Devin Dawson Tried Buying His Own Album…But Was Denied!

It’s an exciting moment for any new artist: their debut album is about to be released.

By kncitom on January 22, 2018
devin dawson
(Photo by Anna Webber/Getty Images for CMT)

By Tom Mailey

It’s an exciting moment for any new artist: their debut album is about to be released. All the years of hard work, dedication and uncertainty are narrowed down to one fine day when your music is finally available to the masses. It’s literally a dream come true.

Just, don’t try to cheat that street date.

Devin Dawson and his band had finished playing a show in Los Angeles the night before his critically -acclaimed debut release, Dark Horse, was to go on sale. It was still a couple hours until midnight but they decided to see if they could purchase it ahead of time anyway, and stopped by the legendary LA record store, Amoeba Music.

“I walk in and my name is on the list of the January 19th, like, new releases list”, he said while standing in the new Elk Grove Wal-Mart, where he’d just purchased the album for the first time, for real (see below, with a KNCI listener he bought an album for as well. Generous guy!)

“And I was like, hey, I know it’s not midnight yet but when do you guys stock this? And he said ‘well, not until tomorrow morning’.” Undeterred, Devin pressed on.

“Well, my name’s Devin Dawson and my name’s on the list right there and I was like, can you find the record somewhere?” The employee went upstairs and came back down with a vinyl copy–which Devin didn’t even know they made–but still refused to sell it, noting that it’s actually a crime to “break the street date”, i.e., sell an album before its official release date.

“I was like, this is me, on the back! This is my face. I think you can let me buy my own music.” Devin chuckled, adding, “but he was just doing his job.” There was nothing left to do but get back on the bus and head up to Sacramento, where he had a sold-out show the next night at Goldfield’s.

Devin says he’s a big believer in everything happening for a reason, so… having to wait until he actually returned to his home turf to buy his own music was just, apparently, the cosmos’ way of working things out.

What’s he going to do with that new album? And, how has being from Sacramento shaped him as a country artist? Check out the full interview, below. And congrats, Devin! Norcal is proud to have another artist making it on the national scene.

 

 

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