|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Lacy J. Dalton, Grammy-nominated country singer and songwriter, is scheduled for a single performance this Friday at Livermore’s Almost Famous Wine.
Known for hits like “Crazy Blue Eyes,” “Black Coffee” and “16th Avenue,” Dalton has been recognized as an inductee of the North American Country Music Association International Hall of Fame and has received the Lifetime Career Achievement Award from the Josie Music Awards – the largest independent music awards show in the country.
Throughout her multi-decade career, she has also worked alongside the likes of George Jones, Willie Nelson, Neil Young, The Grateful Dead and Hank Williams Jr., according to her website.
Connecting all her years in the industry is a lifelong passion to help others.
“When you see people uplifted and having fun and forgetting their troubles for a while and maybe having the courage to take the step they might not have had the courage to take before, then you know you’ve done your job”, Dalton told Livermore Vine.
Born into a country music family in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania in 1946, Dalton was surrounded by tunes from an early age.
She recalls her folks making melodies around the kitchen table as she sat underneath, leaning against its oak leg.
Other musical influences also took root in her earlier years, including folk artists like Joan Baez and Bob Dylan and blues bands like Koerner, Ray & Glover. But it wasn’t until Dalton was 17 years old that she picked up an instrument of her own.
By the late 1970s, her music career took off.
In 1978 she began recording with Harbor Records and in June 1979 she signed with Columbia Records, according to her website. Under Columbia, she attracted the attention of music listeners with her song “Crazy Blue Eyes.” Co-written with her longtime friend Mary McFadden, the piece reached no. 7 on the Billboard Country Charts, according to her website.
Given lyrics like, “Why do I fall for those crazy blue eyes? Those mavericks who won’t settle down,” the song diverged from the standard devotion Dalton often saw in country music at the time. It wasn’t a “stand by your man” kind of song, Dalton explained.
She was quickly recognized as the top new female vocalist of the year by the Academy of Country Music in 1979.
Over the next few years, she also received numerous Grammy nominations and three Bay Area Music Awards for best country-folk recordings.
“My aim and my reason for doing music is to give people the courage and the hope to keep going when things are not easy”, Dalton said. “Because this planet is not an easy world to live in.”
Whether someone turns to music or their belief in a higher power, Dalton said everyone can use some help every once in a while.
Dalton received additional accolades — including a Gold and Platinum Record — as the only woman featured on Willie Nelson’s “Half Nelson” album and for her support performances throughout Hank Williams Jr.’s Five-0 Tour, according to her website.
“I traveled with so many wonderful people,” Dalton said. “It’s been an incredible blessing and I’ve been so grateful that I’ve been able to do this career for so long.”
She went on to become an independent artist who crossed into Americana, where she could combine all her experience in country, rock and folk, her website states.
She also formed a label of her own called Song Dog Records. Among the label releases, her 2006 album “Last Wild Place Anthology” reached no. 1 on the World Independent Chart and the American Western Music Chart.
Most recently, she released her EP “Scarecrow” in 2019 and “For The Black Sheep” album in 2024.
While this is her first time bringing live music to Almost Famous Wine, she said she’s always had good luck in the state.
“California has always been the promised land,” she said of the upcoming show in Livermore. “My music is understood there. It’s a little different from a lot of country music, but in California, they understand it”.
The show is scheduled to begin with an opening performance by The Bell Brothers at 7:30 p.m. on Friday (May 2). Dalton is set to start at 8 p.m.
Tickets are available through the Almost Famous Wine website at almostfamous.wine
