Danny Milhon played resonator guitar in the Columbus and Central Ohio area from the early 1960s into the early 1990s. An excellent musician, who was in demand for recording sessions and as a band member, his membership in traveling bands was limited because he kept the same factory day job for thirty-four years. He did travel for a short time with fiddler Benny Martin and singer Gene Christian. Danny played with Sid Campbell’s Country Cutups, an early and excellent bluegrass band in the Columbus area that included Sid, Danny, Ross Branham, Bill Moore, Chuck Cordle, and sometimes John Hickman. In the early 1960s, they held forth at a bar known as Irv-Nells on North High Street in Columbus. They were involved in recording the soundtrack for an experimental film, Football as It Is Played Today. His name is well known around the country from his recording activities with various artists on Rural Rhythm Records. He and Columbus musicians Jack Casey, Ross Branham, and Sid Campbell worked in various combinations backing old-time and bluegrass musicians on the label owned by Uncle Jim O’Neal in California. The sessions were probably recorded at Jack Casey’s Rome Studios in Columbus or at Rusty York’s Jewel Studios in Cincinnati. Some of the artists he backed in this endeavor included Hylo Brown, J.E. Mainer, Raymond Fairchild, Curly Fox, and Lee Moore. He played on Jerry Jeff Walker’s original Mr. Bojangles LP. His connection to the Dayton area comes from his work with Red Allen and with the Allen Brothers, both on record and on stage. In 2007, he was playing with groups in Florida and with Hayseed in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. In 2013, he was appearing with the Maple Street Quartet in Florida.
MILHON, DANNY (1938-)