Look for “Dirtroad Mandolin” as well as the singles “Corsicana Moon” and “My Memphis Woman” and “Bayou Macon” at these major download outlets.

The new single from “Dirtroad Mandolin” is a high-energy romp in the swamp!

“Bayou Macon” is set on the famous swamp it’s named for, and based on an incident from DLC’s own young life – and it’s racking up grins all around the world. “In the song, she was a Cajun Queen from Plaquemine, Louisiana,” he explains. “But it really happened in New Mexico, and she was from a wealthy old land grant family. And I played guitar and banjo, not fiddle; though I did play some simple fiddle in a road band back then, even though at 20 I was too young to even be in bars and New Mexico nightclubs.”

A longtime brother in everything but name and ancestry, multi-instrumental wizard Don Herron (BR549, Hank Williams III, Bob Dylan, others) helped make sure DLC captured just the right spicy fiddle flavor for “Bayou Macon”.  “I can bang out a decent ‘Orange Blossom Special’ or ‘Boil ‘Em Cabbage Down’ or ‘Cotton Eyed Joe,’ or that killer Charlie Daniels fiddle intro on ‘Drinkin’ My Baby Goodbye,'” DLC says, “but authentic Cajun fiddling requires a fussy double-bowing technique that’s a lot trickier than it sounds.  I’ve been playing fiddle in front of crowds for almost forty years, and I still had to sit down and practically start all over to develop the muscle memory it takes to get that dirty, swampy Cajun sawing just right. But it was worth it! The chord progression behind the solos is a variation that Don and I came up with years ago on the conventional Cajun fiddle breakdown, and I’m glad it finally found a home on something.”

“Bayou Macon” is available as a single download at iTunes, Apple, Spotify, Napster and all the primary online outlets. (Exquisite “Bayou Macon” cover art by Coleman and Maggie Chance.)

The new DLC album is now available for download literally all over the planet! DLC played all the instruments – guitars, bass, mandolin, dobro, banjo, fiddle and drums/percussion – on all ten of the original songs in the set, and he was joined on a couple songs by his wife Sharon on backup vocals.

When starting the project, DLC gave it a great deal of thought and decided on a specific set of ground rules:

All the music would be played on acoustic string instruments, no matter the individual genre or groove; and no matter how tempted he might be to add piano or pedal steel or electric guitar, or any other non-acoustic element.

All drum tracks would consist of a simple 4-piece kit (bass drum, snare drum, hi-hat and one ride/crash cymbal).

Vocal tracks would adhere to the idea that “good enough is good enough,” without excessive retakes, electronic effects or pitch correction.

Everything would be recorded on a maximum of eight tracks.

DLC says he’s happy with the results. “Is it perfect?” he said, shaking his head. “No. Is it excellent? Not everything about it; though some parts of it are, I’d say, excellent. Is it entertaining? Is it the kind of thing you think you might like to hear in concert somewhere? I hope so, because that is what I was going for!”

“Dirtroad Mandolin” is available for download at iTunes, Apple, Spotify, and more than thirty other online outlets around the world, and CD is available at Amazon.

The first single from “Dirtroad Mandolin” is “Corsicana Moon”, and it is performing beyond expectations in the online download market.

DLC wrote the song after watching all the Leon Redbone videos he could find, and studying the master performer’s unique style and delivery of the sentimental classics of the past; particularly songs from the ’20s and ’30s.

“‘Corsicana Moon’ is very innocent,” DLC says. “It’s simple, almost cliched, in much of the lyrics, and the chord structure comes from several songs most people over a certain age have heard; and that’s what I wanted. There are no deep messages in it beyond the sweet excitement that comes with new-found love, and we could use more of that today.”

The spectacular retro artwork for “Corsicana Moon” was provided by DLC’s son and daughter-in-law, Coleman and Maggie Chance. “No one is better than them!” he says. “And Maggie is a certifiable artistic genius, with the world-class credits to prove it. I’m so privileged, and truly humbled, that they lend their massive talents to my modest musical efforts.”

“Corsicana Moon” is available through all the significant digital download sources.

“Dirtroad Mandolin” is DLC’s new album, and it is hitting all the significant online distribution outlets.

Why a new collection of originals? Recently, after producing an album for up-and-coming Texas singer/songwriter Morgan Lindley, DLC was inspired to dip into his own growing backlog of songs. But he wanted to keep the set as simple and organic, and acoustic, as possible; no matter how tempted he was to add piano or pedal steel or digital orchestral sweetening. Although there is a lot of variety in the results, on songs ranging from a laidback Bluegrass waltz to spry dancehall Western Swing numbers to the driving countrified Southern Rock that has been such a huge element in his body of work for many years, the primary instrumentation includes a simplified drum kit (bass, snare, hi-hat and one ride/crash cymbal), acoustic/electric bass guitar, and two acoustic 6-string guitars — with dobro, mandolin, fiddle and banjo to give the individual songs their own unique flavors. The only person on the CD besides DLC is his wife, Sharon, who provides backup vocals on several songs.

“After playing what someone else wanted for so long,” he says, “and playing it their way, I decided before I started it that this set was going to be what I want. The way I want to play it. Will everyone like it? Of course not. Is it perfect? Nope. Is it pretty good? I think so!”

The first radio single from “Dirtroad Mandolin”, released mainly to internet radio stations across Europe, was “They Caught Geronimo”, and DLC was very satisfied with how it has done. “I’m not out to compete with the big boys at the top of the mainstream charts,” he says. “And I deliberately stayed as far away from the modern sound of what they’re calling ‘country music’ as possible. Playing all those fills and leads on acoustic guitar took a lot of practice, too; just to get a sound that’s as energetic as it would be on electric guitars. It was almost like taking up a new instrument — and I recorded a dozen or so cover songs before starting the new album just learning how to work with that sound. But I think the results on ‘Dirtroad Mandolin’ are worth all that practice time.”