The blues has found its way into everything that Daniel Kushnir has ever composed. He strips himself down completely to bear his fullest blues essence on his most recent LP, Nothing Left to Give—14 tracks of solo guitar, mouth harp, and vocal stylings squarely situated between Jim Croce and John Hammond, Jr. 

More importantly, if you listen closely enough, you can hear his own musical past shine through. As the man behind the artist Pause, Kushnir channeled his blues sensibilities into the realm of deep funk and hip-hop. There he garnered moderate amounts of commercial success, placing original music in  major network productions and video game soundtracks. Everything he composed and produced entirely by himself in a hand-built studio shed behind his home in the San Fernando valley. 

Like it has many troubadours his ilk, wanderlust took hold of Kushnir who spent much of 2015 on the road playing solo for months at a time. He booked mostly cafes and dives across the Southern U.S. with only an acoustic guitar and harmonica at his disposal--the kinds of places where the pulse of the original blues legends still resonates. He returned back home to Los Angeles with the artistic mindset that only an unknown bluesman playing self-composed blues music in backwater blues enclaves could cultivate. 

Nothing Left to Give documents these unique times for this unique artist, and is experienced best live and in person, the way Kushnir perfected the songs he recorded for album. See for yourself by checking out the live videos here, or better yet, coming down to a show near you.