Don Dixon

Among the foremost producers to arise from the early-'80s American underground jangle-pop scene, Don Dixon also cultivated a devoted cult audience for his own recordings. Born in North Carolina, he spent more than ten years in relative anonymity playing with the obscure band Arrogance until he first drew widespread attention in 1983 by co-producing R.E.M.’s debut album Murmur alongside Mitch Easter. Additional sessions for Chris Stamey’s It’s a Wonderful Life, the Windbreakers’ Terminal, and Tommy Keene’s Run Now further established his standing with jangle-pop enthusiasts. In 1985 Dixon issued his own first solo album, Most of the Girls Like to Dance But Only Some of the Boys Do, an outing that underscored his affinity for timeless pop songcraft and the barbed lyrical style associated with Nick Lowe. Following his production of wife Marti Jones’s Unsophisticated Time, he delivered the 1987 solo set Romeo at Juilliard and the concert recording Chi-Town Budget Show the next year. After releasing EEE in 1989, Dixon largely stepped away from recording for several years, concentrating instead on production work for the Smithereens, Richard Barone, and James McMurtry, until the appearance of Romantic Depressive in 1995. A second extended break ended with the early-2000 arrival of The Invisible Man, succeeded in 2001 by Note Pad #38 and, in summer 2006, by Entire Combustible World in One Small Room.