Len Dallas thrills Barefoot audience

ELIZABETHTOWN – The Barefoot Bash held March 1 started at 6 p.m. and lasted until 10 p.m. as the Barefoot’s Sandwich Shoppe served dinner and a show with country singer Len Dallas.

Dallas was billed as the Man who made Barefoot Brew Coffee & Goody’s headache powder an everyday meal. A quiet and mild-mannered country boy who labels himself a “redneck” has mastered the art of singing the old country songs.

His smooth, deep, gravely voice sounds somewhere between George Strait and Waylon Jennings. As he got up to do Strait’s song, “Amarillo by morning,” you’d have thought he was channeling the well-known country singer.

Dallas grew up near Bladenboro in Dublin, North Carolina. Growing up in Dublin and asked if he was Irish, he smiles that half-grin country smile and says, “Nope. I’m redneck.”

He graduated from the original Tar Heel High School and then went on a whimsical adventure.

“After high school I started chasin’ music dreams and other stuff, runnin’ out of Nashville,” he said. “When I got burned out on that I would work construction.”

Dallas has done some album work for MCA and DECCA, and his sole genre has been the old country.

“I do only Main Street country,” he said. “I do anything Conway Twitty, George Strait, George Young and I do all covers. Bill Anderson told me back in 1987, ‘There’s three things you can do. You can write, you can play or you can sing. Figure out what you want to be great at and pick it out. I mean, I took piano lessons, bass and drum lessons and of course I play guitar. I love playing, but I love singing more.”

Dallas, who was in a massive car accident three years ago come June and he had seven broken ribs and the accident left his hand crushed. He has since recovered, but he momentarily put his guitar down and sings with all background tracks.

“I use a lot of tracks,” he said. “The reason I do that is because people want to hear music the way they heard it the first time. Like Alabama or Conway Twitty or George Strait. They remember where they were when they heard it. I try to mimic the sound of many artists.”

He said that Conway Twitty is probably his favorite singer and calls him his inspiration. When he was told he sounded like George Strait, he commented with a grin, “Well I don’t know about that, but I wish I had his money.”

“Right now, that’s all I do is play music,” he said. “I was playing five nights a week down in North Myrtle Beach until COVID hit. After COVID hit then everything slowed down. It seems like at that time, everybody went out and bought a sound system and a guitar and decided they wanted to become singers and entertainers. I mean, it’s a hard business to be in.”

The crowd of over 50 people ate good food and listened to good music – and remembered where they were when they first heard it.