New single now, EP to follow
Dallas Remington is a dynamic young singer/songwriter who, at only eighteen, already has several years of experience as a performer. Her current single, ‘Never Turned Around’ (RoadWarrior Records), a tale of heartache and love, is now at country radio, with an EP to follow.
Dallas stopped by to talk about her new songs and her musical influences.
This is one of a series of interviews that I conducted with rising singer/songwriters during CMA Fest to find out about their new music, their musical influences and their experience at CMA Fest.
Preshias Harris: Tell me the story behind your new single, ‘Never Turned Around,’ and who did you write that with?
Dallas Remington: I wrote ‘Never Turned Around’ with my friend Regan Stewart and we went into the session preparing to write a song about a girl who didn’t think she could ever be heartbroken. She was going to go out with this guy but he wasn’t going to break her heart because her heart would never break. We got halfway through the writing session and we were like… ‘This girl really loves him.’ She is so in love with him and she is going to be so heartbroken when he leaves her. So, ‘Never Turn Around’ is about that kind of love that you don’t want to let them go because you love them so much, no matter how much you want them to chase their dreams, you want to hold on to them forever. But you end up having to let them go because it’s what’s best for them.
PH: The single is a taste of your EP titled ‘Freedom,’ due out this summer. What can we expect to hear on this project? And how many of the songs have you co-written?
Co-written every song on EP
DR: I’ve co-written every song on the project. There are seven songs on there and I’m very excited. It’s a big mixture of what I’ve grown up listening to, because I grew up listening to traditional country but also Lynyrd Skynyrd and classic rock so these seven songs present to the world who I am through my music and how I like to present myself, so I’m excited for everyone to hear it. It will available digitally at the end of June or the beginning of July and the physical copies are available now.
PH: You are a Kentucky girl like me. What were some of your favorite Kentucky artists that you listened to?
DR: My favorite artists were Loretta Lynn, a ‘Miss Kentucky girl,’ the coalminer’s daughter! My mom loved Loretta Lynn, she loved Patsy Cline, so that’s the kind of music I grew up with. I also loved Toby Keith. It’s so weird… I was a three-year-old, running around singing all these Toby Keith songs. My mom said, ‘Well, she loves it and she knows the words so here we go!’ But as I got older, I also played in some rock bands in Kentucky, so that was AC/DC, Skynyrd, so it was all kind of things. But it was Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline that I grew up with.
PH: You have a band, Gypsy Highway. What’s it like working shows with your own musicians?
DR: I love playing with these guys, Gypsy Highway. They’re just some of the best musicians that I know, and they’re some of my best friends, so it’s not like we’re working. We’re having fun. When we’re on stage together, when we’re practicing, they all joke around. They say they like playing for me because they know my mom is going to supply food! So at every practice, we have food and we have a really big time. We take a whole day and we just hang out. We take multiple days sometimes, but we’ve gotten where we are in a really good groove together.
PH: A few years ago you set up ‘Melody for the Elderly’ that you see as part of your ministry outreach. Tell us a little bit about that.
Melody for the Elderly
DR: ‘Melody for the Elderly’ is a ministry that I set up in my hometown in Western Kentucky where I would go and sing at nursing homes and long-term care facilities and assisted healthcare facilities. I realized that a lot of them don’t have families that can come and visit them all the time, or they don’t have any visitors at all. It was great for me to be able to go and meet them because I made some very amazing friends, some lifelong friends, through ‘Melody for the Elderly.’ It was also a blessing for me to be able to see these people who normally would not come out of their rooms. They came out of their rooms and hung out with their friends at the facility and listened to songs they grew up with. I would play the traditional country songs for them.
PH: So that’s been very rewarding for you?
DR: Oh yes. One of the most touching stories that I have from that whole year was that on my first day I sang ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’ and a lady came up to me and told me she was a coalminer’s daughter from Eastern Kentucky. She had Alzheimer’s Disease, but every week she would come out and she would sing that song, even though she could not remember that she had met me the week before, she remembered the lyrics to that song. It really blessed me to see these people go back to their childhood, go back to a happy time and love the music.
PH: You are eighteen. You’re not a ‘normal’ eighteen-year-old. You’ve been performing for several years already. How old were you when you began singing in public?
DR: I started right before I turned eleven. So it’s been a long process. I started playing guitar when I was ten and I played at a local talent contest. I won ‘my’ week at the contest, and when you win your week, a YouTube video is posted of you singing. They posted a video of me singing Miranda Lambert’s ‘The House That Built Me’ and a producer here in Nashville saw it and booked me to come and do his TV shows. That’s how I started getting booked in Nashville. So I’ve been in Nashville since just before I turned twelve. It’s been an awesome experience.
Seasoned performer
PH: You’re a seasoned performer, basically.
DR: Yes, I’ve been living in Nashville since just before I turned sixteen. It’s been two-and-a-half years and moving to Nashville was probably the best thing for my career. I love Kentucky and I’ll always be a Kentucky girl and it will always be home to me. My dad is still in Kentucky but he’s supporting me. We commuted for a long time but we finally decided that I needed to be here to do it one hundred percent.
PH: Where can fans find you on social media?
DR: Just search ‘Dallas Remington’ or ‘Dallas Remington Music’ on social media, and I’ll pop up!
You can also connect with Dallas via her website and read more about Dallas and her music.
Note: I originally posted this story here on the European website for Country Music News International magazine and radio show.
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Preshias Harrisis a music journalist and music career development consultant with the emphasis on new and aspiring artists and songwriters. Her book, ‘The College of Songology 101: The Singer/Songwriter’s Need to Know Reference Handbook’ is available at www.collegeofsongology.com Follow her blog at www.nashvillemusicline.com