Wednesday, August 4, 2010

A LEGEND IN HIS OWN TIME


The Smiles That Blossom From Vern Dailey Have Roots In Pain


For as long as most of his friends can remember, Vern Dailey has been “the legendary Vern Dailey.”


It makes you wonder: How long does a legend get to be a legend? Vern has been one for decades now.


Most of Vern’s legendary activities probably don’t show up when you Google him. Still, you get a lot of highlights when you key in this 80-year-old’s name.


Vern was a star on local Dallas TV. While not as well known as Jerry Haynes, Mr. Peppermint of “The Mr. Peppermint Show,” Vern was likely the main reason kids tuned in for almost 35 years. Nothing against the human half of the team, but what made the show were the puppets, and what made Muffin the bear and the others come to life was puppeteer Vern Dailey.


Some of us, maybe most of us, didn’t grow up watching Dallas TV in the 70s. Yet, we still know Vern as the legend. It’s not because he does a cartoon page each month for County Line magazine or that he writes funny poems for Senior Voice magazine, though he does. The legend I know is a short, bespectacled, frowning curmudgeon who sits on the back row at monthly Dallas Songwriter Assoc. (DSA) meetings, cracking wise and kicking butt as a songwriter. That’s why, for the 4th time in the last 12 years, Vern is the DSA Songwriter of the Year.


Vern drives in once a month from Wills Point for the DSA meetings at the Center for Community Cooperation in Deep Ellum. Toward the end of each meeting, the group critiques and scores recorded songs that members and guests submit, normally on CD, but in Vern’s case, normally on cassette tape.


The level of talent in these critiques is always astounding. It’s amazing how many good songwriters live around here. Yet, for the most part on these Tuesday nights, their songs are like bowling pins in an alley, standing straight and proud until the Vern Dailey song bowls them over, scattering them everywhere.


Vern is not a singer. He’s not even a musician. He’s a lyricist. He typically records his songs in Garland, humming a melody and coaching singers and musicians at the studio on how to deliver them.


Vern writes hard country. You can always dance to his tunes. When you hear one, you’re probably going to smile, and if you’re not careful, you’re also going to think while listening to “Weeds in the Sandbox (Rust on the Swings),” “You’re Finally Going Out of My Mind,” “Havin’ a Blast (Getting’ Over the Past),” “Futile Attraction,” “Part-time Lovers, Full-time Fools,” “You Broke It, You Fix It” and many others.


Although Vern can write from any perspective—male, female, young, old—there are qualities to his songs that mark them. They ought to play on a beer joint jukebox. They have humor and pathos, and somewhere in the song, there’s going to be that turn of phrase that you wish you’d written. His songs are consistently good. He’s a songwriter’s songwriter.


Vern says he never knows when a song will come. “A phrase will come to me; someone says something and I hear a song title. I’m a nut for playing on words, you know. I’ll be out mowing the lawn and suddenly get an idea, and if I don’t stop, I lose it.”


Vern’s got a notebook or two full of song titles waiting for songs, and that’s how a song usually starts with Vern; he gets a song title, or a rhyme.


Most of Vern’s songs have been recorded at McClain’s Recording in Garland. “You know, I usually have a tune in mind from the meter. I’m humming it,” Vern said. “Or, sometimes I’ll pick up a co-writer, and they’ll make changes, and of course they always make it better.


“I like to write songs for women more than I like to write them for guys, for some reason, but I’ve always had a romantic side to me. You know I’ve been married and widowed twice. I’ve never hurt for women,” he said.


Vern says he became a songwriter, a puppeteer, a cartoonist, a poet and who knows what else to help escape a tough childhood. He said he had to work hard as a boy. “No matter how hard you worked, or how much work you did, you still never did it good enough. You know, my dad was married three times, and when he died not one of his wives or kids came to his funeral. “ He shakes his head and rubs his eyes. “Those were not the good old days, but anyway, I’m writing songs, and I’ll keep writing them until I’m 100, or I get a hit.”


Vern is one of the stalwarts of the Dallas Songwriters Association, which was formed in the early 1980s from the Texas Music Association. It has almost 200 members who are published or unpublished, recorded or not. All music styles and age groups are welcome. The DSA has song swaps twice a month for which members meet at a restaurant and coffee shop to play and sing their songs-in-progress for feedback from fellow songwriters, plus a monthly meeting and a monthly open mic. Find out more about the DSA at HYPERLINK "http://www.dallassongwriters.org" www.dallassongwriters.org.


Anyone can come to any DSA function, but if you want to hear a Vern Dailey song, you need to come to 2nd Tuesday Regular Meeting, every second Tuesday of the year except for the one in August. That’s when the legendary Vern Dailey takes a break.


Thursday, May 6, 2010

CHILDREN’S SONGWRITER WINS ANNUAL DALLAS SONG CONTEST TOP PRIZE



Lanny Sherwin’s songs take grand prize, sweep Novelty/Children’s category
Dallas Songwriters Assoc. Announces Winners at Dallas International Guitar Festival
DALLAS (April 17)—The Novelty/Children’s category delivered the grand prize winner for the first time in the 20-year history of the Annual Dallas Song Contest, the Dallas Songwriter’s Assoc. (DSA) announced today.
Lanny Sherwin, president of Sandman Records, swept the Novelty/Children’s category with first, second and third place wins. His top winner was “I Can’t Rhyme,” taking first place in the category as well as grand prize for the overall contest. In the song Sherwin cleverly doesn’t rhyme disease/wasps, any more/window, mad/upset, time/sound the same. You expect to hear bees, door, glad and rhyme, but he fools and delights you every time.
Sherwin, who lives in Santa Barbara, Calif., won a Tradition S200 Gold Top electric guitar featuring a pair of PAF humbucker pickups, a “killer guitar” according to Tradition President Rusty Bickford. He presented the S200 Gold Top today to the DSA’s Steve Sullivan and Buck Morgan during the 33rd annual Dallas International Guitar Festival.
“If you visit us in Fort Worth, you’ll see that our company is made up of guitar and bass players, so we like to stay close to the musician,” said Bickford. “We have a lot of love and admiration for good songwriting and love the thought of someone writing a great song with one of our guitars.”
Other grand prizes included a Premier Demo by Beaird Music Group, one of Nashville’s top recording facilities, and a one-year Primo MoB membership with Broadjam, the on-line resource company and web community for musicians.
Noel Cohen of New York took first runner up with “Delete,” which also won the Pop/Rock/Alt/R&B category. Country winner “Some Things You Don’t Throw Away” by Claire Ulanoff and Will Hopkins of Nashville took second runner up.
Cohen won a day of free recording at River Sound Recording Studio and a night in Merlin’s Cabin, both nestled along the Llano River on the back of a 300 acre ranch in the Texas Hill Country. He also won a one-year Broadjam Primo MoB membership.
The team of Ulanoff and Hopkins won a song demo/consultation by Kim Copeland of Kim Copeland Productions. Kim’s work as a Nashville producer consistently receives rave reviews. They also won a one-year Broadjam Primo MoB membership.
All first place category winners won $100, a one-year Broadjam MoB membership and a year’s membership in the DSA. Second place winners won $50 and a year’s DSA membership, and third place finishers won a DSA membership.
Other categories and their winners were:
Americana, “Stonewall” by Ward Parker, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Christian/Inspirational, “Hard and Unforgiving” by Scott Tonkinson, Chandler, Ariz.
Instrumental, “Wanderings” by John Visconti, Merrick, N.Y.
Love Songs/Easy Listening, “That Ain’t Me” by Claire Ulanoff and Will Hopkins
Singer/Songwriter, “Photographs” by Noel Cohen
Music Video, “Get Your Clothes On” by Peter Bacsalmasi, Calgary, Alberta.
“It’s always rewarding work to be involved in the Dallas Song Contest,” said the DSA’s Morgan. “Without the generosity of our sponsors and judges, none of it would be possible.”
Contest judges this year were David Card of Poor David’s Pub, Dallas, Christian producer Randy Adams, children’s performer Deborah Poppink, artist manager Marty Rendelman, Mike Hall of Uncle Calvin’s, Dallas, Bart Weiss of Dallas Video Festival, film and advertising composer John Bryant, and hit songwriter Allan Rhody. Roy Elkins, CEO of Broadjam.com, was grand prize judge.
Additional sponsors included Crystal Clear Sound, Patrick McGuire Recording and WM Sales/Cam Audio. Submission partners were Broadjam.com and Sonicbids. Music industry partners were Dallas International Guitar Festival, Arlington Guitar Show, Texas Music Group, Bar-b Music Marketing Consultants, Musemuse.com, Sante Fe Design, Austin Songwriters Group and DIFS.
Dallas Songwriters Assoc. is a 501c3 non-profit organization dedicated to providing information about the craft and business of songwriting. All styles of music are welcome in the DSA, and membership includes writers of all ages. DSA monthly activities include meetings with guest speakers, song critiques and performance showcases that are open to the public. In addition, the DSA supports and promotes workshops and contests and publishes a monthly newsletter. For more information, visit www.dallassongwriters.org.