in Holland (you know who you are) who were such inspired players, they really got me started again. It resulted in different combinations of us forming two bands: Big Low and Parne Gadje. Parne Gadje is still going and Big Low is kind of on the back-burner now. I also began a record label called Smoked Recordings and I’m really quite proud of the stuff we’ve released since then. All this brings us up to about now I guess. I told you it was going to be short. I know its not. And I’ve got stories galore to fill in the gaps. More than you could poke a stick at. Songs from Dan is my solo project. Come to a show and I’ll tell you a story."

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