“Dan did a great interview with the Boxmasters when we breezed through Spartanburg! Dan is a great dude and great journalist. Spartanburg should be proud to have him! Glad to hear he’s got a website up and running!”
— Billy Bob Thornton, Academy Award-winning actor, filmmaker, singer-songwriter and musician
“Dan Armonaitis is hard to spell, but easy to read. His writings about music and musicians combine an astute critical sensibility and an ardent enthusiasm for the songs, singers and players we need to hear. If you want to learn about the deep history and rich present of Upstate South Carolina’s music community, Dan is your man.”
— Peter Cooper, senior director/producer/writer at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter
“Dan Armonaitis has been to my house in Nashville. A lot of music journalists have been to my house in Nashville, but Dan is the only one who has sipped tea from a cup commemorating the 10th wedding anniversary of Johnny Cash and June Carter. The cup is one of my most treasured possessions, and Dan Armonaitis is a treasure of the Upstate when it comes to getting the word out about music that matters. Read his words. He’ll steer you right.”
— Marshall Chapman, acclaimed singer-songwriter, author and actress
“Dan is great, always gets the word out when we’re coming to town, and it seems to work! He’s a great writer and just a true lover of music. Dan’s a believer and knows his stuff for sure.”
— David Ball, platinum-selling country singer-songwriter and founding member of Uncle Walt’s Band
“I have had the pleasure of knowing Dan Armonaitis for many years now and have watched as he built a stellar reputation as the finest entertainment journalist in Upstate South Carolina and beyond. Dan writes straight from the heart and his love for his craft and the subjects of his articles always shines through like a beacon in the dark. Dan is a Carolina treasure.”
— Michael Buffalo Smith, acclaimed author and Southern music historian
“I’ve worked over the past few years with Dan Armonaitis when he was music writer for the Spartanburg Herald-Journal. So many newspapers in so many major cities (Boston! Dallas! Raleigh!…hell, USA Today!) have jettisoned their music writers and now depend on freelancers and syndicated wire copy. So I kept my fingers crossed that the Herald-Journal would appreciate what they had in Dan, who is a real music writer (and I’ve known a few in my 35 years in music PR for six record companies and my own firm). Dan was a major league talent in a minor market. His column was coveted real estate for our artists. Sure enough, it was too good to be true. The good news is that Dan is soon to re-emerge with a new online music outlet. And so the next chapter is about to be written.”
–Cary Baker, founder of Los Angeles-based music publicity firm Conqueroo
“We were very glad to hear that Dan Armonaitis is starting his own independent website, TheMusicAdvocate.com, and will continue covering Upstate South Carolina’s music scene. We know that every band and performer who has had the privilege of being covered in a story by Dan feels as we do, ‘Dan is the best!'”
— Howard Childress, Wayne Arthur, Jimmy Denton and Randall Lark, members of legendary rock ‘n’ roll band The Sparkletones of “Black Slacks” fame
“I look for people to contribute to the musicians and the community. These are the elements to which I realize that Dan has continued to prove to me in all the arts and personal involvements with the individual to which he’s writing. With that being said, I think that he is a gentleman as well as a person who gets involved in the community and will continue to be an asset to the entire area.”
— Doug Gray, lead vocalist and founding member of the legendary Marshall Tucker Band
“I met Dan Armonaitis in Nashville several years ago when he was visiting a singer-songwriter friend who had moved there to build her career and hoping for fame and fortune. He was writing an article for his local paper there in South Carolina. I was playing a songwriter’s round at the Commodore when he approached me and asked me if I was the same Jim Parker who was in The Kitchen Cinq in the ’60s. I’m sure I looked stunned that anyone would know that piece of trivia. From that moment forward I knew that gentleman was a huge, well read, fan of music. I did an interview months later with him and have stayed in touch over the years. His passion for helping to promote and expose songwriters and musicians to the general public has not waned in all of those years. Give Dan a read and/or a listen and let him take you places you’ve never been.”
— Jim Parker, acclaimed singer-songwriter, creator of Jim Parker’s Songwriters Series and founding member of 1960s garage-pop band The Kitchen Cinq