By Martie LaCasse
When invited to visit with her and given the facts of Misty Dawn’s life and early career in music, you may expect to meet a comfortably retired recording artist surrounded by her awards and album covers, in a luxurious gated community somewhere with a glorious ocean view.
You’d be wrong.
You would instead meet a petite, dark-haired bundle of positive energy, with a buoyant spirit, and not at all ready to dwell on her past achievements.
The Historic Rialto Theater is sponsoring a tribute titled, “The Dawn of the Rose,” for Misty Dawn, at 2 p.m. Sunday at the theater on Florence’s Main Street. Misty Dawn is planning to take the stage at the end of the tribute to harmonize with one of “her kids,” Julie Andreas, on a song written by Misty Dawn.
Five bands will participate in the afternoon tribute, including Voices of the Canyon, Symthe and Taylor, Adam Ashley, The Honest Few, and Acme Bluegrass.
Misty Dawn was born in Osage, Arkansas, the 13th in a musical family of 14 children.
“When I was three years old, Dad took me to the local country store and sat me on the counter,” she said. “I sang as the customers came in and out. The store owner put a tin cup beside me and people would drop nickels and dimes in. When I understood what that cup and those coins were about, I told Dad that I was going to be a singer.”
At three, she already knew what being a singer meant.
“My Mother and Dad sang and both played a lot of instruments,” she said. “My eight brothers and four sisters played instruments and sang, as well.”
By the time Misty Dawn came along, some of her older siblings were already performing in church and professionally at local events and in local bars. Her brothers, Jimmy and Jesse Youngblood had a Bluegrass radio program in the 60s. Two older brothers and a younger brother had professional careers playing and singing with nationally known stars such as Conway Twitty and Lorretta Linn. Her older sister still works with Bluegrass groups in Arkansas.
Misty Dawn’s mother was 16 when she married her 17-year-old boyfriend. It was her mother who brought a background in music to the relationship. She sang and taught her young husband to play several instruments and subsequently taught her children.
“I was sneaking into bars with my older sibling when I was 14 years old, just to sing on stage,” Misty Dawn said. “The owners would let me perform with my siblings the early part of the evening, but make me leave at 9 p.m. because that is when things would start to get loud and rough. I never drank alcohol or had an interest in drugs. I was just there to sing. My family was known as bluegrass, folk and country musicians, so when there was a need for a musician anywhere in our region, they’d be called. I was harmonizing at 5 and started writing songs at 9 years of age.”
By the time Misty Dawn became an adult, she was writing and performing her own songs and had begun touring to entertain troops on military posts in the four-state area of Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Missouri. She also toured the whole United States, Europe and Canada frequently.
Her first manager recorded her under the name Michelle D’Lou, in 1974.
“That was his idea,” she says. “I don’t even know how to write that name. My family name was Youngblood, but I’ve always worked, performed and recorded as Misty Dawn.”
In 1998, after more than three decades in the business, Dawn did her last European Tour.
“At that time I had two albums in the top 20 charts worldwide and one at number 24 in Europe,” she said. “I had an album in the works when I came down with a tremendous problem with my throat. But, I was determined to finish that album and eventually, I recovered and I did finish.”
When Misty Dawn came off “the road,” it was not to a gated retirement community with an ocean view, but to her adobe home in the high desert of Fremont County. It was not her intention to actually retire from the music business, either. Two years earlier in 1996, she had built her own recording studio on to that adobe home, with “help from a lot of local musicians.”
And a year previous to that, she had also started her own independent record label, Rocky Mountain Country Music Association Records (RMCMA Records), and a music publishing company, BMI publishing. She has also organized a nonprofit.
Misty Dawn built the studio so she could record her family’s music. She wanted all of her large musical family to have CDs to share with succeeding generations and friends. She also wanted to help other musicians get their songs “out there.”
It is a good thing that she did not build the studio for her music alone because she has since found out, that as a music producer, she “doesn’t like herself that well as a recording client.” But, she has always been open to working with other artists. Her recording studio has two song booths. She currently works with over 30 artists.
“I get more enjoyment working with other artists to get their songs published, recorded, and heard than I do working on my own music,” she said.
She does, however, write music and lyrics every day.
“I have to write every day,” she said.
Misty Dawn first started the independent label, to get her songs in front of managers of independent radio stations, but like the recording studio, it has become a vehicle for the work of other artists, as well.
“There are a lot of independent radio stations, that are good exposure for independent artists,” she said.
Another strategy she favors for beginning artists, to get more consistent air time, is to record on compilation albums. An album of only one artist may have only one or two big songs on it. After the popularity of those songs has run its course then the album is finished at that station. With compilation albums where a group of several artists records several songs each, an artist has a better chance of keeping his name in front of the DJs and the public. It is a way for an independent artist to keep their name out there all the time. Currently Misty Dawn is working on a compilation CD with 12 Colorado artists, including local artist, Rusty Ellis.
Misty Dawn founded the Colorado Country Music Association (CCMA) a Colorado 501(c)3, which provides a platform for a state-wide talent competition every year. The 22nd annual statewide talent competition for the CCMA was held at the Gibson mansion Ball Room.
Giving away the 100 awards the Association sponsors every year is another special pleasure for Misty Dawn.
Charlie Hall and his mother, Hazel, started the Cañon Rose Acoustic Society. Misty Dawn became the Society’s booking agent a few years later and has done the job for 20-plus years. The Society just recently shut down when their venue was closed.
“I love people and love music so doing booking is an ideal job for me,” she said. “For the past 22 years, I have arranged the musical talent for the Fremont County Fair and provided several artists for the Colorado State Fair. “
She also has taught songwriting classes and workshops to enhance on-stage presence. To be an entertainer, an artist can’t just stand and sing. Misty Dawn believes that there is more to it than that, and enjoys teaching others.
Misty Dawn has CDs circulating all the time and enters a lot of songwriting competitions regularly. She has won many songwriting awards, which brings her the most joy.
“If it’s music I’m there,” she said.
The young artists that she has taken through the recording process she refers to as “her kids.”
Though she has children and grandchildren, her musical family is very close to her heart. Only three of her 13 siblings are alive today.
“Our family reunions were about food and music,” she said. “I always chose music over the food. I’ve been honored to know and work with some tremendous artists. I‘ve known Allison Krause since she was four years old. She could harmonize beautifully even then. My favorite artist to work with was Tom T. Hall. He was a precious person. I opened for him on tour several times. Once he needed someone to harmonize with him, and he said, ‘Misty, I bet coming from that big family of musicians you can harmonize.’ And, next thing I knew I was on stage harmonizing with him. Once at a songwriting workshop Bill Anderson asked me who my favorite songwriter
was. I looked up at him, and said, ‘Well, I can’t recall his name exactly, but he’s a tall fellow and I think they call him Bill.’”
Misty Dawn likes to laugh, and that is another pleasure of working with all the artists she knows.
“There’s always a lot of joking and teasing,” she said. “Music is everything to me. It’s gotten me through many hard times, bad relationships and cancer twice.”
Tickets for Sunday’s tribute are $10 each and are available at Big D’s Florence, City Market in Cañon City, online at www.historicrialtotheater.org and at the box office on the night of the show.
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