Danielson Famile is actually the Smith family, led by vocalist Daniel Smith (a demented falsetto in the tradition of David Thomas) and based in New Jersey. The Tri-Danielson, as they were originally called, have a mission: their music is entirely dedicated to the Christian faith. The children play it with flute, xylophone, organ, percussions, guitars. The result is hard to describe (and, sometimes, to listen to). They sound like the Residents singing spirituals and gospel hymns while backed by the Holy Modal Rounders' vocal harmonies, or the Carter Family fronted by David Peel and accompanied by the Thinking Fellers Union Local 282.

When they debut, with the album A Prayer For Every Hour (Tooth & Nail, 1995 - Secretly Canadian, 2002), the "family" counts on six members, ranging in age from 10 to 22. The double album contains 24 songs, one for each hour of the day. The record that established them was the double 10" Tell Another Joke At The Ol' Choppin' Block (Tooth & Nail, 1997 - Secretly Canadian, 2001). It was humorous, fervent and manic.

The diptych of Tri-Danielson!!! (Alpha) (Tooth & Nail, 1998 - Secretly Canadian, 2001) and Tri-Danielson!!! (Omega) (Tooth & Nail, 1999 - Secretly Canadian, 2001), later compiled on the double album Tri-Danielson!!! (Alpha/Omega) (Sounds Familyre, 1999), is a quirky philosophical concept: highly unstable gospel music for demented arrangements (ranging from hand-claps to banjo to cheesy keyboards to a mixed choir) sung in a demonic voice.

The album Fetch the Compass Kids (Secretly Canadian, 2001) and the single Flip Flop Flim Flam (Fluevog Shoes, 2001) continue a Christian saga that has become one long tribute to unbridled creativity.

The fervor is even more secular on Brother Is To Son (Secretly Canadian, 2004), ostensibly Daniel Smith's first solo album but credited to Br. Danielson. His Captain Beefheart imitations and his clumsy folk accompaniment concoct frantic hymns such as Our Givest and Animal in Every Corner, the off-kilter chamber folk music Things Against Stuff and the vocal acrobatics Brother Son, all relying on his proverbial interplay of voice and instruments, as codified by Cookin' Mid-County. Smith's albums celebrate family and community, but could not be more (musically) dysfunctional.

Daniel Smith gathered more than thirty friends to record Ships (2006), credited to the original "Danielson" moniker. It is a psychedelic-pop tour de force, both in terms of refrains and in terms of arrangements. The sonic experience is rewarding, but so is supermarket muzak. What Smith has lost while traveling to this end of the sonic spectrum is his (artistic) soul. There is little of substance other than his skills at concocting cute ditties.

Trying Hartz (2008) is a career retrospective up to 2004.

The Best of Gloucester County (2011) is as uneventful as Daniel Smith's music has ever been. He seems to find the inspiration for a minute or so in Hovering Above That Hill, but then he loses in the usual maze of trivial and repetitive folk songs with mystical overtones.