Donald Allen Dixon (born December 13, 1950) is an American record producer, songwriter, and musician. 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. 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." He shared lead vocals, played the bass, and also wrote songs. Before breaking up in 1983, Arrogance became North Carolina's top local act. 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." Richard Barone (formerly of the Bongos), Guadalcanal Diary, and Marshall Crenshaw.
Dixon met with Nirvana as a potential producer for Nevermind.
Solo artist
Dixon became a solo performer in 1983. This album reflected his love of classic pop melodies and spiky, Nick Lowe-inspired word play. 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.
After four years, he released The Invisible Man (2000), an album about mortality, with songs from the viewpoints of people of various ages. Note Pad #38 in 2001 was an odds–and–ends collection of unreleased material from his solo career. In 2014, Dixon released High & Filthy & Borderline, based on the lives of a male and a female assassin.
Collaborations
Dixon and wife Marti Jones released the download-only album Lucky Stars: New Lullabies for Old Souls in 2008.
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. 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."
- Dixon appeared onstage in the musical King Mackerel & the Blues Are Running: Songs & Stories of the North Carolina Coast, co-created with Jim Wann (Pump Boys and Dinettes) and Bland Simpson (Red Clay Ramblers)
Publications
In 2009, a book of his song lyrics, Songs 101: the Lyrics of Don Dixon, was published by VanZeno Press.
Personal life
While producing for A&M Records, Dixon met singer/artist Marti Jones who was from Uniontown, Ohio. The couple have a daughter, born in 1991. 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.
Discography
Studio albums
- 1985: Most of the Girls Like to Dance but Only Some of the Boys Like To (Enigma Records)
- 1984: Beat Rodeo – Staying Out Late with…Beat Rodeo (I.R.S. Records)
- 1985: Marti Jones – Unsophisticated Time (A&M Records)
- 1985: The Windbreakers – Terminal (Mark Records/Minotauro)
- 1985: Marti Jones – Match Game (A&M Records)
- 1986: Mathew Sweet – Inside (Columbia Records)
- 1987: Marshall Crenshaw – Mary Jean & 9 Others (Warner Bros.)
- 1988: Marti Jones – Used Guitars (A&M Records)
- 1990: Marti Jones – Any Kind of Lie (RCA Records)
- 1997: Pat DiNizio – Songs and Sounds (Velvet Records)
- 1998: Kyle Davis – Raising Heroes (N2K Encoded Music)
- 1999: astroPuppees – Pet (High Tone Records)
- 1999: Robert Crenshaw – Full-Length Stereo Recordings (Gadfly)
- 1999: The Smithereens – God Save the Smithereens (Koch Records)
- 2000: Mark Bryan – Thirty on the Rail (Atlantic Records)
- 2000: Robert Crenshaw – Victory Songs (Gadfly)
- 2000: Kyle Davis – Don't Tell the World (KIk Records)
- 2000: Ruth Gerson – Fools & Kings (The Orchard)
- 2000: Carrie Newcomer – The Age of Possibility (Rounder Records)
- 2000: The Pinetops – Above Ground and Vertical (Soundproof/Monolyth)
- 2001: The Orange Humble Band – Humblin' Across America (Half A Cow)
- 2001: Red Clay Ramblers – Yonder (RCA)
- 2002: Marti Jones – My Tidy Doily Dream (Dixon Archival Records)
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|The Accelerators
|The Accelerators
|Profile Records
|1987
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|Richard Barone
|Primal Dream
|Paradox/MCA Records
|1990
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|Mark Bryan
|30 On A Rail
|Atlantic Records
|2000
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|The Buzz of Delight
|Sound Castles
|DB Records
|1984
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|Kim Carnes
|Gypsy Honeymoon
|EMI
|1993
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|The Carpenter Ants
|Picnic with the Lord
|Alpo Records
|2000
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|The Carpenter Ants
|Insect Ball
|Alpo Records
|2004
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|The Carpenter Ants
|Ants in Your Pants
|Alpo Records
|2005
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|The Carpenter Ants
|Ants & Uncles
|Alpo Records
|2012
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|David Childers
|Run Skeleton Run
|Ramseur Records
|2017
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|John Cody
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|Duke Street Records/MCA Canada
|2012
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|The Connells
|Darker Days
|TVT Records
|1985
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|Contenders
|The Contenders
|Gadfly
|2002
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|Marshall Crenshaw
|Mary Jean & 9 Others
|Warner Bros.
|1987
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|Kyle Davis
|Raising Heroes
|N2K Encoded Music
|1998
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|Pat DiNizio
|Songs And Sounds
|VelVel/BMG Records
|1997
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|Don Dixon
|Most of The Girls Like To Dance...But Only Some of the Boys Do
|Mega DK / Demon UK / Enigma US
|1985
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|emmet swimming
|Arlington To Boston
|Epic Records/Sony
|1996
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|The Fabulous Knobs
|The Fabulous Knobs
|Moonlight
|1980
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|Fast Annie
|Unsafe at Any Speed
|Chelsea Records
|1976
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|Dip Ferrell
|Unplugged House Party
|CB Baby / Patman & Robin
|2012
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|Dip Ferrell & The Truetones
|Central Avenue
|Arcade Records
|2009
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|Fetchin Bones || Cabin Flounder || DB Records || 1984
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|Fetchin Bones || Bad Pumpkin || Capitol || 1985
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|Fetchin Bones
|Galaxie 500
|DB Records / Capitol
|1987
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|Moxy Früvous
|Thornhill
|Bottom Line / BMG Records
|1999
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|Ruth Gerson
|Fools & Kings
|Orc
|2000
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|Gin Blossoms
|Mixed Reality
|Cleopatra Records
|2018
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|The Graphic
|People in Glass
|Dolphin Music
|1984
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|Greer
|Between Two Worlds
|Sugarbush
|1973
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|Guadalcanal Diary|| Walking in the Shadow of the Big Man|| DB Records|| 1984
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|Guadalcanal Diary || 2x4|| Elektra|| 1987
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|Guadalcanal Diary || Flip-Flop || Elektra Records |Elektra|| 1989
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|The Hangups
|Second Story
|Restless Records / BMG Records
|1999
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|Hey Mavis
|Red Wine
|Self-Release
|2010
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|Hey Mavis
|Honey Man
|Self-Release
|2013
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|Red Clay Ramblers || Yonder|| RCR Records || 2001
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|The Reivers
|Saturday
|DB/Capitol
|1987
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|R.E.M.|| Murmur || I.R.S. Records|| 1983
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|Snagglepuss
|Parading Around in the Altogether
|Coolidge Records
|2003
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|Surfaholics
|Tiki-A-Go-Go
|Pixler Discs
|2020
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|Matthew Sweet
|Inside
|Columbia
|1986
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|Treva
|Better Late than Never
|Avert
|1999
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|US Secret Service
|US Secret Service
|Moonlight
|1980
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|Volatile Baby
|Traveling Light
|SilverMeteor
|2006
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|Jim Wann
|Sings Johnny Mercer; Pardon My Southern Accent vol 1
|Creekmore
|2002
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|Wednesday Week || What We Had || Enigma || 1987
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|The Windbreakers
|Terminal
|Mark Records / Minotauro
|1985
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|X-teens
|Eponymous
|Dolphin Music
|1982
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|Blood Incarnation
|Timewave Zero
|Century Media Records
|2022
|cover art
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|Bop Dead
|Where Robots Go to Die
|Fishhead Records
|1997
|mixing
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|Rosanne Cash
|She Remembers Everything
|Blue Note Records
|2018
|photography
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|David Clayton-Thomas
|A Blues for the New World
|ILS Group
|2013
|cover photo
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|David Clayton-Thomas
|Canadiana
|Antoinette / Linus Entertainment
|2016
|photography
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|Joe Cocker
|Night Calls
|Capital Records
|1992
|composer
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|Joe Cocker
|Heart & Soul
|EMI
|2004
|composer
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|Marshall Crenshaw
|Live: My Truck is My Home
|Razor & Tie
|1994
|composer
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|Counting Crows
|August and Everything After: Live at Town Hall
|Eagle Records
|2011
|composer
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|Mike Cross
|Bounty Hunter
|Sugar Hill Records
|1979
|engineer, remixer
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|Escape from Earth
|Three Seconds Test
|Cupcake
|2004
|cover art
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|Feedbag
|Stickfigure
|Monolyth
|1998
|mixer
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|Gee Dawg 'n' Joe Boy
|They Don't Understand
|Menace Entertainment
|1996
|engineer
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|The Golden Palominos
|Blast of Silence
|Charly Records
|1986
|composer
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|The Golden Palominos
|Surrealistic Surfer
|Dressed to Kill
|2001
|composer
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|The Golden Palominos
|Run Pony Run: An Essential Collection
|Full 2000
|2002
|composer
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|Michael Kaeshammer
|Something New
|Linus Records
|2018
|photography
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|Michael Kaeshammer
|No Filter
|Idia
|2017
|photography
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|Fred Koller
|Sweet Baby Fred
|Appaloosa
|1998
|composer
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|Bill Mulls
|Dreamland
|The Orchard
|1999
|composer
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|Amy Rigby
|Little Fugitive
|Signature Sounds Recordings
|2005
|audio engineer, mixing
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|Robin Rogers
|Treat Me Right
|Blind Pig Records
|2008
|horn arrangements
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|Ronnie Spector
|Unfinished Business
|Lemon Recordings
|1987
|composer
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| The Spongetones|| Odd Fellows||Gadfly Records
|2000
|sequences
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|Sally Spring
|Made of Starrs
|Sniffinpup Record
|2010
|tray photographs
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|Sue Thompson
|Golden Classic
|Collectibles
|1995
|composer
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|Daniel Whittington
|Taking You Home
|Daniel Whittington / Rhodes
|2010
|mixing
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