Don Alan Dixon[1] (born December 13, 1950) is an American record producer, songwriter, and musician.[2] He is considered to be one of the key producers of what is called the jangle pop movement of the early 1980s, including working with R.E.M. and The Smithereens.[3][4]
Dixon was born in Lancaster, South Carolina.[2] He says he learned to play the bass guitar in junior high school "because of the control that it offered".[5] He said, "I bought a bass, one of those great Danelectro Silvertones, and I wish I had it back. From Sears for $79. Then a few months later I really liked upright, so I found an old upright in a church in Charlotte, and just was sort of self-taught on those things, but I could read music."[5] At the age of fifteen, he made his first recording, playing upright bass with jazz musician Louis McGloughn in Charlotte, North Carolina.[3][5] He also sang in church.[3]
Dixon attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-Chapel Hill), where his roommate was the writer Bruce Brooks.[3][2]
Dixon and several fellow freshmen at the UNC-Chapel Hill formed the band Arrogance.[6] He shared lead vocals, played the bass, and also wrote songs.[6] Arrogance recorded six albums and helped create a local music scene.[7][6][8] Before breaking up in 1983, Arrogance became North Carolina's top local act.[9] Dixon spent thirteen years as a member of Arrogance and learned the essence of record production during this time, producing all of the band's independent albums.[9] He says, "Even though Arrogance never made it big nationally, we did play all over the eastern part of the country and we did release six albums. In fact, we really did help pioneer the independent approach to putting out albums in the '70s. …We took it upon ourselves to play original music in clubs, to force club owners and audiences to realize that new music doesn't have to come from someplace else."[9]
Dixon was still playing with Arrogance in 1982 when Mitch Easter asked him to co-produce R.E.M.'s debut LP Murmur and their 1984 follow–up LP Reckoning.[9] Dixon and Easter are credited in the Reckoning liner notes as "Machinists".[9] Dixon says, "We thought R.E.M. had a neat, unique thing, and we wanted to protect it and allow it to grow without putting it in that pressure to sell as many records as possible. We didn't feel we had to change their arrangements that much, because they were eccentric enough already. We did add an underpinning, a substrata to hold it together and make it sound like something more than just another guitar, bass and drums band. There's all kinds of found art on those records: slowed-down tapes of them playing pool, noises coming in and out, additional guitars. It's not like we sat around and talked about it for months; we did it as we did it, which is still my approach to producing."[9]
Dixon then spent several years producing artists such as Chris Stamey (formerly of The dB's), The Smithereens, Fetchin Bones, Richard Barone (formerly of The Bongos), Guadalcanal Diary, and Marshall Crenshaw.[9][10] Tommy Keene's Run Now EP is considered to be a highlight of this era of Dixon's work.[4]
Dixon met with Nirvana as a potential producer for Nevermind.[11] According to Dixon, both the label and the band were agreeable to the collaboration.[11] Dixon said, "I loved these demos that he [Gary Gersh of Geffen Records] sent me and I flew out days after I got my first cassette. They still didn’t have words for ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit.’ ‘Lithium’ was done and it was almost exactly like it is on the record. They sent me four or five songs, I loved them and I thought it was great. So I went out and spent some time in Tacoma. It looked like it was going to happen and then I asked for too much money—well, me and my people did."[11] However, Dixon concludes, “I was really sad that I didn't get to make the record, because I liked those songs, but I think Butch [Vig] probably made a better record than I would have. I wouldn't have made him doubletrack his voice."[11]
Working with Easter at Fidelitorium Recordings in Kernersville, North Carolina, Dixon produced Mixed Reality, the sixth studio album by American alternative rock band Gin Blossoms.[12] It was released on June 15, 2018, on Cleopatra Records.[12]
Dixon became a solo performer in 1983.[8] In 1985, success as a producer led to Dixon's solo debut Most of the Girls Like to Dance But Only Some of the Boys Like To, a collection of early demos.[13] This album reflected his love of classic pop melodies and spiky, Nick Lowe-inspired word play.[14] In 1987, Dixon recorded Romeo at Juilliard described as Big Star–style power pop. Chi-Town Budget Show (1988) was a recording of a Chicago's Park West nightclub broadcast.[13] In 1989, his album EEE featured the Uptown Horns.[14]
In 1992 Restless Records released a Don Dixon "Best Of" album entitled (If) I'm A Ham, Well You're A Sausage.[13] In 1995, after taking time off to raise a family, Dixon released Romantic Depressive, a somewhat darker–themed album.[14] In 1996, he produced the original cast recording of King Mackerel & The Blues Are Running (Songs And Stories of the Carolina Coast) which featured Bland Simpson (Red Clay Ramblers) and author/composer Jim Wann.[15]
After four years, he released The Invisible Man (2000), an album about mortality, with songs from the viewpoints of people of various ages.[16] Note Pad #38 in 2001 was an odds–and–ends collection of unreleased material from his solo career.[14] In 2006, he released The Entire Combustible World in One Small Room, a concept album revolving around rooms in a house.[17] In 2014, Dixon released High & Filthy & Borderline, based on the lives of a male and a female assassin.[11][18]
Dixon and wife Marti Jones released the download-only album Lucky Stars: New Lullabies for Old Souls in 2008.[19] A departure from their previous sound, this project began as a request from a friend who was putting together an album of lullabies to sell in hospitals to new parents.[19] The album featured six songs with vocals and five instrumentals.[19]
Although Dixon and his wife Marti Jones have collaborated on each other's albums for years, in 2011 they released Living Stereo, their first proper duet album.[11] On June 23, 2011, they played a five-song set together on NPR's Mountain Stage.[20] Dixon says, "It's really a pleasure working with Marti because we have a lot of common sensibilities. When we get a nice creative thing going, it keeps on going without little stumbling blocks. It ends up being challenging without being frustrating."[9]
In 2008, Dixon released The Nu-Look with The Jump Rabbits, his bandmates of more than 20 years: Jamie Hoover of The Spongetones and Jim Brock.[21][8]
Around 2009, Dixon began playing bass with Mary Chapin Carpenter’s touring band.[22][20]
In 2009, a book of his song lyrics, Songs 101: the Lyrics of Don Dixon, was published by VanZeno Press.[25]
While producing for A&M Records, Dixon met singer/artist Marti Jones who was from Uniontown, Ohio.[22] Dixon said, "We became friends while working on her first album, Unsophisticated Time. Good platonic friends, not just professional friends. Later on, after that first record was released, I realized that I wanted to be with her all the time."[22] They married in 1988.[26] The couple have a daughter, born in 1991.[22] The family lives in Canton, Ohio.[22]
In 2001, Dixon suffered a heart attack while running with his wife near their home in Canton. As he was uninsured, having purposely let it laps a few months earlier, Dixon incurred a sizeable medical bill from his hospital visit.[27] In July 2001, an R.E.M. tribute show at Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, North Carolina, doubled as a benefit for Dixon, to help defray the medical costs.[28]