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Danielle Ate the Sandwich - at the Museum

The Longmont Museum of Art and Culture presents yet another exciting concert this coming Thursday.

This content was originally published by the Longmont Observer and is licensed under a Creative Commons license.

The Longmont Museum of Art and Culture presents yet another exciting concert this coming Thursday.  Coming on the heels of a successful Longmont Symphony event on Sunday, the Stewart Auditorium welcomes Danielle Ate the Sandwich, the stage name of pop-folk songwriter, Danielle Anderson.  Accompanied by her trademark ukulele, Danielle has progressed from performing in self-produced Youtube videos to a full-time singer-songwriter with six albums to her credit and a busy life touring.

Danielle Ate the Sandwich Photo: Kaela-Speicher.

Born in Grant, Nebraska in 1986, Anderson graduated from Colorado State University with a degree in apparel and design in 2008 and continued to live in Fort Collins, until moving to Kansas City.  Coming from a musical family, Anderson played several different musical instruments growing up, but always considered music a hobby. She participated in open-mic events at CSU, and then began performing her own material on Youtube, usually accompanied by a funny skit. She started to gain a following from her online work, and this was the beginning of her “fanwich” legion of supporters.

Anderson’s songs have been described as thoughtful, heavy, and serious, but she rarely takes herself seriously. She is known for her “quirky lyrical twists”, delivering witty and honest stage banter in her live shows. Longmont is lucky to host Anderson, as she has cut back on her touring, concentrating more on participating in ukulele festivals and working on developing a more balanced approach to life.

When asked about her songwriting, Anderson replied that she usually starts “with an idea or subject, or something that’s been on my mind. Then I noodle around on the ukulele, trying to find a good set of chords, then I play them over and over until words and melodies start to fall out of me.” She also describes the process as “more of an exercise in letting go”.

In 2015, Anderson composed the soundtrack to the Emmy-nominated, HBO documentary, Packed in a Trunk: The Lost Art of Edith Lake Wilkinson. She had worked with the filmmakers earlier on another project and they remembered her music. Anderson explains how this project developed: “When they asked me to do the soundtrack I fearfully said yes, not exactly knowing how to do that and not feeling like a strong enough composer. But what I did was right. I started writing the songs before they finished shooting because I was nervous about getting it done. So I was just writing, writing, writing before I even had a finished version of the film inside of me.”

The final question for Anderson has to be, why Danielle Ate the Sandwich?  Her standard answer is: “I chose the name because I thought it sounded fun and interesting. I didn’t want to be another singer-songwriter with a boring first and last name. I like my first name and I like sandwiches – how they look and taste and come in different shapes and sizes – so I thought it made perfect sense. I’ve got so used to it, sometimes I forget how strange it is! I pulled it right out of my head!”

Longmont Museum of Art and Culture

Danielle Ate the Sandwich is appearing at the Stewart Auditorium in the Longmont Museum on Thursday, 24th October at 7:15 pm. 

Learn more about Danielle Ate the Sandwich at www.danielleatethesandwich.com