In Their Own Words… with musician PJ Donahue

Daisy’s Big Parade,” the bluesy, honest first album by Dover drummer and songwriter PJ Donahue, takes place on July 4, 1978: Independence Day and Donahue’s birthday. 

A jubilant parade serves as the album’s backdrop as its main characters, Daisy and Anna Lee, represent Donahue’s struggle to choose between an intoxicating nightlife and a sobering reality. 

Recorded at Thundering Sky Studios in South Berwick, ME, the album release party was held at Rochester Performance and Arts Center in March. The event also celebrated Donahue’s 10 years of sobriety. Donahue says the album reminds him of a dark path he chose not to take. 

“If I lay a sober head on the pillow tonight, I’ve won the day. Everything else is just a bonus,” he says.

Donahue spoke with New Hampshire Magazine about his road to sobriety and finally making music for himself.

New Hampshire Magazine: What inspired “Daisy’s Big Parade”?

PJ Donahue: I was given a book at Christmas — “Daisy Jones and the Six.” It’s about a fictional band set in the ’70s. And I remember thinking: I had to know what they sounded like. And I was like, ‘I’m gonna try to write what I think they sound like.’ I think that was probably the first inkling that I wanted to write a song.

NHM: How did this all come together?  

PJD: I just started, just experimenting, writing on my own. I’m primarily a drummer, and I’ve always been a side man on other people’s projects. I didn’t go into it thinking, ‘I’m going to write this whole story about me taking the other path, because I’m an alcoholic, and I haven’t drank in almost 10 years.’ As it unraveled, I realized that I was writing my own story.

NHM: Who are Daisy and Anna Lee? 

PJ Donahue/ Courtesy Photo.

PJD: On the cover is Daisy, and the younger girl is Anna Lee, but they’re the same person. Daisy is the part that she wants everybody to see. She wants her attention; she wants her fame. And Anna Lee is the little girl that’s inside of her that she doesn’t show people. It’s the fear that’s inside of her; it’s the insecurity, and that’s the part that she doesn’t want to show to the world.

NHM: What happens in the album?   

PJD: I wrote nine of the 10 tracks. And all the tracks are personal to me. This story was really about me taking the other path, not putting the drink down, and I’m doing it through the eyes of the opposite gender. 

Daisy puts on a show, and then she goes out after the show and gets her attention …  very reckless and partying. She ends up all alone. ‘A sad love story’s last line’ is the very last thing she says. The story is not meant to have a happy ending. That was the path I was going down, absolutely, and, I woke up that day, and I took the other path.

NHM: Why did you make that decision?    

PJD: I woke up on March 2, 2015, and I looked at the half-drunk bottle of Smuttynose IPA. That was common, because I was never done drinking. I just drank until my body shut down. I’d often wake up with a bottle that’s half full. Something came over me that was like, ‘I just can’t do this anymore. I can’t continue to live my life for the bottle.’ 

I have a wife and a daughter, and my daughter is 16 now. We’d all physically be in the house together, but we weren’t a family. I was downstairs drinking; they were upstairs avoiding me. And I just didn’t want to live like that anymore. I went to my first AA meeting that night. 

NHM: And you’ve celebrated 10 years of sobriety.   

PJD: I stayed sober, and it was not easy. I had moments of thinking I wasn’t going to make it through the day, but I had enough support from everyone around me to help me go in one day at a time. And I’m still doing that. I wake up every day and make the promise to myself that I’m not going to drink, only for today. 

NHM: How have you stayed healthy?   

PJD: Initially, to fill that void, I started to run in marathons, and I loved it. I had a goal to run 50 marathons in all 50 states, and I got to 24 and I got really hurt. Badly. I had a serious back injury, and it wasn’t even running related. I was on a gig. I loaded some gear in through a stage, and I bent over forward and tweaked my back. Had done it before, but this time, it crippled me. 

I couldn’t walk for three months. I had surgery in February of 2022, and once I woke up from surgery, I could walk again, but I realized I could never run again. So that whole goal … just vanished. I needed something else to fill that void. And this album really, really helped with all of that.

NHM: As a drummer, how did you know which musicians to work with?    

PJD: All of the musicians that I’ve had on the album, I have a personal connection with most for over 10 years. They’re all just friends and people I’ve worked with. I kind of knew who I really wanted. I was really grateful to my friend Elissa (Margolin) — she does the spoken word on “Mr. Reaper,” and wrote that song, “God On My Own.” (That) just hit the story so perfectly. 

NHM: That song feels like listeners can hear some of Anna Lee’s personality coming through.    

PJD: The first three (songs) are like, she’s coming out of the gate and she’s having her big parade, and that’s more her recklessness. Then, “God On My Own” talks about stumbling home and searching for “God on my own,” like self-reflection. She’s starting to recognize that Anna Lee inside of her. After that track, you really see the vulnerability with Anna.

NHM: Were all of your friends on board when you told them what the album was going to
be about?   

PJD: I was so happy that they were all willing, especially Taylor O’Donnell, the vocalist that plays the main character. She really was just a blessing to have, because she just nailed it. I thought she did a great job.

(They were) so supportive. They’re all people who I know personally, and they know my story. It was all either explained up front or revealed as we went along. Everyone’s been so wonderful with it.