Biography

Combining his favorite aspects of the country music of old alongside some serious 80’s indie-pop influences, Don DiLego has managed to carve out a sound that is at once both nostalgic in it’s Americana leanings and modern in it’s approach to creating a sonic landscape. Ripe with reverb, detuned guitars, banjo, and pedal steel, DiLego’s most recent recordings seem to fully realize what he began exploring on his first release, The Lonestar Hitchhiker, in 2001. In the spring of 2016, DiLego announced his latest solo release, Magnificent Ram A, and a subsequent signing to One Little Indian. Culminating in a few years of scattered writing amongst other production duties and tours, he secluded himself to his Velvet Elk Studios to complete the record in Nov of 2015, and committed to it being his most ambitious release to date. Once again self-producing, he enlisted the musicians that have formed the core of his band over the last couple records, including Gregg Williams on drums and engineering (Blitzen Trapper, Dandy Warhols, Sheryl Crow), Paul Garisto (Psychedelic Furs, Iggy Pop), and songwriting partner Erik Olsen on bass. Portland’s Paul Brainard (Blitzen Trapper, M.Ward, Eels) glued much of the sound together with pedal steel and horn arrangements. DiLego released Magnificent Ram A in July 2016. He currently has a new single from Velvet Elk / One Little Indian called "Different Man."