My Brother The Bear will return to Black Sheep Burrito and Brews Saturday to play his second show in Huntington.
Based in Cincinnati, Ohio, Daniel Bayer has been performing full-time since 2012.
He started performing with his bother, and now he is a self-proclaimed one man show.
“It’s actually based off some family references,” Bayer said. “My last name is Bayer and we’ve got a big family, like my bothers and sisters and my mom and dad, we always did a family band type thing. So when I started playing music after I got out of the Army, the first person that I played with was my brother.”

Playing up to four instruments at once, Bayer’s musical style and story-telling lyrics are a mixture of different genres.
“Kind of like a mid-western folk,” Bayer said. “You know, story driven folk.”
Bayer said performing alone has its pros and cons.
“I think it’s easier to perform,” Bayer said. “It sometimes can be trying because you’re pretty much the only thing up there, so there’s a lot of pressure. If something goes wrong, its not really easy to hide behind. You just being by yourself, you lose a lot of opportunity for the sound to be a lot fuller and bigger. I think it’s a lot more intimate which is kind of an important setting for my song writing and the stories.”
Bayer said his time spent in the Army helped give his lyrics depth with his unique experiences traveling the world.
“Being in the Army and being around all kinds of different people from different walks of life. Doing things kind of outside of the norm and being away from family on deployment and things like that, it kind of streams down the song writing I guess,” Bayer said. “It makes the topics and the subjects more poignant and kind of personally important to me.”
One challenge Bayer faced throughout his years in the business is booking and playing enough shows to continue his music full time.
“Really it’s just been kind of getting enough shows under the belt just so I can kind of keep it going, keep it self sustaining,” Bayer said. “The goal is really just to get out on the road and play for as many people and get the songs out there. When you’re first starting out and the shows aren’t very big it’s kind of hard to do that. So now it’s gotten to the point where I can keep it rolling and be in a new place and put tours together.”
Bayer said social media has helped him reach his fans all over the country and has allowed him to get first-hand information about the town or city he visits.
“It’s pretty cool,” Bayer said. “I like the way you can reach a lot of people all around the world and all around the country, and make contacts and network, and things like that, without ever having to go into the town. So you kind of get an idea what its like, so it’s help me out a lot.”
Fairly new to the business Bayer knows all too well the challenges of breaking into the business and has some advice for young artists trying to make it in the industry.
“Don’t get discouraged,” Bayer said. “It’s really easy to get discouraged,” Bayer said. “You know I always say that if you end up playing a show to five people and two of them like it that you would be in the baseball hall of fame with those kind of stats. So, keep at it and if the music is any good people will hear it and you’ve got to do it because you love it.”
Bayer said he is having a lot of success thus far and is enjoying every minute of it.
Kelsie Lively can be contacted at [email protected].