WHEN IS AN ANGEL NOT AN ANGEL? IT'S ALL IN JEANETTE DILL'S NEW SONG...

Another original track from Jeanette Dill's new CD, "He'll Split The Eastern Sky", recorded at Dill Records in Jesup, Georgia earlier this year. This one was written by her late son. Alan Hinton, who died from liver cancer shortly after completing it. I hope you'll enjoy it. And if you do take a moment to watch the video on You Tube, please "like" us, okay? Because we definitely like you! Not to mention that we really, really just want to be liked. (Channeling Sally Fields, anyone?)

Catch you on the other side of the railroad tracks!

MAMA'S SENDING ANGELS! RIGHT NOW.......

Well, it's done! Jeanette Dill (aka Dad's wife of twenty-five years and the singing half of the gospel duo Crimson Rose) has completed her latest CD for Dill Records. In celebration, I've made a video and uploaded it to You Tube. I know what you're thinking. Yeah, that's great, but what's in it for me? Well, a beautiful song for one thing, and one, that like many county/gospel songs, comes with its own little story.

 Like a lot of people, Jeanette depended for most of her life on her mother's support and encouragement to help through the rough times. And in Jeanette's case, a lot of that love and support came in the form of prayers that her mother made on her behalf.

"My mother really didn't think I could make it without her prayers," Jeanette told me, when I was working on uploading the video. "She really believed I needed them."

When Jeanette's mother died several years ago, Jeanette did what countless other country/gospel artists have done in similar circumstances. She sat down and wrote a song about her mother's prayers and the angels that she believes those prayers have sent to her side on more than one occasion. "Mama's Sending Angels" is a song in the greatest tradition of country and gospel music. Authentic, sincere, and you might just find yourself choking back a sentimental tear or two as you listen to it. But that's what good music does. It makes you feel...and, with any luck, relate to what the song is about. And if you like "Mama's Sending Angels", there's more where it came from. Jeanette's "He'll Split The Eastern Sky" album is a treasure trove of original gospel tunes, in which the spiritual and the traditional intermingle like old, loving friends who are more than happy to welcome you, the listener to their old school music party. Jeanette's songs come from a place where people still call on angels for help and aren't afraid to admit it. A place where music is as much a form of prayer as it is a special kind of medicine. And a place where pedal steel...that sad, singular sound that marks everything it touches as "country"...is still the once and future king.

Click to hear "Mama's Sending Angels"

I hope you'll click on the link above and give the song a listen. And I hope that someone out there is working on sending some angels for you.

FUELED BY MUSIC, PASSION AND LOVE

The conversation concerning what to paint on the side of my father's tour bus continues! Now, don't get me wrong. Dill Records is a recording studio, the purpose of which is to record music here in my father's special little corner of southeast Georgia. But there's more to Dill Records than recording equipment and headphones. My father's gospel band, Crimson Rose tours every spring and summer, and as I mentioned in an earlier post, utilizes my father's 44-foot MCI bus for that purpose. Last Sunday, that bus received a major springtime scrubbing and is now parked like a gleaming, bus-shaped lighthouse outside the studio. But even though cleanliness supposedly holds a sacred spot next to the concept of godliness, there's a lot to be said for artistic aspirations as well. In other words, I'm trying desperately to convince my father to paint a mural on the side of his beloved MCI bus. See, my father is not just a pedal steel player who happens to own a recording studio. He's also an artist who has painted many, many seascapes and woodland scenes, but who, for reasons unknown to me or anyone else, is loathe to add so much as one tiny speck of paint to the side of his bus. He has entertained the thought of painting a red rose on the side, in honor of the name of his band (the aforementioned Crimson Rose), but anything more than that...well, you might as well be talking to a wall.

  Speaking of which, the above ocean scene, which my father painted last year, adorns the north wall of the studio, as well as the covers of some of the CDs recorded here. Maybe it's just me, but I think it would look pretty fetching on the side of the ol' tour bus. Oh, well. The stand-off rages on. And so does this blog, which this time next week, should also include some new music from "He'll Split The Eastern Sky", the new original gospel CD from Jeanette Dill (recorded and produced at Dill Records, of course), as well as something from yours truly, Cathy Greta Dill (aka Greta Valentine). I hope you'll check back and see what's here. Because we're just getting started on this bus ride. And whatever my father ends up painting on the side of it, one thing is for certain: the only fuel this particular vehicle requires is music and the only scheduled stops are in front of microphones. Hope we'll see you in the passenger seats!

BEFORE THERE WAS A DILL RECORDS, THERE WAS A MUSICIAN NAMED "DILL"....

It was 20 years ago today that my father taught the band to play! Wait...make that 50 years ago. And it wasn't on this particular day. And he didn't actually teach  band to play so much as he just started playing with them. I know. Confusing. But I do have a point, which is, basically, that my father has been playing music for a long, long time (slightly longer than Taco Bell and Wendy's have been around, if you want to get technical...which I always do!), and since that fact has a lot to do with the reason that we refer to Dill Records as "the place that music calls home", I thought I'd devote a little "post time" to sharing some of his fascinating history in and around the Nashville music world.

Now, don't get me wrong. Dad has played a lot of other places besides Nashville. And although it would be fair to say that he has played with some of Nashville's best, he's neither a name dropper nor a musician who limits himself to one type of stage. That is to say, my father has played his pedal steel just about everywhere in this country, and has no intention of skidding to a halt any time soon. It all comes down to what he told me the other night as we were watching some old school country music videos on CMT.

"I've always loved playing music," he told me. "Apart from God and my family, music is the thing I love the most in my entire life, and I'd rather play music than do anything else."

Wow, I thought. That sounds dangerously close to a declaration of...well...passion. Turns out it's more than that. Elaborating on that initial confession, my father went on to tell me that he had tried, at intervals, to be a "normal person: (i.e. someone who wouldn't rather play music than do anything else), but just didn't have it in him. Well, no wonder. I mean, he touches the strings on his pedal steel, and the thing cries like a silver-throated baby. He touches them again, and you would swear that angels were weeping behind the lyrics of the song. Sure, there are other pedal steel players out there, but my father has that magical little gift that makes it hard to to anything else but play--not to mention impossible for anyone else to do anything but listen.

Funny thing is, for the last 20 years, my father and I weren't even in constant communications. I won't get into the details, but there were times when I didn't know if I would ever see him again. And now, here I am, writing this post, working with him in the studio at Dill Records, getting ready to board the bus and hit the road for a series of bookings over the next few months. Is he different than I remember from 20 years ago? Of course. But he's also very much the same. He plucks those pedal steel strings and it's still a majestic moment in music. The passion, the love, the absolute sense of "yeah, this is who and what I am" still reverberates through every single chord. Some girls have fathers who help them with math, or teach them how to play chess, or who pay for ballet lessons. When I was young enough for all that to be happening, my father was on the road, or playing on the stage at the Grand Ol' Opry. But what I got from him, he didn't have to teach me. He gave me a passion for music. And...luckily for Dill Records....the talent to make that passion worthwhile. Thanks, Dad.

 A final note: Just because Dad and I will be on the road off and on this spring and summer doesn't mean that Dill Records will be closed for business. Au contraire! Dill Records is always open for business, with a staff of dedicated professionals waiting to make the music happen. I mean, after all, this is the place that music calls home!

GETTING READY TO BOARD THE BUS!

Years ago, when he was first starting out as a country musician, my dad Ralph Dill dreamed of owning his own bus. It wasn't that he just happened to love the idea of owning a mammoth, gas-sucking vehicle for no special reason, it was that, to him, owning a bus epitomized a personal sense of success in the music business. I mean, come on...have you seen some of the tour buses on the road these days? Most of them have more amenities than some third world countries! Luckily, for dad, it's always been about the music, not the glitzy trappings (although he's never been one to say no to a sequined cowboy shirt)....and two years ago, he bought his beloved 44-foot long, 12-passenger, MCI tour bus! It's been several months since she's been on the road, but that will change within the next few weeks as my dad and our band head off to perform at various locations throughout the South. And as much as my dad will enjoy playing those silvery pedal steel licks on stage every night, he'll be enjoying riding on his own tour bus every bit as much. Just don't expect to see him sitting behind the wheel. He hires someone else to do that. After all, it's one thing to love buses, quite another to steer them through heavy traffic!

THANK YOU!

Thank you to all of those who have stopped in to visit us so far. The new Dill Records blog is a work in progress and will be in flux for a few days more. But we are definitely moving forward and are thrilled to connect with all of you through the magic of....blogdom!

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FROM PATSY CLINE TO GRETA VALENTINE

Well, here it is, the first post on the new Dill Records blog! Not quite sure what "Dill Records" is? Allow me to clarify. Ten years ago, after decades of playing pedal steel guitar on the road with some of the best and most respected country and gospel musicians out of Nashville, my father, Ralph Dill decided to settle down in Jesup, Georgia and start his own recording studio. In the ensuing decade, my father's dream of offering other musicians and singers a place in which they can express themselves artistically without going broke in the process metamorphosed into a reality. Not only that, but after over twenty years apart, my father and I have reconnected and are working together to make this all happen. And as Dill Records continues to evolve and expand over the coming weeks and months, I'll be posting updates as well as sharing selected anecdotes about my father's long, fascinating journey down the back roads of country music onto the sunlit stretches of highway that wind through the southern gospel land. It's been quite a trip for a native Mainer who bought his first guitar when World War II was still going on! I hope you'll keep checking back to hear more about it, and to stay informed of the goings on here at Dill Records. Because, if you love music, you're already one of us!