Score One for the Underdogs is the creative outlet for songwriter Dan Wright, whose music, while unapologetically radio-friendly and catchy, is filled to the brim with twists as random as some of his own life experiences (what other might-as-well-have-been-Amish-raised rock musician can claim to have shared a stage with high-ranking Bolivian generals in the enchanting city of La Paz?).

Dan Wright was born into a family and church background in south Florida that condemned rock music as the devil's music, and that there was no place for a Christian in the world of rock and roll. Being young and naive, he swallowed it whole and loudly denounced it as being "of the world." At one point, upon hearing of the death of Jerry Garcia, he blatantly mocked a classmate who was a fan of the Grateful Dead. Oh the wisdom of a seventh-grade kid!

But it was in that fateful year that he began to recognize how unfulfilling the music was to which he had been permitted to listen--primarily southern gospel. Upon hearing classmates (whose parents attended the same church as his mother) discuss an artist by the name of Steven Curtis Chapman, he asked his mother if he might purchase a cassette tape of his. The reply? "Yes, you may, but I'm trusting you that if the music is too wild, that you will get rid of it."

And so young Daniel found himself at Walmart making a decision he could not yet know would change his life...the newly released "Signs of Life" tape or a cheap throwaway "greatest hits" tape that combined songs off his first two albums. Impressed by the low price (and therefore low financial risk in case the music should be too "wild"), he opted for the latter, which featured a very 80's mullet on the artist's head. While that music was crap, it was a good choice at the time, since "Signs of Life" is a much "wilder" and more upbeat album, and would likely have dealt such a prick to his charmingly tender conscience that he would never again have ventured out of the safety of the approved southern gospel womb.

The following years were a battle for young Daniel, as he subjected himself to an anti-rock music video series suggested by and viewed with his equally naive youth pastor and found it ridiculously shallow. He continued to wage war against the ingrained voices of disapproval as he quickly delved into the world of Christian rock, something he'd been raised to believe was an oxymoron. But reason won out in time, and the devil's music had him firmly in its grip, especially once he got his driver's license and a job and could therefore purchase CDs without having to get them approved. It wasn't long before he had even bought his first "secular" album...Creed's "Human Clay." He has done a lot of maturing since then.

Young Daniel bought his first guitar as a high school sophomore with his Christmas money, only to see his younger brother kick it over in a fit of clumsiness and break the neck. But that didn't stop him. He began immediately to write his own songs, preferring that to learning other people's songs. By the time he had to decide on college, he felt certain that music was his calling, though he felt thoroughly unqualified.

Young Daniel--who now preferred to be called Dan due to the fact that "Dan Wright" sounded a lot like "damn right"--entered Greenville College in Illinois in the fall of 2001. Intimidated by the talent around him, he spent the first two years of college trying to learn how to be a normal person and shaking off the trappings of his might-as-well-have-been-raised-Amish upbringing. But once he began to feel comfortable in his new skin, and once he stopped being intimidated by the recording studio, he jumped in with abandon, recording about fifty songs over his final three semesters, including three increasingly mature albums.

Forced to leave his new home and friends in the middle of nowhere, Illinois, because of the inevitable force of graduation, Dan took up residence in Nashville, Tennessee, the home of the country music he so dislikes. But he loves the city, and he hopes that the burgeoning alternative scene will eventually give Nashville a better reputation. And he's working hard to be a part of it.

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