When Danks was eight years old, his fam­i­ly moved to Sar­a­to­ga Springs, New York, where he stu­died mu­sic with Dr. L. E. Whit­ing. Lat­er, Danks worked as a car­pen­ter in his fa­ther’s con­struc­tion bus­i­ness for while, but short­ly be­gan a full time mu­sic ca­reer: com­pos­ing, sing­ing, and lead­ing chor­al groups. In 1864, he moved to New York Ci­ty. In 1892, he pub­lished Su­per­i­or An­thems for Church Choirs. The next year, he pub­lished his best known song, Sil­ver Threads Among the Gold (words by Eben Rex­ford), which sold over three mil­lion copies. Hav­ing sold the rights to it, though, he died pen­ni­less in a board­ing house. His last writ­ten words: It’s hard to die alone.

• Jones, p. 47

1. Not Ashamed of Christ, 1893

1. Christ Is King
2. Delphine
3. Happy Fac­es
4. Hark! He Is Call­ing
5. I’ll Praise Him While I Live
6. Little Child­ren, Come Away
7. Lord in Zi­on Reign­eth, The
8. No Night There
9. Precious Sto­ry, The
10. Singing, Light and Free
11. Spitta
12. Trifle Not