* 13 October, 1946 in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania.

It is certainly not for lack of talent or devotion to her craft that this soulful, gravely-voiced singer never lived up to the predictions of superstardom and mountains of hype that Columbia Records buried her under shortly after she was signed to the label by legendary producer Billy Sherrill in 1979. Dalton is, in fact, one of the most singularly gifted vocalists to  hit Music Row after Wanda Jackson and before Wynonna  Judd. As the Country Music Foundation's  Country on Compact Disc noted: 'Her wounded and smoky voice is a thing of wonder - an instrument that matches George Jones' clenched-teeth moaning for sheer drama".

Dalton was born Jill Byrem, in rural Pennsylvania, and as a child dreamed of someday being a great painter. She ended up majoring in art for a  while at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, before  moving on to California where she tried  her hand both as a  folk singer and as  the lead for a rock 'n' roll  band.

Dalton had kicked around the California music scene for quite  a few years, married, had a child, and was  well into her early 30's before backing into country music. Her proverbial 'big break' came when a record she'd made with her own money landed on the desk of Billy Sherrill, then one of Nashville's most  powerful producer/star-makers.

Sherrill loved what he heard, and hoped to break Dalton (whose voice is often  reminiscent of the late Janis Joplin's) as a sort of  female Outlaw: a rough and rowdy feminine  counter-part to Willie & Waylon.

Though Dalton (who was the Academy of  Country Music's Top Female Vocalist in 1980) never  became the sort of honky-tonk/country-rock diva that Sherrill had in mind, she did score a number of Top Tens for the label, including '16th Avenue', 'Takin' It Easy', 'Everybody Makes Mistakes' and ' Hard Times'.

Her hits trailed off by the mid-80's but she found  success with the short-lived klabel Universal, where she had a Top-20 record with 'The Heart'. Moving over to Capitol after Universal folded, she scored  another Top 20 in 1990 with the dramatic single, 'Black Coffee'. But after several albums with minimal chart success, she was dropped by the label.