{"id":21121,"date":"2024-01-19T01:27:37","date_gmt":"2024-01-19T08:27:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=21121"},"modified":"2024-01-19T01:27:37","modified_gmt":"2024-01-19T08:27:37","slug":"lacy-j-dalton-premiere-summerland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2024\/01\/lacy-j-dalton-premiere-summerland\/","title":{"rendered":"LACY J. DALTON Premiere &#8220;SUMMERLAND&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>LACY J. DALTON \u201cSummerland\u201d Video Premiere \u2013 with Web-Exclusive Interview<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Musician:\u00a0 LACY J. DALTON<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Video Feature:\u00a0 SUMMERLAND<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Qq9DPXxoBKg?si=ZqKF1mfHxDdnoDpj\" width=\"660\" height=\"440\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h1><strong><em>BLACK SHEEP<\/em><\/strong><strong> IN \u201cSUMMERLAND\u201d<\/strong><\/h1>\n<h1><strong>LACY J. DALTON AN AMERICAN OUTLAW<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Lacy J. Dalton\u2019s blonde spiky hair is an extension of the singer-songwriter\u2019s professional and theological peregrination, every lock representative of crossroads, intersections and a path not obscured by superficial desires. With piercing eyes and a throaty voice, Italian film director Sergio Leone would have cast Dalton as an intellectually redeeming femme fatale, alongside Clint Eastwood\u2019s \u201cMan with No Name\u201d alter-ego in his 1960s Spaghetti Westerns. In the flesh and metaphysically, Dalton celebrates and continues the American outlaw\u2019s birthright, with life-revealing philosophic song lyrics, more powerful than bullets propelled through John Moses Browning\u2019s Peacemaker.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Lacy-J-Dalton-01.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-21122\" src=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Lacy-J-Dalton-01.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"660\" height=\"660\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Lacy-J-Dalton-01.jpg 660w, https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Lacy-J-Dalton-01-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Lacy-J-Dalton-01-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cDream Baby\u201d Jill Lynne Byrem\u2019s Childhood In Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania<\/p>\n<p><\/strong>Jill Lynne Byrem was born after the carnage and terror of World War II evaporated like a waking nightmare. Military aircraft, former symbols of death and destruction, now dissolving into prefabricated houses and luxurious, large chrome-plated fin and fender cars offering eternal domestic bliss. Sunday the 13th, was both prophetic and perfectly scripted for the little girl\u2019s birthday, setting the stage for her life journey. Growing up in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, Dalton strolls down memory lane with vivid reflections, \u201cMy music actually came from growing up with parents who played country music. My dad played all the string instruments, my mother played guitar and sang harmony, and my sister played piano. They all played music and I listened. I always listened.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cShe Could Run\u201d Santa Cruz In The Summer Of 1967<\/p>\n<p><\/strong>Working the county fair in Pennsylvania was one of many odd jobs and side hustles that Dalton endured before securing a recording contract. Recounting her tenure at the rustic pageants, she elaborates with enthusiasm about harness races and farm animals. Dalton presents a tableau of the county carnival, \u201cI worked for \u2018Big Joe\u2019 this guy from Philadelphia. I\u2019d work all week selling jewelry and then you would get $100. You\u2019d be on your feet under the concrete floor of the grandstand. I remember my feet burning.\u201d Across the way, Dalton spotted a rock \u2019n\u2019 roll guitar player selling psychedelic posters. They hit it off and fell in love.\u00a0Motivated by a desire to see what the flower children were all about, resulted in Dalton eloping with the mystery man. She ended up in a hippie commune in Santa Cruz, California, and stayed there. At the time Dalton was turning 21. It was a huge turning point in her life to venture blindly into the unknown.<\/p>\n<p>Like a goodwill ambassador, Dalton runs a commercial for Santa Cruz, encapsulating her creative relationship with the community and musical style, \u201cIt\u2019s an incredible town, there\u2019s a music school there, and there\u2019s a ton of really fabulous musicians around there. The Doobie Brothers are around there, Neil Young was around there, and all those folks. The Byrds were not far away, and San Francisco was within an hour\u2019s drive. And I became part of that. My music is not specifically country music. It has elements of folk and rock, and I was even in a psychedelic rock \u2019n\u2019 roll band at that time and wrote a lot of the songs for it. I always wrote from the very beginning. I just started writing from the very beginning because I didn\u2019t know how to play anybody else\u2019s songs. So I wrote my own and that became my passion.\u201d Listening to Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and a lot of the West Coast bands like Janis Joplin, New Riders of the Purple Sage, and The Jefferson Airplane, influenced Dalton\u2019s music in a very different way than the music of her childhood. The county fair girl from Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania had strayed from the flock.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><em>In the flesh and metaphysically, Dalton celebrates and continues the American outlaw\u2019s birthright, with life-revealing philosophic song lyrics, more powerful than bullets propelled through John Moses Browning\u2019s Peacemaker.<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>\u201cListen To The Wind\u201d Brigham Young University Blues<\/p>\n<p><\/strong>Wanting to pursue a career as a wildlife illustrator brought Dalton to the campus of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, but a guitar along for the ride as a kind of companion changed her trajectory. With the capability to sink a ship and flying gear to perform\u00a0<em>Peter Pan,\u00a0<\/em>the theater arts department captured her interest and occupied her imagination, and Dalton entertained the idea of an arts education there. A specter of the higher learning institution\u2019s religious leader looms large at BYU, and Dalton was alone a lot there trying to find a path in life that ignited her flames of passion. One Christmas, as snow poured like confectioners\u2019 sugar from shakers planted firmly at heaven\u2019s table, Dalton didn\u2019t have the funds to go home and was one of the few people on the campus during the winter holiday break.<\/p>\n<p>As most college students work part-time jobs to reap the financial rewards of church mice, Dalton cleaned the bathrooms in the theater arts department, providing her with access to the whole stage. One morning,\u00a0while performing her duties, she noticed someone had left a microphone on, right in the middle of the stage, and remembers getting up on that stage and singing to that big beautiful auditorium with her guitar. Dalton recalls, \u201cI thought I love this. It was very magickal, and it just kind of evolved and became more of a calling for me. I never had that urge to be a star and wear all the sparkly clothes, but I kind of went through a phase like that.\u201d Music ignited that spark for Dalton, and she subsequently decided to pursue a career in the music industry, a non-traditional vocational path one may travel, reminiscent of Robert Frost\u2019s poem \u201cThe Road Not Taken.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cWorking Class Woman\u201d Waitress In The Santa Cruz Mountains<\/p>\n<p><\/strong>The dreaded 9 to 5 day job grind is a benign and lackluster euphemism that artists must explore until they can find their audience or their audience finds them. Dalton is intimately acquainted with this painful but creativity-yielding process, and had many day jobs before making it\u2014including being a waitress, which shaped her songwriting and taught her life lessons that she still takes with her today. Offering perspicacious insight, Dalton allows observers to slip into her shoes and blues, \u201cThey always gave me the most difficult customers, ones that were always impossible to get along with. I started early working in a rather fancy hotel in Bloomsburg, where I grew up, and there was a wonderful German woman there who taught us how to wait tables in a most professional way. Really, I could have worked in any restaurant in the world probably at that time, because of her training. She was very strict, and I got to thank her about 40 years later. I never got my record deal until I was 33 years old, but I didn\u2019t want to do any complicated work. The nice thing about the waitress job is you get to take money home every day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This aspect of Dalton\u2019s life echoes Ellen Burstyn\u2019s character in the 1974 romantic comedy movie\u00a0<em>Alice Doesn\u2019t Live Here Anymore.\u00a0<\/em>Part of that time, Dalton was a single mother because she had been widowed when she was about 27. Dalton\u2019s husband suffered a bad accident and was totally paralyzed from the neck down. He did get a small veteran\u2019s pension, and that helped her out but she also had to work. Embracing both economic realities and artistic aspirations, Dalton labored at a place in the Santa Cruz mountains, where she would cook all day. Then at about 6 or 7 o\u2019clock at night, she would take off the apron, don a guitar, and sing. She made a little money doing that at little clubs around the Santa Cruz mountains, and that became sort of a second home for Dalton with a very wonderful extended family, with whom she\u2019s still very close.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Lacy-J-Dalton-02.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-21123\" src=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Lacy-J-Dalton-02.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"660\" height=\"667\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Lacy-J-Dalton-02.jpg 660w, https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Lacy-J-Dalton-02-297x300.jpg 297w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Musicians Care During \u201cHard Times\u201d<\/p>\n<p><\/strong>Circling back to connections with Santa Cruz, Dalton speaks about the moral fiber of her surrogate family of musicians in that community, \u201cRight now, we\u2019re doing a fabulous benefit for some of the artists in Santa Cruz, who have come upon hard times. There have been artists there for probably 40 years who didn\u2019t have big savings, and both a husband and a wife have cancer and they can\u2019t work. There\u2019s a fabulous community of musicians there, and I always joke and say, there are more musicians in Santa Cruz than there are people. The University of Santa Cruz is there, a school called Cabrillo, which we used to call a junior college, and they have a fabulous music program. There are just all kinds of wonderful musicians who live there and 12 acts are going to do this benefit for us on January 28, 2024. There are 38 singers-songwriters who are going to be involved, and we\u2019re going to play from 3 o\u2019clock in the afternoon until the cows come home. We\u2019re going to raise some money for these wonderful artists, and I didn\u2019t have one person say no to a free performance\u2014out of 38 people! These are the cream of the crop of that area. I\u2019m very proud to be doing this. That&#8217;s the wonderful thing about musicians.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dalton adds, \u201cMusicians are very spiritual people, and songwriters, not all, but many of them. The best songwriters talk about really deep feelings, and very intimate things, and are very vulnerable because they have to keep their hearts open to receive the music. I think it comes to us from spirit. But also to put it down in a way that moves people. All of the musicians, who played for 40 to 50 years in that town,\u00a0and a lot of the younger people, are doing it at a place called Moe\u2019s Alley. It\u2019s a very wonderful, intimate club where I love to play. It\u2019s one of my favorite places to play because it\u2019s very warm and homey. A lot of times, it\u2019s standing room only because it\u2019s not big, but it\u2019s where we like to go to play music, and people like to go to hear music. We\u2019re going to have a wonderful time.\u201d Dalton is doing the benefit for Jimmy Jackson and Ellen O\u2019Hanlon.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cI\u2019ll Love Them Whatever They Are,\u201d Dichotomy In Genres Between Male And Female Artists<\/p>\n<p><\/strong>Many women didn\u2019t get to open for artists like Hank Williams, Jr., shining a light on the dichotomy in genres between male and female artists, but Dalton was immune because of her self-described weird influences from the West Coast and other music that she played. Dalton elaborates, \u201cPeople are very concerned with gender. I don\u2019t care what gender anybody is, I just don\u2019t care. I don\u2019t think about it much myself. I was fine as an outlaw artist and I think more than anything that was why I got to do it. Tanya Tucker and Emmylou Harris did get to open for the likes of Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, and so on.\u201d What called Dalton back to country music were Waylon and Willie and the Boys, outlaw music out of Texas, incredible songs by groups like The Highwaymen that talked about reincarnation, and \u201cPancho and Lefty,\u201d an incredible outlaw adventure of two desperadoes. This music beckoned Dalton, back to her roots. With tongue in cheek, she confesses, \u201cThe only thing I ever heard in Pennsylvania besides country music was Perry Como.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Indian Tom\u2019s\u00a0Intervention\u00a0With A \u201cSlow Movin\u2019 Outlaw,\u201d Duet With Willie Nelson<\/p>\n<p><\/strong>Collaborating with Willie Nelson on \u201cSlow Movin\u2019 Outlaw,\u201d for his 1985 album of duets <em>Half Nelson,\u00a0<\/em>Dalton was the only female voice present on an opus dominated by male performers. Dalton shares the\u00a0tale behind the recording session, \u201cI had a wonderful friend in Texas whose name is \u2018Indian Tom,\u2019 a very intelligent and well-educated Indian man and he ran the drug program for the state of Texas for years and years. He\u2019s done other jobs negotiating big contracts between the state and other entities and stuff\u00a0like that. He happened to be very good friends with me and good friends also with Willie\u2019s sister. He\u2019s very good friends with the writer of \u2018Slow Movin\u2019 Outlaw\u2019 Dee Moeller, who is this\u00a0incredible, wonderful woman.\u201d Moeller had written that song for Willie years before, and Willie had just finished an album. Because he was finished with the project, \u2018Slow Movin\u2019 Outlaw\u2019 was not recorded at that time. Years later, Dalton was talking to \u2018Indian Tom,\u2019 and Tom said he had a song for her, suggesting with urgency that Dalton do it with Willie. Although Dalton played with Willie, they were not intimate buddies, and she didn\u2019t feel comfortable asking him if he would record the song with her. \u2018Indian Tom\u2019 told Dalton not to worry about it and he took the song to Willie\u2019s sister, who loved the song and she took it to Willie, recommending that he do it with Dalton as a duet\u2014while Nelson happened to be in the middle of making his duet album\u00a0<em>Half Nelson,\u00a0<\/em>with the likes of\u00a0Neil Young, George Jones, Ray Charles, and Leon Russell. Dalton underscores the intervention of \u2018Indian Tom,\u2019 as just basically magick, along with Dee Moeller, \u201cThese are very special people, they are just magickal people and a magickal thing happened.\u201d Dalton received a gold record years ago, and more recently received a platinum record for her efforts. For Dalton, the song is a wonderful memory, just as wonderful today as it was when she recorded it way back then.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Lacy-J-Dalton-03.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-21124\" src=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Lacy-J-Dalton-03.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"660\" height=\"440\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Lacy-J-Dalton-03.jpg 660w, https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Lacy-J-Dalton-03-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cAre There Any Cowboys Left,\u201d American Outlaws in the 21<\/strong><strong>st<\/strong><strong>\u00a0Century<\/p>\n<p><\/strong>\u201cSlow Movin; Outlaw\u201d possesses a cinematic quality that romanticizes the ideal of the American outlaw, a tragic figure that can\u2019t seem to find his or her place. Dalton ponders the American outlaw\u2019s ability to survive in the online virtual world of the 21st century, \u201cI don\u2019t know if the others can but I\u2019m having a pretty hard time with it. It\u2019s especially wonderful if you\u2019re an independent artist to have a tremendous presence on the internet. I don\u2019t really know how to do that, but my son is far on the edge of Google glasses technology. He\u2019s a programmer. He got that from his father, not me. From me, he can draw. I think there will always be what I call the black sheep.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dalton\u2019s new project is called\u00a0<em>For the Black Sheep<\/em>.\u00a0She\u00a0has\u00a0written five songs for the project but only recorded one, and has a lot of work ahead of her to get it ready for April 1, 2024. The album explores the thematic element of outlaws. One of the songs has a line in it, if you feel like you\u2019re an outlaw and kind of lost touch with your faith, or any kind of spirituality just remember Willie Nelson\u2019s album, right there on the sleeve. Don\u2019t forget the saying outlaws do believe.<\/p>\n<p>A lot of the songs in the project are directed toward real outlaws. Dalton worked for three and a half years in one of the most notorious prisons in the United States, High Desert State Prison in Susanville, California, and taught songwriting there. Along with her partner Dale Poune, she started a program under the auspices of The William James Foundation, a songwriting and music program in that prison. It was very successful and is still going. Poune has been implementing the program for 9 years, and it has incredible rehabilitative effects on the prisoners.<\/p>\n<p>The first song Dalton wrote\u00a0<em>For the Black Sheep<\/em> was actually written for those outlaws she and Poune had been working with, 20 years to life prisoners. All those years working in a correctional facility, Dalton never had one moment of fear, \u201cThose people appreciated us being there so much, I knew that nothing could ever happen to us, because they would have protected us with their lives. I am certain, and was never stressed at that prison.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dalton emphasizes the prison\u2019s sterility and layers of security, calling to mind Dante\u2019s \u201cInferno\u201d with its levels of Hell, \u201cYou have to be searched every day, you go through an entry gate where there are two gates. You go past that, then you go down to whatever building you work, and then through another entry gate. They\u2019re all metal sensitive and you don\u2019t want to take certain things in there. Then you pass through another gate, and get into the place where you actually go to work. Of course, everything is locked and you have to be constantly locking doors behind you. None of that was any bother at all because of the joy of these men learning how to play guitar and write songs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Writing a whole full-length musical, and performing it for the warden and his guests, was a crowning achievement for Dalton. The warden was so pleased with the work of Dalton and Poune that he gave the ensemble awards. Dalton was very sad to leave that but wanted to get back to some of the writing that she was doing. One of the first songs that she wrote is a song called \u201cJesus Was an Outlaw After All.\u201d Dalton contextualizes faith for outlaws; marginalized individuals,\u00a0sometimes viewed through a negative lens by society, \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid to approach that, don\u2019t be afraid to embrace your spirituality, however you find it. If it\u2019s not Jesus, it could be Buddha. However you find your way, however that spirituality finds a way into your life, that\u2019s going to make your life so different, and so much better. You\u2019ll be so much stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cBeer Drinkin\u2019 Song,\u201d\u00a0<em>Take This Job and Shove It<\/p>\n<p><\/em><\/strong>Dalton worked with Art Carney, best known as Ed Norton, on the classic television sitcom\u00a0<em>The Honeymooners<\/em>, on the 1981 comedy film\u00a0<em>Take This Job and Shove It.\u00a0<\/em>The movie\u2019s premise is built on a failing brewery that<em>\u00a0<\/em>turns itself around financially only to be put on the auction block for an oil millionaire. Art imitated life when the Johnny Paycheck song of the same title that inspired the movie became part of the miners\u2019 strike in West Virginia. Paycheck actually stood with the striking miners.<\/p>\n<p>Lacy had a little part in that movie and remembers being nervous. To date, she hasn\u2019t even watched the completed film, but did have a couple songs in it, and was very grateful for the opportunity. Dalton recalls fondly, \u201cThat was a good movie, and they could probably redo that movie and it would be a hit right now, with all the unions striking and people asking for a fairer shake in the enormous amount of money that multinational corporations accrue. I really wish that some of the oligarchs in this world, people who have billions and billions of dollars, knew that they really didn\u2019t need all that, but a lot of other people do. People like Warren Buffett, and a group of people with him that are giving back. A lot of the corporations have charities and they give what seems like enormous amounts of money but compared to what they\u2019re making, it\u2019s a pittance in many cases. I\u2019m sure one billion will last you just fine, you don\u2019t need 80.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Offering her views on disparity in wealth, and possible solutions, Dalton points out, \u201cThere are 356 million people on this planet, little kids, who are starving to death. There are as many people starving to death as there are in this country. It\u2019s appalling. I think there really are more people on this earth than need to be right now. There are way too many of us, and that\u2019s just how it is. But I do think this earth is also a very abundant thing if we treat her properly. I think she could feed all of us easily but it has a lot to do with governments and political things. Right now, I think we\u2019re at kind of a turning point. So many people simply do not believe that global warming is even happening. Educated people who should know better don\u2019t believe it. It would be so wonderful to see some of these hugely wealthy people really do something about kids starving and kids needing medical care, in countries where they\u2019re born with deformities and cleft lips, and aren\u2019t able to walk because of crippling starvation. I wish that the heart of the world would beat larger, and beat in those people, and that this planet could come into a greater spiritual consciousness. Until we do, I don\u2019t think up there in the galactic federation they\u2019re going to let us in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Lacy-J-Dalton-04.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-21125\" src=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Lacy-J-Dalton-04.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"660\" height=\"964\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Lacy-J-Dalton-04.jpg 660w, https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Lacy-J-Dalton-04-205x300.jpg 205w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cSlip Away\u201d and\u00a0<em>Don\u2019t Tell<\/p>\n<p><\/em><\/strong>\u201cSlip Away,\u201d a song from Dalton\u2019s 2004 release\u00a0<em>The Last Wild Place<\/em>\u00a0<em>Anthology,<\/em>\u00a0was placed in the 2005 motion picture\u00a0<em>Don\u2019t Tell<\/em>, starring Alison Eastwood. Providing the backstory, Dalton fills in the blanks of the song\u2019s genesis, \u201cI had this lover named Willard, and we were an item for five or six years. He was a guitar player in my band, and we wrote a lot of songs together\u2014and we were a thing. He suddenly got it into his hard-charging little head that he was going to run off with an intravenous drug-using prostitute. He had fallen madly in love, so off he went.\u201d A few weeks after he left, Dalton got a call at three o\u2019clock in the morning from Willard pleading with her to hear this song. Dalton wasn\u2019t interested in the song and told Willard she hated him. Eventually, she agreed to hear the song, loved it, and recorded it. Every year of his life until the end of his life, Willard would call Dalton, asking her to marry him, sweetening the offer with the promise of a horse and a life of leisure. Dalton remained friends with Willard, reconciling the relationship\u2019s romantic end, with the words, you made your choice. \u201cSlip Away\u201d was written by John Fitzgerald and Larry Hosford for Dalton, who was wonderfully surprised when it was used for the\u00a0<em>Don\u2019t Tell<\/em>\u00a0soundtrack.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Black Sheep<\/em><\/strong><strong>\u00a0in \u201cSummerland\u201d<\/p>\n<p><\/strong>Dalton describes the song \u201cSummerland\u201d as the red herring of\u00a0<em>For the Black Sheep<\/em>\u00a0because it\u2019s not representative of the material on the album. Dalton\u2019s mother was dying of cancer, and she didn\u2019t want her to be afraid. Dalton reveals both the creative process and her faith-based beliefs, \u201cThat song came to me. It was one of those songs that comes to you very quickly and you just simply write it down. I knew that when I was finished with it, it would be a song that could bring hope to people. I know a lot of people become closed off spiritually because they think that when we die, we go away, we\u2019re gone forever. I don\u2019t really believe that or that we just come here one time. I believe that this is a school where we come lifetime after lifetime to learn how to walk our talk, how to be authentic, how to be the best spirit that we can be before we actually get to hang out constantly with that which is the great spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Taking a deep dive introspective approach, Dalton navigates her faith, \u201cWe call ourselves Christian, but we don\u2019t walk that talk. We are judging. There are a lot of people who simply hate gay people. If you\u2019re Christian, and you\u2019re doing that, you\u2019re not doing the first thing that Christ taught which was love God with all your heart, mind and spirit, love yourself, and love your neighbor as yourself. That is the whole of the law, and all the other laws in life are based upon it. That\u2019s what\u00a0(Christ) came to teach, and that\u2019s what the project\u00a0<em>For the Black Sheep<\/em>\u00a0is all about. I don\u2019t know if other people have had this experience, but the churches that I went to turned me off to spirituality. They did not turn me on to it. They probably would now because I stopped being so judgmental. I used to see so much hypocrisy in the churches. The wealthy people sat in the front and poorer people sat in the back. As a child, I was very aware of all of that and I thought\u2014this isn\u2019t right. This isn\u2019t what they\u2019re saying they do. They\u2019re not walking their talk. I think it\u2019s so important somehow, however you manage to do it. Don\u2019t say something, if you don\u2019t intend to do it. Walk that talk. All you have at the end of a lifetime is your integrity, your word, that\u2019s all you have left. You can\u2019t take anything with you. You can\u2019t take any stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With\u00a0<em>For the Black Sheep<\/em>, Dalton is reaching out to those people who have thrown the baby out with the bathwater. She offers commentary on churches that do not lead their congregations to spirituality, \u201cThe churches are losing arterial blood because what\u2019s happening is it\u2019s become a social thing. It\u2019s become a political thing. And that is not what it\u2019s about. What it\u2019s about\u2014is loving God with all your heart, mind and spirit. Love yourself is the hard part. Love your neighbor as yourself, and that\u2019s the whole of the law. That\u2019s it. That\u2019s what we\u2019re here to learn to do, and it\u2019s not easy. Loving yourself isn\u2019t even easy. We have that critical belief in our heads all the time\u2014saying you\u2019re not good enough, or you\u2019re less than, or whatever your little devils in there say. We need to listen to a higher voice, a higher power. Ask ourselves a better question, and that\u2019s what\u00a0<em>For the Black Sheep<\/em>\u00a0is all about. It\u2019s about not throwing the baby out with the bathwater.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Studying many religions and taking many catechisms, Dalton was always looking for something real and authentic that she could believe, and found it, but took the long way around the block, \u201cI went to Brigham Young University, and when I was finished with all that, I began to become interested in what eastern religions were saying. In the time we don\u2019t know about him (Jesus), because there are only 97 pages in the Bible devoted to Jesus\u2019 life. They don\u2019t really know where he went. In the Himalayas, the monks in the Tibetan monasteries have records of a man there named Yeshua, who came to study with them. How I came back around to believing that person (Jesus Christ) was exactly who he said\u2014he was not from my churches, or anything I learned from my churches. But it was from listening to these people from an entirely different belief.\u201d There was so much in the bathwater that was hypocritical, that Dalton had to go far away from it, to regain her faith-based beliefs, \u201cI was a black sheep, so I\u2019m writing this music for the black sheep.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cYou Can\u2019t Run Away From Your Heart,\u201d\u00a0Let \u2019em Run Foundation<\/p>\n<p><\/strong>Wild horses are the natural extension of the American outlaw and the Old West, and occupy a place in Dalton\u2019s heart. She elucidates the framework and goals of the Let &#8217;em Run Foundation, which seeks to rehabilitate wild horses, \u201cWe\u2019ve been doing that since somewhere around 2003, and we got our charitable donation certificate\u2014so that we can raise money for the wild horses. We\u2019ve been doing it for a long time. We\u2019re not a huge organization but I like to do several benefits a year, and we like to raise money for the boots on the ground people, the people who really do the bulk of the rescuing, rehabilitation and rehoming of our wild horses\u2014so they don\u2019t end up going for slaughter in Canada or Mexico. A lot of them are going to Mexico now.\u00a0The slaughter down there, some of the things I\u2019ve seen, you don\u2019t even want to know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Raising and giving money to mom-and-pop groups that really don\u2019t have the time or energy due to the gentling work they\u2019re doing with these wild horses, and getting them ready for adoption, is the thrust of Dalton\u2019s foundation. Big organizations have their own funding, ways of getting grants. They have lawyers who specialize in trying to legislate laws for the wild horses. But a lot of the actual rescue, adoption, rehabilitation and rehoming work is expensive\u2014even to run the trailers with the horses in them from the auctions where you get them to where you\u2019re rehabilitating them. Vet bills are huge and the horses are required to have a vet check and Coggins shot, which will keep them from spreading disease from state to state.<\/p>\n<p>Painting a tear-jerking picture of animal rescue, Dalton depicts helicopters rounding up the horses, which sometimes results in breaking their legs during the process. Dalton believes there are gentler ways to gather wild horses\u2014one of which is closing off all the waterholes, and putting a big corral around the main waterhole. When the horses are in there drinking, the gate is closed. That\u2019s how the old Mustangers used to do it in Nevada, where there are more wild horses than any other state.<\/p>\n<p>Let \u2019em Run Foundation tries to help the little guy. Although equipped with a website, Dalton isn\u2019t very active on it, but does two or three fundraisers a year. She makes sure that money is going to the people who actually are doing the work, \u201cWe have a tiny overhead for administrative costs. Ours is like 6%, whereas others are 30% to 40%. All the money that people send goes to the horses. You can actually see where the money goes. We have to declare that every year. It was always my opinion that it should be a conduit. We don\u2019t keep money, we keep passing it through to the people who are really underfunded, and don\u2019t have the time to raise money themselves. That\u2019s our goal and the way we operate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cEverybody Makes Mistakes\u201d<\/p>\n<p><\/strong>Going into the music business\u00a0not knowing anything, Dalton, a self-taught musician and writer, admits to making every mistake you could possibly make. The advice she shares with anyone who wants to pursue music as a career is \u201cWith the availability of inexpensive recording at home, or with someone you know, you can do some pretty wonderful recording. If you\u2019re writing and doing your own music, I would make those recordings, and make yourself CDs, and sell them at your shows. I think music education is always a good thing to have. There are schools like Belmont in Nashville that can actually teach you the music business.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Recalling John Prine\u2019s successful business model to empower artists, Dalton expounds, \u201cJohn Prine did something wonderful, when he was starting\u2014he would put this little piece of paper in the middle of each table and it read, if you want to hear my next record, please put your information on this card. And when I write a new record, I will tell you, and if you want it, I will send you a copy. He put out 100,000 of those cards and he never ever needed a record company. And when he was selling enough records, the record companies came to him. He already knew the process. He knew how to make the record, how to reach his people. He knew everything about it. He educated himself that way, and that is what I tell people to do. If you go to Nashville and knock on doors, and you\u2019re not a model and you don\u2019t have $150,000\u2014good luck.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dalton shares a cautionary tale about her manager who was approached by someone seeking representation,\u00a0but he turned down the artist. The artist was Lyle Lovett. Dalton told her manager that he probably just made a big mistake but it didn\u2019t hurt him. He went on to manage other very big stars. At the time, Lovett had a song called \u201cGod Will,\u201d which is a really strong song for a man, but it\u2019s a much stronger song for a woman\u2014about forgiveness. Dalton sings part of the song, as she reflects on the story, adding she knew it would be a number one song for her, but Lovett\u2019s publisher was smart and saved it for Lyle himself to start his career with it. She respected that and has always respected Lyle\u2019s music ever since, adding \u201cHe stays fabulous forever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 by Rodeo Marie Hanson<\/p>\n<p>Fans and new fans can get more info and stay updated at:<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/lacyjdalton.org\">https:\/\/lacyjdalton.org<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/lacyjdalton\/\">https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/lacyjdalton\/<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/lacyjdalton\/\">https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/lacyjdalton\/<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/tiktok.com\/@lacyjdalton\">https:\/\/tiktok.com\/@lacyjdalton<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LacyJDalton\">https:\/\/twitter.com\/LacyJDalton<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/LacyJDaltonOfficial\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/LacyJDaltonOfficial<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/2911.us\">https:\/\/2911.us<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Lacy-J-Dalton-05.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-21126\" src=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Lacy-J-Dalton-05.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"660\" height=\"440\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Lacy-J-Dalton-05.jpg 660w, https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Lacy-J-Dalton-05-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LACY J. DALTON \u201cSummerland\u201d Video Premiere \u2013 with Web-Exclusive Interview \u00a0\u00a0 Musician:\u00a0 LACY J. DALTON &nbsp; Video Feature:\u00a0 SUMMERLAND \u00a0 &nbsp; BLACK SHEEP IN \u201cSUMMERLAND\u201d LACY J. DALTON AN AMERICAN OUTLAW &nbsp; Lacy J. Dalton\u2019s blonde spiky hair is an extension of the singer-songwriter\u2019s professional and theological peregrination, every lock representative of crossroads, intersections and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":21128,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7725],"tags":[13824,14028,14436,14437,14438,14439,14440,4955,3592,14441,14442,14443,14444,13372,14445,14446,14447,14448,14449,2333,14450,14451,14452,2737,14391,14453,4340,14454,14455,14456,14457,14458,14402,4488,14459,8227,14460,14461,14462,3593,14463,14464,8259,1879,14465,14466,14467,1064,14468,3121,7566,2266,3010,8013,7978,14469,1082,14470,14471,14473,14472,3263,6264,13243,14474,14475,14476,14477,14478,11414,8109,8222,14479,14480,14481,14432,14483,14482,14484,14485,1550,2005,14486],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21121"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21121"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21127,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21121\/revisions\/21127"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}