WRITING SONGS, MAKING MUSIC
David Glenn Dyer has definitely found his musical niche. He’s a singer-songwriter who’s quite comfy in the burgeoning Americana genre.
Dyer isn’t flying solo, however. He’s been working with his band — The Crooked Smile Band — for several years, and he’s been working his last album, Crossroads Grocery, since 2004.
Dyer’s an accomplished songwriter and a good vocalist, and those attributes have no doubt aided in pulling together an outstanding band. He’s attracted the formidable talents of keyboard wiz Jim Crew, guitarist Bernie Petteway, pedal steel player Allyn Love, drummer Fran Dyer (no relation) and bassist/vocalist Ken Weigand.
Crossroads Grocery is a nice piece of work. Produced by Scott Matthews, the tracks are tight, the musicianship is top-notch and Dyer’s songs are winners. As a songwriter, Dyer rides herd on several notable influences. He has a keen feel for traditional country and southern rock — a combination that has served several bands very well, including Drive-By Truckers and Chip Robinson’s gone-but-never-forgotten Backsliders.
Dyer rocks convincingly — “You Don’t Shake Me” — and he knows his way around a ballad, as we hear on “Crossroads.” He can make you believe a love song — “Beautiful Girl” — and “Ustacould” is rough-and-tumble boogie.
Best of all, Dyer’s songwriting is lucid, lyrical and catchy. He’s got the literate chops of a modern folk writer and the mentality of an intelligent guy who learned his music in the South. That’s basically the marriage that created Americana.
Asked how he got up with Matthews, Dyer cited his wife, Cheryl.
“She read a book that he wrote and liked his view on things. She’s the one who made contact with him.
“Scott’s pretty well known on the West Coast,” he said. “His thing is producing. He takes singer-songwriters and comes up with concepts for recordings.”
Dyer caught a flight to the left coast and had a talk with Matthews.
“I liked what he was thinking about doing with my songs, so we set up the sessions, and he did the rhythm tracks with his engineer, Tom Luekens, and then I went in and did guitar and vocals. We came back here and did the piano and pedal steel at Overdub Lane in Durham. We were sending CDs back and forth on the mix.
“I was in California for a week, plus the time spent on the overdubs. While I was out there, I stayed on Van Morrison’s boat in Sausalito. He owns half the studio — TikiTown Studios — where I recorded the album. That connection is how his daughter, Shana, came to sing on the album.”
Dyer allowed that he was very pleased with the job Matthews did on Crossroads Grocery.
“He’s a master,” he said. “I learned a lot watching him work, plus Tom Luekens is a wizard on Pro Tools. Having done some recording since then, I realize just how good he is.”
Though Crossroads Grocery was released in 2004, Dyer is still working the album. His only help is his wife.
“We’ve had four songs that placed in the International Songwriting Contest,” he noted. “We’ve had three other songs that have done decent over in Europe. And we had a song — ‘You Don’t Shake Me’ — picked up by ABC Network News. They’re using it as a segue into news segments on World News Tonight. That one paid the most. I have no idea how they found the song.”
Dyer lives in Raleigh with Cheryl and daughters Cammie and Ella, though he considers South Carolina home.
“I spent most of my formative years in the South Carolina Low Country,” Dyer said. “My step-father actually worked for The News & Observer. My real dad was one of the first North Carolinians killed in Vietnam. He was a fighter pilot. He was killed when I was 3 years old.
“We went back and forth between the Carolinas until my family moved to Bluffton, SC, where they’re still living. I feel like my roots are in the Low Country.”
Dyer got into music at age 12, learning guitar and harmonica. He was playing in bluegrass bands in high school and writing songs, as well.
“Once I hooked up with the guys I play with in The Crooked Smile Band, I’ve started working really hard on my songwriting again,” he noted. “I used to just pretty much write whatever came to me, and I still think those are the best songs, but I try to get out a certain number of tunes each year.
“I’ve always enjoyed songwriting,” he said. “As I’ve matured, it’s become a craft and therapy and an obsession. In recent years I’ve really been working at it, looking at how other people approach songwriting, talking to guys like Terry Anderson and Kenny Roby.
“I’m always looking at song styles and trying to improve my songs. That’s one place where Jim Crew has helped me a lot,” he added. “I’ll bring a song to him with my basic three-chord structure and he’ll suggest things that open up the song.”
Asked when the emerging Americana genre began to make sense in terms of his own musical inclinations, Dyer recalled that: “Six or seven years ago I went down to Nashville and saw two shows. One was with Buddy and Julie Miller. I saw what they were doing and I was like, ‘man, that sounds a whole lot like what I do.’ Of course, they do it fantastically well.
“And then I saw a show with Will Kimbrough and Rodney Crowell, and that was like a religious experience. I felt like they were writing about the sort of things I write about, and this was obviously a group of people who like what they’re doing. It made me work a lot harder on my music. The experience was kind of a validation for me. It was like, ‘oh, so this is where I can go with my songs.’”
Dyer’s been playing with most of the members of The Crooked Smile Band for several years. He explained that the band did an opening gig for the band Pinmonkey at the Lincoln Theatre in Raleigh in 2002.
“That was one of the first gigs Allyn Love did with us,” he noted. “So at that time we had Fran Dyer (drums, percussion), Ken Weigand (bass, vocals), Jim Crew (keyboards, vocals) and Allyn Love (pedal steel). Later we brought in Bernie Petteway on guitar.”
Dyer and The Crooked Smile Band will be playing a First Friday show in Raleigh’s Moore Square on July 6. They’ll also be appearing during Cary’s Lazy Days festival on Aug. 25. On Sept. 22 they’ll be in Nashville, NC, for a Nash County Arts Council concert.
Dyer’s album Crossroads Grocery is available at: www.cdbaby.com. Also check out The Crooked Smile Band Web site: www.crookedsmileband.com.
QUICK FIX
Pink Martini: Hey Eugene!
(Heinz Records)
Fourteen-piece orchestra, China Forbes on vocals, killer arrangements and a way cool cover of “Tea For Two.”
DISCOLOGY
Waters, Winter & Cotton: Breakin’ It Up, Breakin’ It Down (Epic/Legacy)
This live monster was recorded during the 1977 tour that followed the release of Muddy Waters’ superb album Hard Again. The deal was Muddy with James Cotton, Johnny Winter and Muddy’s band (Bob Margolin, Pine Top Perkins, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith and Charles Calmese). This is not a re-issue but archeology. These tracks have been resurrected by producer Bob Margolin and co-producers Al Quaglieri and Steve Berkowitz. The album is a major thrill; that much should be obvious to any serious blues fan. You’ve got Muddy Waters with one of his top band configurations, plus harmonica virtuoso Cotton and Winter at the front end of his legendary blues career. Choice cuts include “Can’t Be Satisfied,” “Dealin’ With The Devil,” “Trouble No More” and “Got My Mojo Workin’.”
The Clash: The Singles (Epic/Legacy)
Epic/Legacy delivers 20 tunes by one of England’s great rock bands. As alarming as this sounds, The Clash signed to CBS Records 30 years ago. I realize that the implied chronology makes those of us who were rabid Clash fans semi-geezers, but take heart in the fact that The Clash rocked like hell, and so did we. Best take possession of this gem, which includes “London Calling,” “Train In Vain,” “This Is Radio Clash,” “Know Your Rights,” “White Riot,” “The Magnificent Seven” and “Rock The Casbah.” A good deal of the rock we’re hearing today seems tame and parochial by comparison.