Dave Sheriff
Country and Irish Singer Songwriter
10
top 50
39
songs
2.7K
plays
Show all (39)
Albums
Donegal Time (words music by Dave Sheriff)
Show all videos (21)
DAVE SHERIFF was born in the heart of the country on the Doverdale Estate near Droitwich in Worcestershire, England where his father worked as a gamekeeper. The family then moved to the Reading area in Berkshire where Dave made his first public appearance at Bradfield Village Hall back in 1958 playing the harmonica, beginning a lifetime fascination of playing musical instruments. He was educated at Chiltern Edge Secondary Modern School, Sonning Common where he was an active member of the school choir.
After teaching himself to play the drums, he progressed to guitar, and then started playing all three instruments together to become a very popular club act, and a world famous One Man Band having no less than nine entries in the Guinness Book of Records between 1982 and 1989. This led to TV appearances in Hilversum Holland, Rome Italy and Helsinki Finland as well as two appearances with Roy Castle on BBC TVs 'Record Breakers' in London, and personal appearances on the European Record Breakers tour in Grenoble France, Fak am see Austria and Copenhagen, Denmark.
During the 1970s, he worked as a session musician playing harmonica and keyboards on TV shows with Kelvin Henderson and Pete Sayers and whilst working at the prestigious
Wembley Country Music Festivals in London, worked with top American Country Artistes Don Gibson, Dennis 'McCloud' Weaver, Ronnie Prophet, Carole Baker, Dave & Sugar and the Nashville Superpickers which included Lloyd Green, Charlie McCoy, Johnny Gimble and Pig Robbins and led to more TV appearances on the BBC series 'Sing Country' from Snape Maltings in Suffolk.
He also toured with 'Cowboys Sweetheart' Patsy Montana and Country legend Slim Whitman on his 1977 tour which included major theatres in the UK and finished at the London
Palladium.
In the 1980s, Dave was 'discovered' playing at a Midlands talent showcase by entrepreneur
Bernie Burgess (an ex member of the legendary Jones Boys) who molded his 'one man band' musical act into that of a polished cabaret performer. It was thanks to Bernie that Dave
received the 'Midlands Musical Entertainer' award at the New Cresta Club in Solihull in 1981
Another TV appearance followed in 1984 when he was cast as Country Singer 'Whispering Fred Jones' in the long running ITV soap 'Emmerdale Farm'
He began writing and recording in 1991 and his debut CD album
One Man Band Extraordinaire, which contained sixteen of his own songs, was awarded
Best Album at the 1993 UK Country Music Radio Awards.
Finding it almost impossible to get a recording deal, he decided to form his own recording and publishing company Stomp Music, and now has an impressive catalogue of CDs containing the many songs he has written.
Dave has recorded many of his songs in Nashville, working with the very musicians responsible for creating that very distinctive 'Nashville Sound' - Pig Robbins, Buddy Spicher, Pete Wade, Leon Rhodes and Buddy Emmons have all contributed to Dave's music and the legendary 'Jordanaires' who can be heard providing background vocals on so many hit records from artistes such as Elvis Presley, Patsy Cline, Marty Robbins and Jim Reeves, can also be heard on Dave's albums including a duet with the late Grand Ole Opry star Porter Wagoner.
The highlight of Daves career has to be singing at the world famous Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, USA where he was invited to appear in June 2000 by Porter Wagoner - the performance can now be seen on YouTube by searching for dave sheriff grand ole opry
More recently , many of the top Irish stars including Frank McCaffrey, Ann Breen
Robert Mizzell, Declan Nerney, Michael English, Philomena Begley & Stephen Smyth have all enjoyed great success with Daves songs
Available for bookings in the UK & Ireland - Call Dave direct on+44 7931 741741Band/artist history
Professional touring artist since 1972Have you performed in front of an audience?Grand Ole Opry Nashville June 2000 at the invitation of Porter Wagoner
Your musical influences
Gene Watson, Ronnie Milsap, Alan Jackson, Charlie Landsborough, Raymond Froggatt and Kenny JohnsonWhat equipment do you use?
Yamaha PSR S950 Keyboard, Fender Telecaster guitar, Bose L1 Sound SystemREAD MORE
READ LESS
Contact
Please sign up or log in to contact the artist.
Sign up
Log in
Comments (1)
Wow I'm the first to comment. Covid has been relentless. This is a great write Dave, and the presentation is spot on. Enjoyed the listen.
Promoted
Not related to artist