Since the release of his previous album, “Photographs of 1971,” Don DiLego … Read Full Bio ↴Since the release of his previous album, “Photographs of 1971,” Don DiLego has produced and released two EPs as Beautiful Small Machines with his long-time musical partner Bree Sharp (which included a guest appearance by Duran Duran’s Simon Le Bon), penned a soundtrack to the feature film “Ranchero”, and helped co-write many of the songs that would appear on Jesse Malin’s “Love it To Life” album. During that same “interim” period, he also played on the Light of Day Tour in Europe, which traveled to over 10 countries sharing the stage with Malin, Marah, Willie Nile, and for a brief fleeting moment, even Bruce Springsteen.

At the beginning of 2010, Don joined Jesse Malin & the St. Mark’s Social and set out on the road with Gaslight Anthem and later Gogol Bordello to begin support of the new album. But soon the inspiration of new songs would begin to pour in, and after returning home, it was back to the writing process again at his wooded escape, Velvet Elk Studios. The “Western & Atlantic EP” was born of a week of isolation in a Portland recording studio called The Secret Society, with Don enlisting Colin Killilea (Yost/Pocketknife) and Marwan Kanafani (City Breathing) as multi-instrumentalists, Gregg Williams (Dandy Warhols, Sheryl Crow) on drums, and longtime songwriting partner and bassist Erik Olsen. The result is a what-you-hear-is what-you-get sort of affair, with everything being tracked live in a room...a highlight of which was an unlikely one-take cover of The Replacements “Here Comes a Regular.” Mixing was done in Charlottesville’s White Star Sound and at the Velvet Elk Studios. But what started out as one album, became two, and upon the release of the Atlantic & Western EP, Don is right back at work finishing the full-length “Magnificent Ram A”. Whereas “Western” is more along the lines of the eclectic soundscape that Don has become known for, “Magnificent Ram A” is it’s alienated older cousin. And so it goes.

Don has released three...check that...now four solo albums, the last of which was the well-received Photographs of 1971 (Velvet Elk Records), until his recent July 2012 release of The Western & Atlantic EP on Velvet Elk. His first two albums, “The Lonestar Hitchhiker (Universal/Kingcuts)” and “The Lonestar Companion (Velvet Elk Records)” were also well-lauded for their retro-twang storytelling.

Recent Press for Western & Atlantic:

From the EP's opener, the slide guitar driven Midnight Train to the final track, the intimate Carry On he touches base with Jeff Tweedy and Howe Gelb. Television Sun starts like an outtake of Neil Young's Harvest Moon before evolving into a road movie theme song that could have been written by Steve Earle. - Here Comes The Flood
Mesmerizes and enlightens. - CD Insight
I know what I like, and I like his new EP "Western & Atlantic", coming out next week on the excellently named Velvet Elk label. - 27Leggies UK

DiLego is cut from the same cloth as performers like Wilco and the Avett Brothers—his songs take country ballads one step beyond their obvious conclusion, yielding a genre-bending hybrid of indie rock and country. - Examiner.com (Elizabeth Rowe)
The seven songs on this EP can qualitatively be with the best americana we’ve heard this year...an album on Jayhawks/Jeff Tweedy level. - Heaven Magazine (Netherlands)

Hymn One
Don DiLego Lyrics

We have lyrics for these tracks by Don DiLego:

A Wishful Poem Can you hear the old folks talking? Can you hear their…
At the Texaco Words are catching up with you The night it brings the…
August 18 1805 This day I completed my 31st year I reflected I had…
Automatic Is everybody here out to get me? What's that ringing in…
Blue Avenue Far away, where the angels all stay Who do you want…
Border Song I thought the world Was letting me down And leaving was just…
California She's awake now, and I want to be buried in…
Chicago Goodbye Now I'm leaving these long lines I'm headed for the …
Dreamin' There's a bible in the road And it's open to the…

Drive Like Pirates Oh, stand and deliver Until the morning carries you home Try…
Election All we are is all we are Something in the way…
Falling Into Space You swallowed my face When you kissed me today It was sweet…
Ghosts Ghosts in the middle of the night are walking Ghosts in…
Go Pack Your Suitcase Go pack your suitcase Now we've got to go back home And…
Goodnight Aliens Goodnight, aliens Goodnight to all my frantic friends With …
I'm on Fire I'm gotta set my soul afire And I'm gonna make it…
Lonely Couples I've been watching, lonely couples And I've been breathing, …
Lonestar Hitchhiker Would you like to take a drive Take me for a…
Midnight Train And I'm riding on a midnight train To cover my sins,…
Mister Goodwill Mister Goodwill lived uninspired by the way he was He liked…
My Misery is a Fairy Tale My misery Is waiting for company Is waiting for somebody to …
New Road There was a moment that I had Somehow found a drink…
Nicotine Prom Queen Lemonade is the price you've paid for your lazy days Starin…
Ohio Fight Song Here at my home is what I know, is what…
Ol' Hank Williams Well Ol' Hank Williams, found his voice again Beneath the wh…
Swimming in Trees Eleven-eighteen and I'm still in bed It's all I can do…
Television Sun I see you in, the strangest light around As the bombs…
The City or The War You're like a cigarette, out on a motorbike (Straight) Down …
The Holiday I will cherish all the scars That sail into my arms And…
The Last Desperado Desperado, you're my hero Riding horses made of clay The riv…
The Vegas Man! It's Vegas! And it's keeping me awake at night I'm blinded b…

Up in Smoke Heaven doesn't need you now Go back and take a second…

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