Daniel Cartier emerged in the '90s as a serious up-and-coming singer/songwriter with guts and an ability to impress fans and musicians alike with his passionate performances and sincere songwriting. Cartier's music is sometimes tender, sometimes frantic, and usually supported nicely by his acoustic guitar playing, causing frequent comparisons to Jeff Buckley, Ani DiFranco, and other singer/songwriters of his day. Cartier was born June 25, 1969, and grew up in Exeter, New Hampshire, where he developed a deep love of music as a child while listening to '70s and '80s artists like Patti Smith, Blondie, and the Cars. He learned to play keyboards, started his first band at the age of 11, and remained focused on performing and writing music from that time forward. In 1991, Cartier moved to New York and played his first Gotham performances in subway stations around the city's Lower East Side. It didn't take long for word to spread to club owners and soon he was a regular at all the folk and rock A&R hangouts around town. The singer wasted little time and made his first two recordings (Daniel Cartier: The Troubadour of Avenue A and Live from New York: The Subway Session) available on his own Higher Power record label. The second of these collections was actually recorded in New York's Canal Street subway station, and eventually re-released on Ignition Records. The Cartier sound and story were becoming very popular and the inevitable finally happened when the musician signed a major-label contract with Elton John's boutique A&M imprint Rocket Records. The result of that partnership was 1996's Avenue A. Much touring and some favorable reviews followed; however, there were too many changes in the wind at A&M -- which was purchased and basically ceased to exist shortly after Avenue A's release. Cartier wasn't kept on under the new label's ownership, and he found himself back among the ranks of independent artists. Undaunted, the musician continued to perform and record. Go Records released Cartier's Glorified Demos in 1999, and after spending a brief period living and working in L.A., the singer moved back to New York in 2001 and released Wide Outside on Jindo Records. After taking time away from music to care for his elderly parents, in 2015 Cartier announced plans to reissue his various albums digitally through Ditto Music. ~ Vincent Jeffries