Dave Gleason

Dave Gleason’s robust, outlaw-rooted sound traces its roots to the countercultural ferment of classic Nashville, where anti-war songwriters such as Willie Nelson turned country music into a vehicle for political statements. Representing the third generation of guitarists in his family to perform in the San Francisco area, Gleason followed a grandfather who played strictly for pleasure and a father who performed with several country-rock ensembles. Shaped by that lineage as well as the concurrent rise of hard rock, he cultivated an idiosyncratic take on the form and fused the contrasting influences in his songwriting. The outcome, Wasted Glory, came out in 2002.