|
 |
 |
||||
 |
|
||||
Dale Keys left his home in Boise, Idaho, for a flight to Nashville in early December of 2002. With 26 original songs recorded on a homemade demo CD, he arrived in town to pitch his songs on Music Row. A fan of all types of music from jazz to bluegrass to Buck Owens, he gravitated to two of the most popular music venues in town: The Station Inn, famous the world over for its live bluegrass shows, and The Bluebird Café, considered to be the Ellis Island of songwriters in the nation. Dale's songs first caught the attention of Station Inn proprietor J.T. Gray, who immediately began recommending Dale's work to publishers and writers, most notably to producer Jim Rooney and multi-instrumentalist, writer, and producer Tim O'Brien. At the Bluebird Café, Dale's voice, guitar style, and Americana-based songwriting soon caught the attention of the local songwriting community. Dale continued to go out on the town night after night, listening to other writers and getting to meet some of his heroes. At the Bluebird Café, he met singer and guitarist Barry Tashian, longtime member of Emmylou Harris's Hot Band. Barry and his wife Holly, both wonderful singer-songwriters in their own right (Grand Ole Opry, Mountain Stage, E-Town), very generously opened their hearts and home to Dale, and the three soon began to write and sing together on a weekly basis. "If there were a Hall of Fame for the World's Nicest People," says Dale, "Barry and Holly would not only be inducted into it; there would be life-sized statues of them out front." Dale was also pleasantly surprised to find that one of his favorite singer-songwriters, Mary Gauthier, had moved back to Nashville from her home in Boston. "When I was in Boise last year, deciding whether to come to Nashville, after listening to Mary in an interview on NPR's "All Things Considered", I literally clicked into Southwest Airlines and bought my plane ticket. She was just that inspiring. A few weeks after I got to Nashville, I went to a small club to see Stacey Earle, a wonderful writer and singer, play a set. I wasn't surprised to see Steve Earle in the audience, but I was really blown away when I realized that Mary Gauthier was sitting at his table." Mary Gauthier's CD "Filth and Fire" was voted by the New York Times as the best independent album of 2002. "I told her that night how her interview had inspired me to take a chance, and she just very matter-of-factly handed me her card and invited me to coffee. I still can't believe I'm getting to write with her. Her songwriting genius is only surpassed by her generosity." Still undecided about his songwriting future, Dale returned to Boise in mid-January of 2003. "I didn't quite know where I fit in here. I didn't think my material fit in with the popular video-driven stuff coming out of Nashville, and on the other hand, I didn't think my songs were good enough to be played in the same room with my heroes (John Prine, Guy Clark, Gillian Welch, Steve Earle, Townes Van Zandt, David Olney)." Shortly after returning to Boise, Dale received word from Tim O'Brien, who encouraged him to keep working on songs. "He just said he hoped I'd give it a go. He didn't make me any promises, but Tim is absolutely brilliant; I've listened to his music for nearly 20 years, and it was an honor just to get a simple attaboy from him." On January 16th, 2003 Dale packed what little he could fit into his 2-seater Miata, and, with his trusty springer spaniel Doc (named after Doc Watson) sitting in the passenger seat, drove 2,300 snowy miles back to Nashville, leaving the dog with his parents in Kentucky. "This experience maybe cost me my dog," says Dale, "Mom's pretty much got him spoiled to the point that I don't know if he wants me back." Back in the songwriting community, Dale continued to work at his craft. "I sent Tim O'Brien a lyric that I'd written on my way across the country, to see what he thought of it. He invited me to come to his house and work on some music for it, and in the course of that afternoon, he booked us a gig at the Bluebird Café. There were times afterwards that I would actually re-read my emails from him just to make sure I hadn't dreamed it. But we played May 28th, (2003) with Mary Gauthier and Barry and Holly Tashian. That show was my proudest moment here." The performance at the Bluebird was in-the-round. "Instead of being on a stage, the musicians sit in a circle facing each other, with the audience gathered around them. It's very intimate, and it's a lot more relaxing for the performers, since they are at once a part of the audience and the focus of the audience, instead of sitting at the head of the class with lights in their eyes." On the evening of April 17th, 2003, Dale played a guest set at the Station Inn for producer Jim Rooney, accompanied by J.T. Gray and Barry and Holly Tashian. "Jim lives in Ireland most of the time, but when he comes here to visit, he gets this band together called 'The Irregulars.' He booked this gig with the band, and offered to let me play during his break. Jim has produced some of my favorite artists (John Prine, Iris Dement, Nanci Griffith); the gig was quite the nail biter for me, but we did fine. Looking back, I had hoped to get to meet Jim when I went to Nashville, but having him introduce me to the crowd at my first gig in town was way beyond what I could have imagined." Dale also worked as a volunteer songwriter at the Country Music Hall of Fame in May as part of the organization's education program. "The Hall of Fame works with local schools to get kids to write. They send you about 40 or so lyrics from kids, and then you pick out a few and write music for them. Then the schools make a field trip out of it and bus the kids to the museum, where they hear their words put to music. I worked with about forty fifth graders. As much as I've enjoyed being in the company of the country music stars, working with these kids was the most rewarding of everything I've done here."
"You get tired of the word 'Mecca' here," he says, "But that's about as good a word as you're going to find for it. The best writers in the world, of all types of music, live in Nashville. The city has the finest recording studios in the world, and per capita, more live music than any other city on the planet. The first 67 days I was here, I went out to listen to music 65 of those days. The only nights I stayed home, I was sick with a horrible cold. Otherwise, when the sun goes down, I head out to the clubs to listen to what's out there. And what's out there is inspiring, intimidating, and wonderful."
|
|||||
Home | About Dale |
Schedule |
Contact |
PURCHASE |
Special
thanks to Julie Erb for web
design. Website Photography of Dale by Lin Barber.
|
|||||
