By ALEXANDREA BAILEY
Danica Rae Bird was raised in Salt Lake City Utah, with her two parents and an older brother. Despite the winter freezes, she says growing up there was fantastic, with gorgeous views and amazing people.
“The mountains are just wonderful and the skiing. Snow plowing and shoveling is not the most fun,” she recounted.
Her family was close; she describes them as “blessed” despite any obstacles they faced. There was seldom a fight. She even goes as far as to say they could have all lived together in one big house forever. Her mother and father, now both passed, were always supportive of her musical dreams. She says her mother knew Bird would be a singer from the time she was four years old.
“My family was the best family ever – Is, I should say,” said Bird.
She wasn’t the only family member with musical talent either. She looked up to her big brother, who had his own band. When she was just a little kid, he promised her that if he still had a band by the time she reached junior high, he’d let her sing in it. Well, junior high came and her brother’s band went, but her passion for singing had only grown. So, she’d have to make do through other means.
Her father used to sneak 15-year-old Bird into bars to sing with bands. She remembers the first time she held a microphone, up on a stage, some band backing her. To her, it immediately felt right.
“The band was amazing. It just felt like home immediately,” recalled Bird. “I didn’t have any fear. In fact, I never did. It was very strange. It was just where I felt like home, and I still do.”
Bird says she always gravitated towards music with a little more excitement, a burning energy. She grew up listening to Queen, Tina Turner and Olivia Newton-John. She says she’s always been “a little rocker girl at
heart.”
Around this time, she also participated in the school choir, but that wasn’t enough excitement for Bird.
“They were singing stuff I didn’t want to sing. I was bored…” explained Bird, who’d ultimately, and surprisingly, fail ninth-grade choir.
She said what they sang in choir was just too easy for her back then, and not in an egotistical way. She had been singing her whole life and needed a challenge to keep her focused.
When she was 19-years-old, she went searching for that challenge in New York City, leaving Salt Lake, and her family, behind. With the unflinching support of her parents back home, she began auditioning for
musical after musical. Gratefully, she landed a part in the off-Broadway variety musical Cabaret Tonight.
“It was the most incredible thing, and I sang with some phenomenally talented people,” said Bird.
However, she wasn’t sold on the musical life. She felt that they were “too structured” for her style. Her inner wild child willed her to run around and jump up and down if she pleased.
“You can’t do that in the middle of a musical,” Bird laughed.
She returned to Salt Lake City for a time, struggling with the distance from her family, but ultimately hit the road to audition again. This time, with her heart set on becoming a country star, she flew to Nashville, Tennessee, vying to sing in a band called Buck Wild. She landed her spot as the lead singer, and they began touring full-time in 2001.
“We stayed broke, because they didn’t pay country bands very much,” she recalled. “The good ol’ boys, I have to be honest, are really harsh.”
Within the first year or so, Buck Wild evolved, fueled by the need for more. They began to branch out, straying away from just country, and becoming more of a variety band. Bird brought so much to the table.
Being able to sing such a diverse selection of genres, she changed the band’s tone. Needing to rebrand, they held a meeting to decide on a new name for themselves. That’s when the drummer presented his idea: simply
calling the band “Danica”.
They toured as Danica for the next 15 years, staying on the road for nine to ten months at a time. In February of 2007, Danica began performing on South Padre Island, at the Radisson, now known as the Isla Grand,
immediately proceeding the departure of the hotel’s house band, Pelican West. Bird recalls driving over the Queen Isabella Memorial Causeway for the first time, the entire band nearly in tears due to the striking
beauty of the Island. She says after arriving on South Padre Island, too early to check into their hotel room, the first thing she did was go to a local tattoo shop and get her nose pierced.
For close to thirteen years, Danica was exclusive to the Radisson. Later on, Bird began performing solo, and expanded her reach across the Island. In fact, she was the first person to ever play at Laguna BOB after its
transition from the Wahoo Saloon. She performed there four days a week, and for a while, it was the only place she played. But the need for variety once again knocked at her door. She wanted to play at more places,
and BOB’s needed a circulation of musicians to keep customers coming back. Bird helped BOB’s recruit artists to fill up the week’s music schedule, and she began playing at other Island staples like Wanna Wanna’s
Beach Bar and Grill, Louie’s Backyard, Clayton’s, Tequila Sunset, etc.
This December 2024, fans can find Danica Rae Bird at Louie’s Backyard, Jake’s, Tequila Sunset, Longboard’s Bar and Grill, and occasionally CoCo Beach. Her performance schedule can be found at
danicabird.com. She plays a wide variety of music, from Patsy Kline, to Buckcherry, to Pink, and even the occasional show tune.
“It depends on what people are wanting. I change everyday, because I just kinda read the audience and then I take requests,” said Bird. “My Winter Texans tend to be a little more rowdy, like I am. You know what
they say, you attract what you are.”
Bird has left and returned to the Island many times. She calls South Padre “an amazing magnet.” She recently made her fourth return to the Island a few months ago, so that her daughter could be close to family, and
so that Bird could sing more, since Florida’s music scene, where she was residing, was more band-oriented.
“I had so many people emailing me and sending me messages saying ‘When are you coming home?’” said Bird, that ‘home’ being South Padre Island. “We have a family here.”
This Winter Texan season, Bird says she’s looking forward to reconnection and community involvement. She expresses intense gratitude for all of her supporters who have stuck with her throughout her continued
evolution.
“Thank you for always loving and supporting me through all the times, good times and bad times,” said Bird. “Thank you for welcoming me home in such a big way.”