On this day (October 13) in 1946, Jill Lynne Byrem was born in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. Known professionally as Lacy J. Dalton, the country singer-songwriter got a taste of mainstream success in the 1980s with sounds like “Takin’ It Easy”, “Crazy Blue Eyes”, and “16th Avenue”.
Hailed by People magazine as “country’s Bonnie Raitt”, Dalton won fans over with her gritty, powerful vocals and serious songwriting chops. While mostly absent from the country charts since the 1990s, she has continued to record and perform, collaborating with the likes of Willie Nelson, George Jones, Glen Campbell, David Allan Coe, and many others.
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Today, we’re highlighting the remarkable career of Lacy J. Dalton in honor of her 80th birthday.
Lacy J. Dalton Got Her Start as a Protest Singer
Growing up in a musical family, Lacy J. Dalton has cited folk staples like Bob Dylan and Joan Baez among her earliest influences. Due to her proximity to the Appalachian Mountains, country music also inevitably trickled in.
Following a brief stint at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, she dropped out and drifted around the country for a time — first to Los Angeles, then to Santa Cruz, where she performed as a protest-oriented folk singer. Byrem held many other jobs to support herself, including as a waitress at a truck stop.
“I waited tables from the time I was about probably 14, maybe younger, ’til I was about 36 years old,” she previously said. “I did that while I was doing my music on the side.”
During the late 1960s, she sang with the psychedelic rock band Office and married the group’s manager.
Finding Her Place in Country Music
After her husband died in a swimming pool accident, she reinvented herself as country singer Lacy J. Dalton.
Signing with Columbia Records in 1979, Dalton scored her first top 20 hit with “Crazy Blue Eyes”, which she co-wrote with longtime friend Mary McFadden. That same year, she received Top New Female Vocalist honors from the Academy of Country Music.
Two years later, she raced to number two on the Billboard Hot Country Songs with “Takin’ It Easy”, the lead single off her 1981 album of the same name. Dalton co-wrote this song with producer Billy Sherrill and his cousin, Mark.
She would score three more top 10 hits with “Everybody Makes Mistakes”, “16th Avenue”, and a 1983 cover of the Roy Orbison original “Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream)”. Dalton also duetted with Bobby Bare and George Jones on “It’s a Dirty Job” and “”Size Seven Round (Made of Gold)”, respectively.
Additionally, she opened for a host of country music’s biggest names, including Hank Williams, Jr., Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, and Charlie Daniels. In 1985, Dalton was the only female vocalist featured on Willie Nelson’s compilation album Half Nelson. Other cameos included Townes Van Zandt, Merle Haggard, Neil Young, Ray Charles, and George Jones.
Most recently, Lacy J. Dalton released Here’s To Hank, a tribute to Hank Williams Sr. She continues touring today, mostly west of the Mississippi.
[RELATED: 3 Obscure Country Bands and Musicians From the 80s I Bet You’ve Never Heard Of]
Other Ventures
In 1999, Lacy J. Dalton founded the Let ‘em Run Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to rescuing, rehabilitating and re-homing America’s wild horses and burros.
She also founded her own label, Song Dog Records.
Featured image by Paul Natkin/Getty Images
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