Biography
Audiences familiar with singer/songwriter Pat Dailey arrive expecting a predictable evening of familiar signals that prompt crowd involvement, along with his playful banter and a set list heavy on numbers about fish, Ohio, drinking, and romance, plus pointed jabs aimed at his perceived Florida counterpart, Jimmy Buffett. Occasionally an intrepid listener will ask for a Buffett selection, only to have Dailey deftly steer clear and pivot back to his own catalog of aquatic tunes or perhaps a humorous bar-themed novelty. That consistent appeal has sustained steady employment across the calendar, centered primarily between Put-in-Bay, Ohio, and Key West, Florida; for nearly ten years he has filled every one of his roughly forty annual concerts and supplemented those dates with nearly one hundred additional club appearances. The same crowds bestowed on him the ironic title “the Jimmy Buffett of the North,” even though he has long voiced a tongue-in-cheek distaste for the comparison.
A native of Nebraska, Dailey first stepped onto stages while still in high school, leading his own combo, Pat & the K-Tones, at local functions and sock hops until graduation sent him into the Marines. He continued performing throughout his enlistment, accompanying himself on acoustic guitar with current hits. In 1960 military orders took him to Hawaii, where he was positioned as the opening act for the popular Hawaiian singer Don Ho. After leaving the service he spent years on the road; by the close of the decade he was a regular at Shipwreck Kelly’s in Chicago and also worked rooms in Las Vegas, Phoenix, Steamboat Springs, and Seattle. He eventually anchored himself in California’s Marin County, making a sailboat his residence between national engagements. Later he gravitated toward Cleveland and the Great Lakes, establishing a loyal following on Put-in-Bay, where he has headlined summer weekends at the Beer Barrel Saloon since the late 1970s and has also held more than fifteen winter residencies at Sloppy Joe’s in Key West.
In 1984 the noted songwriter, author, and poet Shel Silverstein, who spent winters in Key West, caught one of Dailey’s sets and proposed a collaboration that lasted until Silverstein’s death in 1999. Silverstein’s earlier credits include the country smash “A Boy Named Sue” for Johnny Cash and the Irish Rovers’ “The Unicorn Song,” among many others. The Dailey–Silverstein partnership produced “Vermilion,” “On the Water,” “The Great Lakes Song,” “Ugly Feet,” “Walleye Willie,” and “Blue Catawba Moon.”
A native of Nebraska, Dailey first stepped onto stages while still in high school, leading his own combo, Pat & the K-Tones, at local functions and sock hops until graduation sent him into the Marines. He continued performing throughout his enlistment, accompanying himself on acoustic guitar with current hits. In 1960 military orders took him to Hawaii, where he was positioned as the opening act for the popular Hawaiian singer Don Ho. After leaving the service he spent years on the road; by the close of the decade he was a regular at Shipwreck Kelly’s in Chicago and also worked rooms in Las Vegas, Phoenix, Steamboat Springs, and Seattle. He eventually anchored himself in California’s Marin County, making a sailboat his residence between national engagements. Later he gravitated toward Cleveland and the Great Lakes, establishing a loyal following on Put-in-Bay, where he has headlined summer weekends at the Beer Barrel Saloon since the late 1970s and has also held more than fifteen winter residencies at Sloppy Joe’s in Key West.
In 1984 the noted songwriter, author, and poet Shel Silverstein, who spent winters in Key West, caught one of Dailey’s sets and proposed a collaboration that lasted until Silverstein’s death in 1999. Silverstein’s earlier credits include the country smash “A Boy Named Sue” for Johnny Cash and the Irish Rovers’ “The Unicorn Song,” among many others. The Dailey–Silverstein partnership produced “Vermilion,” “On the Water,” “The Great Lakes Song,” “Ugly Feet,” “Walleye Willie,” and “Blue Catawba Moon.”
Albums
