Brother Danielson is Daniel Smith. This is considered his solo venture from underground oddities, The Danielson Famile. In the early/mid part of the 1990's The Danielson Famile was one of the weirdest bursts of creativity in music. To compare, a person might mention The Polyphonic Spree or your favorite children's record from your youth, but that would hardly scratch the surface.

The Famile is actually a family. Daniel Smith is the main songwriter and lead singer, with various siblings helping him out with various back up duties. Later on they "adopted" non-family members for random parts, while keeping the blood siblings as a main focus. The music featured Smith's incredible, one-of-a-kind falsetto squawk, venturing and expanding the highest possibilities of the male vocal cords while sounding more or less un-feminine. This was backed by an equally harsh acoustic guitar, often used as much as a rhythm instrument then a song leader. Then The Famile backed him on whatever instruments they could play that would fit the song, be it vocals, flute, whatever.

Thanks to the high vocals, most people thought of something a child might do or listen to (an opinion shared by some Pitchfork Media reviews), thus damning The Danielson Famile to the farthest pits of the underground scene, made worse by the fact that they were signed to Tooth and Nail Records, viewed as a Christian label. Non-Christians were uninterested, and the majority of Christian music fans were too busy with Michael W. Smith or MxPx (depending on their taste) to want to acknowledge The Famile's existence, let alone listen to them. Oh, and The Danielson Famile costumed in uniform nurse outfits, complete with red crosses and funny hats. Not so unlike the more current The Polyphonic Spree.

After four strong records, they signed with indie label Secretly Canadian, who re-released their past albums (I'm assuming they purchased the rights from Tooth and Nail Records) and a new one - and now this branching out.

On the surface, the first assumption is that this will be Danielson without the family. After all, since Smith is the main man in the Famile, losing the family could really the most major change that could be made. Don't bet on it. The Famile is performing on this album in full force.