David Dyer & The Crooked Smile Band

Courtesy Birgetta Wheeler of the News & Observer
In his every gesture – eyes fervently closing, sure fingers working the guitar, toes tapping its open case – David Dyer displays how deeply he feels the words he is singing, words that he believes God gave him in whole songs of praise and healing. For the longtime musician and award-winning songwriter, creating music usually is a piecemeal matter of combining hooks he can’t get out of his head with a line here or a melody there. But the 10 original songs on “Taproot,” the third CD from Dyer and his Crooked Smile Band, were gifts with no assembly required.

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Veteran Musician’s Roots-Gospel Album “Taproot” To Benefit Inner-City Youth Groups

The boys in the Crooked Smile Band ain’t no spring chickens. With ages in the five-piece, fourteen-year old Americana group ranging from 41 to 62, these guys have definitely been around the block. “We’ve all been playing most of our lives and come from very diverse musical backgrounds. It keeps things interesting because we all bring a different slant to the compositions,” says David Dyer, principal songwriter and founder of the group. “Yet one thing we have in common is a deep love for making music.”

Gratitude and praise are elemental components of the group’s latest record, a collection of rootsy-gospel tunes titled, “Taproot.” It all began in the fall of 2007 when Bernie (Petteway, the band’s lead guitarist and son of the late Methodist Minister Warren Petteway), invited David to attend a bible-study in which he was involved. “At least part of why I went was because Bernie is a fabulous guitarist and at the time was only playing with us now and then. I thought this might be a good way to endear myself to him and get him in the band full-time. Five years of bible-study later, I guess it’s safe to say God had a bit more in mind.”

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• Recording with Grammy and Oscar award-winning producer, Scott Mathews.
• Sharing vocal duties with Shana Morrison (daughter of Van) during multiple studio sessions.
• You Don’t Shake Me (Crossroads Grocery) is licensed for repeat use on ABC’s World News Tonight.
• Three songs from Crossroads Grocery (Ustacould #13, They Don’t Know What They’ve Got #23, Big JES #25) make extended appearances on the European Country HotDisc Chart Top 40.
• Notable festival and venue appearances across the southeast: Lazy Daze Arts & Crafts Festival, Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival, Carousel Festival, Mumfest, Blooming Festival, Greenville Sunday in the Park, NC Museum Of Art, Fletcher Opera Theatre, Nash Arts Center.

David Glenn Dyer has definitely found his musical niche. He’s a singer-songwriter who’s quite comfy in the burgeoning Americana genre.  Dyer isn’t flying solo, however. He’s been working with his band — The Crooked Smile Band — for several years, and he’s been working his last album, Crossroads Grocery, since 2004.

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North Carolina-based David Glenn Dyer is a storyteller who delivers a wholesome blend of
country infused roots-rock on CROSSROADS GROCERY, his first solo album. Over the years he has played with a variety bluegrass, country and rock bands and currently performs both as a solo artist and with his Raleigh-based group, David Dyer and the Crooked Smile Band.

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David Glenn Dyer from the Carolinas has been making his own unique style of country and
roots music for the past thirty-odd years, but it was only late last year that he got around to releasing his first solo album. CROSSROADS GROCERY is a compelling collection of rural life vignettes set to inventive musical arrangements and sung in a seasoned vocal styling.

“I’ve been doing [this] for a long time now.” David explains “I was very young when I first
started with the acoustic guitar and in the early days played in a bluegrass band.

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