Lacy J. Dalton
Eclectic and bluesy, Lacy J. Dalton was one of the most distinctive female country singers of the 1980s, landing a few hits on the strength of her gritty, nuanced vocals.
Dalton was born Jill Byrem in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1946 and grew up in a highly musical family. Her first loves were folkies like Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, but she also soaked up country music through her father. She briefly attended Brigham Young University but dropped out and drifted around the country for a time; she eventually went to Los Angeles, then migrated to Santa Cruz, where she performed as a protest-oriented folksinger. During the late '60s, she sang with a Bay Area psychedelic rock band called Office; she also became Jill Croston when she married the group's manager, though, sadly, he died in a swimming pool accident. She went on to reinvent herself as a country performer, adopting the stage name Lacy J. Dalton, and landed a deal with CBS when producer Billy Sherrill heard her demo tape in 1979. Her Top 20 debut single, "Crazy Blue Eyes," helped her win the CMA's Best New Artist Award, and she scored an impressive run of hits over the next three years, highlighted by "Hard Times," "Tennessee Waltz," "Hillbilly Girl with the Blues," the number two smash "Takin' It Easy," "16th Avenue," and "Everybody Makes Mistakes" (all but "Tennessee Waltz" made the Top Ten).
Dalton's albums also received strong reviews for their adventurous, borderless taste in material, particularly her self-titled debut. A 1983 cover of Roy Orbison's "Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream)" was her final Top Ten entry, but she continued to record for CBS through 1987. Part of her commercial slide was due to her ambitious stylistic shifts, as she devoted attention to rock-oriented material (1986's Highway Diner, whose "Working Class Man" was a decent-sized hit), blues, and bluegrass. She subsequently departed for Capitol, where she recorded four albums through 1992. In 1999, she assembled the Wild Horse Crossing compilation, which featured several new tracks of her own and was released by her own Let 'Em Run foundation, which worked to preserve the wild horses of the West.
© Steve Huey /TiVo
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Greatest Hits
Country - Released by Columbia Nashville on Jan 1, 1983
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Lacy J.
Country - Released by EMI Music Nashville (ERN) on Apr 9, 1990
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Last Wild Place Anthology
Folk - Released by Song Dog Records on Jan 1, 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Here's To Hank
Country - Released by BSW Records on Jul 26, 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Blue Eyed Blues
Country - Released by Columbia Nashville Legacy on May 29, 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Takin' It Easy
Country - Released by Columbia Nashville Legacy on Jul 1, 1981
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hard Times
Country - Released by Columbia Nashville Legacy on Sep 1, 1980
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Greatest Hits
Country - Released by Nifty Music, Inc. on Jan 1, 1983
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Chains On The Wind
Country - Released by EMI Music Nashville (ERN) on Apr 13, 1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
American Legend
Country - Released by American Legends on Oct 17, 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Lacy J. Dalton
Country - Released by Columbia Nashville Legacy on May 29, 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Survivor
Country - Released by EMI Music Nashville (ERN) on Jan 1, 1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Country Powerhouse Lacy J Dalton
Alternative & Indie - Released by Platinum Collection on Jun 19, 2012
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Highway Diner
Country - Released by Columbia Nashville Legacy on May 29, 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Crazy Love
Country - Released by EMI Music Nashville (ERN) on Apr 9, 1991
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
16th Avenue (Re-Recorded) [Acapella] - Single
Country - Released by Cleopatra Records on Jun 8, 2023
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Can't Tell Your Heart Who To Beat For
Country - Released by StarVista Music on Feb 2, 2024
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Next to Me
Country - Released by Song Dog Records on Nov 12, 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo