Insomnia keeps Dapto musician Danny Noonan awake when he shouldn't be - a by-product of the vision impairment that has left him almost completely blind.
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In the blackness of last Wednesday's predawn, with his sleeping wife and bandmate Sam at his side, he turned to his phone to pass the time.
Danny and Sam perform as a folk two-piece, The Other Noonans, so named after people kept asking if they were related to jazz/opera powerhouse Katie Noonan.
Danny had posted a cheeky message on the duo's band page that afternoon, referencing Noonan's upcoming show in Wollongong.
"Just found out that Katie Noonan is performing in Wollongong. We must confess we are rather disappointed that they didn't offer us a support. JK ..." he wrote.
Seven hours later, not asleep, Danny realised he had received a reply from Noonan herself.
"I am SO sorry I would have loved to have had you with us but the support act is already booked and his flights/accom booked etc... would you like to join us for a special guest spot song I wonder ??" she wrote.
Danny rolled over in bed, wide awake now.
"I had to tap Sam on the shoulder and I said, 'wake up! I've got to tell you something'," he told the Mercury.
"It was a beautiful thing. We had no idea it was going to happen.
"For a throwaway line to come to this is just wonderful."
Noonan, who will be performing Joni Mitchell's Blue at Centro CBD on February 17 as part of a tour commemorating the album's 50th anniversary, offered the performing spot after hearing the pair's cover of Tori Amos' Winter, which she publicly praised as "awesome".
Noonan told the Mercury she couldn't wait to sing with the duo.
"I love that they sing from the heart and that their disability does not deter from their wonderful performance style. I also think their band name is HILARIOUS!!!" she said.
Sam, a classically trained singer who is also visually impaired, and Danny, a "funk/metalhead" multi-instrumentalist, met at a Sydney school for the blind when they were four or five years old.
They lost contact as young teens, only reconnecting in their 20s, when Danny was working in a library.
"This person asked me where the encyclopedias were and I recognised her voice," he said. "I jumped on the train for two hours to see her after that."
Danny credits a school teacher with kickstarting the pair's lifelong connection with music.
"She would get all us kids up doing acting, and singing and playing instruments - we were learning harmonies in kindergarten," he said.
"Perceptions of disabilities were very different back in the 1970s, but one of the avenues we could use was music."
Two daughters, three grandchildren and a house in Dapto later, they only recently started playing together. After the isolating effects of COVID, they have vowed to pursue performing and networking opportunities throughout 2023.
Already they have secured a performing spot at the Illawarra Folk Festival (visit illawarrafolkfestival.com.au for tickets) and online views of Winter have recently surged past 1000.
"It's the Noonan effect," Danny said.
"She's a musical genius."