Singer/songwriter Daylon Wear was born in Bell County, Texas and raised in Temple, which sits just 60 miles north of Austin. He attended school in the Belton School District and graduated from Belton High. He received a music scholarship and attended Mary Hardin Baylor University, where he majored in Business and minored in Music. Daylon studied voice under Dr. Joseph Stansbury and won several regional honors in voice and choir competition. He also became a fixture in the stage and theatre scene, and received outstanding reviews in local newspapers.
For as long as Daylon can remember, he has been singing and playing music. Daylon started out playing drums at the age of 5. “My parents would get me a cheap kiddie drum set and guitar every Christmas because I would wear them out.” His older sister had all the Beatles records, and that’s what fascinated him as a young boy. 30 years later, he’s still fascinated with them, and he’s been hooked on music ever since. “I’ve always had a knack for singing and playing any instrument I picked up…I could always make up a song that didn’t sound half bad. I’m also mechanically inclined; I like to work on cars, motorcycles, lawnmowers and TV’s, and I seem to have a knack for this as well…but music is a lot cleaner!”
Music was always been a big part of the Wear family, especially on Daylon’s mother’s side of the family. Country star Bobby Helms, who recorded such hits as “You Are My Special Angel”, “Freuline” and the holiday tune “Jingle Bell Rock”, is Daylon’s first cousin. Another cousin is renowned racecar driver Kale Yarbrough, whose career flourished in the 60’s and earned him a cameo role in an Elvis Presley movie. One of the songs on Daylon’s debut album, “Fast Enough”, was written with Kale in mind.
Daylon’s public performing career started early when at the age of 11, he often sat in on drums with bands playing at a Central Texas nightclub owned by his aunt, or at a club upstairs from the bowling alley frequented by his parents. “I remember Mom getting phone calls at home to see if I could join people’s bands, but of course, she said ‘No’ I was too young.” Daylon remembers being “floored” as a youngster by country star Joe Stampley’s tunes “You’re My Soul Song” and “All These Things” that were featured on a juke box at the bowling alley. “Joe has a lot of R & B soul in his voice that blends well with country music,” he says.
As Daylon got a little older, he joined a number of different bands, “cause they all seemed to need a singer, and I passed the auditions fairly easily.” There were top-40 cover bands, original rock-n-roll bands, and even some small recording deals, but nothing national. “I seemed to hop from band to band, just having fun, and not being too serious.”
Daylon has been writing songs off and on since junior high and high school, especially after he went to the theatre and was introduced to Buddy Holly through actor Gary Busey’s performance in ‘The Buddy Holly Story.’ “Ever since that film in the late 70’s, I have been a Buddy Holly freak! I don’t know what it is, but I will go to my grave loving Buddy Holly. It’s so strange, here is someone who died long before I was born, but I feel a great closeness to him.”
It wasn’t until 1989-90 that Daylon became more serious about writing music for himself. Writing primarily on guitar and piano, Daylon would put his melodies and ideas down on tape. The resulting recordings reflected his bluesy R&B voice and his rock-n-roll influences as well as his Texas country roots. Daylon cites Charlie Rich and Ray Charles as his heaviest country influences.
Daylon’s close friend, Dennis Davis, owned a studio in Austin, Texas and gave Daylon the keys. Daylon practically lived in the studio for two years, writing and recording songs in the middle of the night. Inspired by Daylon’s move to Nashville, Dennis also moved there, where his recording work has been featured on a number of Grammy Award winning albums.
Daylon visited Nashville in late 1991 and ’92, and decided to move there in 1993 to pursue a recording contract, bringing along his manager at the time. It never occurred to him that he would land a publishing contract almost immediately after arriving. Daylon played a couple of writers’ nights and was swept under the wing of the great singer/songrwriter and actor Alex Harvey, who wrote such classics as “Delta Dawn” and “Reubin James.” Daylon and Alex penned 15 songs together, and Alex pursued a recording contract for Daylon at Capricorn, which was then under the leadership of Phil Walden. Daylon declined the contract on the advice of his manager at the time (now ex-manager) “who didn’t know how the town worked.” “I was trying to be loyal to my friend (manager), and it broke my heart, because I loved Alex and we got very close. He called me his ‘illegitimate son.’ Now we will never know what that early deal could have meant.”
Daylon’s relationship with Alex Harvey led to a five year publishing contract with Charley Pride’s Pride Music Group, with Byron Gallimore and Missi Callis at the helm of operations. Byron signed Daylon shortly after seeing him perform at Douglas Corner in Nashville. Byron was enchanted by Daylon’s voice and stage presence. “Daylon’s one of the greatest R&B singers in town,” says Gallimore. In the past Gallimore had toyed with the idea of doing a “white Lionel Richie artist thing” himself, but that later took a back seat to his own songwriting and studio engineering and production efforts, which eventually led to high acclaim as a Grammy Award winning producer of albums for Tim McGraw, Faith Hill and others. But in Daylon, Byron saw the potential to make the “white Lionel Richie artist thing” work, so he signed Daylon and told him to concentrate on writing song for himself and learning how the ‘town turns.’ Daylon was hired to sing on hundreds of demo’s around Nashville during the mid-90’s, including Faith Hill’s “Let’s Go To Vegas”, Patty Loveless’s “She Drew A Broken Heart”, Lonestar’s “Heartbroke Everyday”, and several more that turned out to be radio hits. “On the demos I would do my own ad-libbing ideas, and they would end up using those ideas on the records. Every time I would hear those songs on the radio, I said to myself ‘there’s my lick’.”
During his five year tenure at Pride, Daylon formed a strong songwriting relationship with many of Nashville’s best songwriters, which looks like a list of Nashville “Who’s Who”...Mark D. Sanders, Bill LaBounty, Tony Mullins, John Jarrard, Debi Cochran, Bob Regan, Steve Seskin, Bob DiPiero, Alex Harvey, and many more.
Although Daylon was signed to Pride as an artist with the intention of keeping all his songs for his own recording projects, he still managed to get his songs recorded by artists on the Arista, Epic, Sony, Columbia, Asylum and Warner Brothers labels.
In late 1993, Byron arranged for Daylon to do a showcase at The Ace of Clubs for Arista president Tim Dubois, after the three of them met one day for lunch. Daylon had created quite a buzz for himself around Nashville, and Byron insisted that now was the time for a showcase, although Daylon felt it might be a bit premature. Dubois missed the show when he had to fly to Texas for the opening of the new Arista/Tejas label in Austin, Texas with Cameron Randall. Dubois did come to a rehearsal prior to the Ace of Clubs showcase and liked what he saw, but a deal never came out of it.
Shortly after Daylon’s the Ace of Clubs showcase, another of up-and-coming producer Byron Gallimore’s recording projects, then-unknown artist Tim McGraw, took off and
Sold millions. During the next four years, Tim became a mega-star. Unfortunately for Daylon, McGraw’s career became Gallimore’s first priority, and Daylon was put on the “back burner.” Byron and Daylon still had high regard for one another, and whenever possible they continued to work together in the studio, recording demos at odd time, sometimes in the middle of the night. “We learned a lot from each other in the studio, and I can hear things in the McGraw records that we were toying with in my own song demos.”
By his fifth year with Pride Music Group, the publishing company was sold to Warner-Chappell, leaving Daylon without a deal or income for a year. “I was depressed that year. I think I slept on the couch the whole year, and it was a blur who I was even dating. It gave me some time to visit my folks in Texas.” Around this time, Daylon started putting together a trio/band artist deal on the advice of a songwriting partner and Sony exec Doug Johnson. The idea was to do what BlackHawk did; Daylon knew the band well and had written and recorded demos with them. So Daylon put together a rock-country trio act consisting of famed guitarist John Staehely (Robert Palmer, Bob Dylan), and bassist George Hawkins Jr. (Kenny Loggins, Richard Marx). They landed a production deal with Byron Gallimore, who was by now a successful producer for Tim McGraw. “It was perfect timing…we could go in the studio and cut a few sides so Byron could shop it and get a full blown record budget, and we would also have the opportunity to open shows with Tim McGraw when he was with Breakfast Table Management.” Oddly enough, bassist Hawkins had committed to an upcoming three-month tour in Japan that he could not cancel, “which put a damper on the excitement of the whole thing.” Although they had a written contract with Gallimore, Daylon and John Staehely decided to proceed without Hawkins, the contract was terminated, and a verbal agreement was struck with Gallimore to reform the trio when a replacement for Hawkins was found.
Time went by, and the trio was briefly filled out with singer-songwriter Ken Preuitt, whose claim to fame was his acting role in Travis Tritt’s video “Ten Feet Tall and Bullet Proof.” But the band didn’t have the same spark. In one last effort to get the trio thing off the ground, Staehely and Wear went to Austin, Texas to enlist the help of Hamstein Music (ZZ Top), where Staehely had made contacts during his work with Bad Company. Things were moving slow, and one surprising phone call from manager/producer Ben Ewing was all it took to convince Daylon to return to Nashville and pursue a solo career.
Ben Ewing, Daylon’s former manager and producer, discovered Daylon via a tape of demo recordings. He contacted Byron Gallimore and they agreed to pursue a major recording deal for Daylon. Ben then immediately phoned Daylon, flew to Texas and signed him on the spot to a management and production contract.
Ewing and Gallimore went in the studio and remixed three of Daylon’s songs that he had previously cut with Gallimore. While shopping the three song demo for major deal in Nashville, Ewing landed a major publishing deal for Daylon with Warner-Tamerlane (Warner-Chappell) and a booking deal under the umbrella of the Bobby Roberts Agency (Ewing-Roberts Agency).
Still without a major recording contract, manager Ben Ewing decided and record and produce Daylon’s first album, Texas Twister, and release it on his own independent label, EnvoyDiscs. Ben released a test single to radio,”What She’s Doing in Denver,” which to their surprise charted at position #70 in Gavin and picked up three adds on mainstream country radio stations, as well as airplay on several secondary stations across the U.S. The song received a great single review in Billboard Magazine and the album received an excellent review in Billboard as well by music critic Chet Flippo. The single also received high praise from Nashville’s respected music critic Robert Oermann (Music Row Magazine), plus other positive articles and interviews in regional media. That one brilliant move by manager Ben Ewing led to a merchandising deal via web-site and a national recording contract with Bob Freese (formerly of Epic/Sony), president of Freefalls Entertainment. Daylon’s label mates include Willie Nelson, Billy Joe Shaver, Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings, Billy Burnette, Highway 101, Shenandoah, Lee Greenwood, and Americana newcomer Pat Haney. Daylon penned three songs with Pat for Haney’s debut album “Wrong Rite of Passage” and also played drums, bass, acoustic, electric guitar and sang harmony on many of the tracks.
Freefalls Entertainment released Daylon’s “Texas Twister” album May 8, 2001 under a co-branding agreement with Envoy, and it is distributed throughout the U.S. and Canada by Navarre.
Daylon resides in Nashville with his wife of six years, Andrea Rabak.