D.W. DeHart - Nashville TN - Songwriter

Nashville — January 2009

Seems likely the launch of this website might get lost in the shuffle of history given the upcoming inauguration of a new President. Fine by me. I voted for much needed change. That said, welcome.

Pale Sorghum Lo-fi Blues was recorded here in Nashville and independently released as an EP in late 2007 and then again back in October as a full-length CD. The idea to get into the studio and record began with the song Slow. For several years I had wanted to write a song that captured memories of visiting my great grandmother, Big Mama, in what is still tiny Catlett, VA. Slow just wrote itself one day and as the imagery in it stems from personal recollection I figured I had to sing it. So I did. And ultimately added the nine other tracks that became PSLB. Big Mama’s house is the one pictured in the CD cover artwork. Both my mother and grandmother were born there. The house still stands. I think now it has running water.

Time’s a’ Wastin’ is equally significant to me as a writer. This track is rooted in the experience of visiting a cemetery nestled back in a hollow (this is true — not just website hyperbole) in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina where the DeHart name is carved into stone. Not much grass grows from the red clay there. Few visitors pay respects. It is a place forlorn if not forgotten.

The other tracks you can figure out for yourself. Not much else to say about them really. Faded was started in a Montgomery, Alabama hotel room; Rte. 11 Breakdown at a rest area off I-81 in the Shenandoah Valley. Generally, I hope the songs take you where they take me: someplace south of the Mason Dixon. Someplace past. I dedicated the work to my great grandmother Eva “Big Mama” Noland. She sure seemed big all those years ago. Turns out she was only about 5’4.” Somehow she got smaller with time.

This site is simple, deliberately so. But you can hear the tunes and maybe decide to support independent music and download a track. Hell, go wild — download two. After you add songs to your collection there’s some cool people ya oughta know. So check out the links over on the right and visit with them awhile.

Thanks for dropping by and…

peace,