Deborah Dalton was born in the shadows of the Appalachian Mountains in the east Tennessee valley, and raised in Austin, Texas. "Both of my grandfathers were so completely into music. My Papa Dalton played bluegrass harp, and my mom's dad was a big fan of jazz." There hasn't been a time in her life when music wasn't important -- when instruments weren't scattered all over the house. In earlier days, thanks to her pianist mother, that included Deborah's own viola and flute. Inspired by the words of Walt Whitman, Gabrielle Garcia Marquez, James Joyce, Studs Terkel, and songwriters and bands too numerous to mention, Deborah began writing when she was just a child. Barely out of her teens, she ventured to Los Angeles where, she says, "I learned to write. It was all I did for a long time. Beautiful Southern California days, but I was always at the library or in the coffee shops on Melrose Blvd." It was a work of Deborah's fiction that prompted a television writer friend of hers to suggest that she try writing for Hollywood (that piece of fiction eventually evolved into Deborah's rock tune, Another Day in L.A.). Two dramatic scripts later, I'll Fly Away and Northern Exposure, and the William Morris Agency signed her as a writer. But Deborah quickly realized it was the short form that most inspired her soul, not the screenplays and TV scripts Hollywood was looking for. To pay the bills, Deborah worked for Warner Bros. Records. While there she met influential artists such as Neil Young and Don Henley, and innovators like Perry Farrell of Jane's Addiction and Lollapalooza fame. She even worked as an administrative assistant for Lenny Waronker, then president of Warner Bros. Records. Deborah feels that there are no accidents, and that her time at Warner Bros. helped prepare her for the business side of music. Something she never could have planned on, but is eternally grateful for. In 1996 Deborah moved to the east coast where she fronted the band Extra Large. Her favorite show was Thursday nights at the Vauxhall Tavern in Union, New Jersey: a red-vinyl, smoky club where she had intimate after-hours conversations with the gregarious clientele, one of them the daughter of the late Billie Holiday's driver. Guest artists would often sit in with the band, local bluesmen and soul performers. "Every one of them memorable." That experience made her decision to return to Texas a difficult one, but Deborah wanted to record and perform her original pop-folk music back home in Austin. And she wanted to work with her brother, Todd Dalton, a talented drummer who at the time was performing with the band VilleNova, also out of Austin. (Ross Jackson, skilled on both electric and upright bass, rounds out Deborah's rhythm section. "I feel blessed to have a solid rhythm section in the band - everything else is icing.") Angered and saddened by the dragging death of James Byrd, Jr. in Jasper, Texas in June of 1998, Deborah is trying to organize a music festival of hope & tolerance with the James Byrd Jr. Foundation out of Houston. If all goes according to plan, she'd like to see the festival slated for August of 2003. Currently in the studio, Riley Osbourn is producing Deborah's latest songs. In addition, Larry Chaney, John Inmon, Frosty and others are lending their musical talents to the project -- the CD is scheduled for release in the summer of 2003.