Mitchell Hughes aka Danny Small aka Geechee* Dan aka The Singing Dragon is a 73 year old soul singer from South Carolina. He moved to New York at the age of 18 in hopes of becoming a famous singer. He never learned how to sing, instead he taught himself by imitating Tchaikovsky (he calls it singing without singing). His musical influences include Van Morrison, Beatles, Elvis Presley, Chubby Checker, Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, Smokey Robinson and Al Green…
To put an end to all sorts of speculations, he is NOT homeless. He lives in a 1 bedroom apartment in a senior housing complex together with his 28 year old son in Harlem, New York.
There he also has a kind of recording studio where he produces his own CDs under his own label called “Geechee Records, LLC.”. He earns about $100 to $200 a day and sometimes even up to $400 whereas most of his earnings are spent on music equipment. His only passion is music.
Since 2000, he has been singing in the subway for 5 to 6 hours a day and is loved by his audience. Everyday he still carries his equipment to the subway by himself although he has arthritis. He hasn’t always earned enough to make a living, therefore he worked in bars, cleaned toilets and carried out food for many years to make money on the side.
25 years ago he had a commitment with the cotton club, the most famous Jazz club in New York, for 4 years where he performed 2 to 3 songs a night. There he performed under the name “The Singing Dragon”, on the same stage as Greats like Louis Armstrong and so on. He quit performing at the Cotton Club because he wanted to go on tour with a gospel band, unfortunately without success. Since then, he has never had the courage to go back there again.
Besides performing at the Cotton Club, he has also performed at big and popular venues like Nios, Small’s Paradise, Baby Grand and even a club owned by John Gotti with his band “Geechee Band”.
