Danny Kirwan: the guitarist Mick Fleetwood compared to Django Reinhardt
When people discuss the merits of Fleetwood Mac in the modern day, most individuals will immediately flock towards their output in the mid to late 1970s as being the peak of their success. The incarnation of the band that featured Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, John and Christine McVie and Mick Fleetwood is often argued as having been their artistic high point, but saying that they only came into their element as a group with this lineup is ignoring the fact that their legacy began well before this with a revolving cast of other stellar musicians.
The group started out as a blues group in the late 1960s, and achieved notoriety through the success of songs like ‘Albatross’, ‘Oh Well’ and ‘The Green Manalishi’. Their output during this period was markedly different from the commercially successful period that came later, but it’s hard to deny that they were still a major force in British blues and rock in the immediate years following their formation.
Guitarist Peter Green is often cited as having been one of the major driving forces behind the band’s sound at this point, and their original guitarist and keyboard player, Jeremy Spencer, was also pivotal in the early years of the group. However, faces would come and go in the band’s formative period, and one notable figure who passed through the camp and performed on a number of the group’s early studio albums was cited by the ever-present drummer Mick Fleetwood as having been one of the finest musicians to have contributed to the band over the course of their history.
Danny Kirwan, another guitarist, joined the group in 1968, and contributed to four albums in a brief but fruitful stint with the band that came to an end in 1972. He had initially become acquainted with the band due to his fandom of guitarist Peter Green, and he regularly used to attend their shows and offer to help out. His own band, Boilerhouse, would also end up supporting Fleetwood Mac, and after realising that his style felt complimentary to Green’s guitar playing, he was invited to join the band and create a triple threat of guitars alongside Green and Spencer. Fleetwood even declared a love for his playing style at this time, saying of his performances with Boilerhouse that “this kid is fucking unbelievable.”
Coming into the fold just after the release of Mr. Wonderful, the first album that Kirwan appeared on was Then Play On, an album that came barely a year after. Spencer was still a member at the time of this release, but was not present during the recording of the album, and Kirwan’s guitar playing was placed front and centre as the band began to explore more hard and psychedelic rock-inspired compositions.
Fleetwood was thrilled about how Kirwan immediately managed to settle into the lineup, and what he admired most about the new recruit was how effortlessly he would learn the material that Green presented him with. “Peter gave him half the album, just integrated that sensibility, didn’t even think about it,” he told Classic Rock in 2021. “Danny brought an incredible amount of talent into the band.”
While it doesn’t get recognised as much as other efforts from the band, Then Play On marked a huge transitional period for the group, and it was one that ultimately impressed Fleetwood for how well the musicians he had in the band at the time were able to work with one another. “Often he gets completely forgotten,” Fleetwood noted about Kirwan’s contribution. “But he had the complete touch, and unbelievable vibrato, like a Django Reinhardt, pure as snow.” Why he remains less talked-about than other former Fleetwood Mac personnel remains a mystery, because the part he played in developing the band’s sound was crucial to the direction they took as they moved from the ‘60s into the ‘70s.
