As Pat Dailey recalled the beginning of his musical career, he said he felt like a fake songwriter at the time. But, as he wrote songs with the well-known songwriter and children’s author Shel Silverstein, he said Silverstein convinced him that he was, in fact, a real songwriter.
Dailey first began playing music with the high-school band he put together, he said.
“I just always had an urge to be on stage,” Dailey said. “My dad was kind of in the entertainment business, but he didn’t want me to go into it because it’s not very stable.”
So after high school, Dailey went into the Marine Corps. When he got out, he had to find a way to provide for a wife and baby.
“I put in applications and got hired as a police officer,” Dailey said. “But I soon realized that I couldn’t be a serious police officer. I put on the uniform, looked in the mirror and said, ‘Ha! I look like a police officer,’ and kind of laughed. Then I realized I was a real one.”
Since then, Dailey has traveled throughout the United States as a full-time musician. He now resides on Put-in-Bay, the place that gives inspiration to many of his songs.
Track five on the American Red Cross “Red, White & You Too!” benefit CD, “Great Lakes Song,” took inspiration from a different yet similar place.
“Great Lakes Song was inspired by a trip I took up all through Michigan,” Dailey said. “That’s what inspired the song and made me fall in love with the place. Now because of that song, I’ve been able to travel all throughout the lakes on big oar boats.”
