We are excited to announce that Dan Wilson will perform at the 2018 Arc Gala on March 3, 2018 at the Radisson Blu at Mall of America. Dan performed at the 2nd Arc Gala. Dan Wilson is a Grammy-award winning singer, songwriter, producer, and visual artist based in Los Angeles. His long songwriting resume includes three modern classics: “Closing Time”, which he wrote for his band, Semisonic, “Not Ready to Make Nice” (co-written with Dixie Chicks) and “Someone Like You” (co-written with Adele). Prior to his time with Semisonic, he was a member of the band Trip Shakespeare, whose long-haired psychedelia influenced a generation of Midwestern bands long after their breakup in the early 90s.
Since Semisonic, Dan has released three solo albums and has become a highly sought-after songwriting collaborator, perhaps due to his slow-drip brew of philosophic and artistic seriousness, dry Midwestern humor (well-known to his live audiences,) and songwriting, performing, and production skills. He has written with and produced a diverse group of artists including Adele, Dixie Chicks, Chris Stapleton, John Legend, The Head & The Heart, Dierks Bentley, My Morning Jacket, Keith Urban, Carol King, Spoon, P!nk, Taylor Swift, and many others.
“I’ve heard people describe my list of collaborators as ‘eclectic,’” he says. “But there’s a lot of consistency there, too. I’m interested in writing only with great musical artists, people who have a fascinating vision and want to push themselves to their limits.”
Dan contributed three songs to Adele’s album, 21, including the hit “Someone Like You,” which he also produced, thus earning himself a Grammy for Album of the Year. A few years earlier, Wilson took home a Song of the Year Grammy for “Not Ready to Make Nice,” one of six songs he co-wrote for the Dixie Chicks’ award-winning album Taking the Long Way. Recently, Dan co-wrote the pre-release track “Like Gold” from Vance Joy’s 2018 album Nation of Two, “Since We’re Alone” with Niall Horan for his 2017 album Flicker, “Almost Famous” with Noah Cyrus for her 2018 album NC-17, and “Alone” from Halsey’s 2017 album hopeless fountain kingdom.
In August 2017, Wilson released his fourth solo album ‘Re-Covered,’ a collection of his reinterpretations of songs that he wrote for and with other artists, for which he also wrote and illustrated a deluxe book/CD, including session stories and songwriting tidbits.