Make Music Knoxville

Roland Dixon

Roland Dixon is a Knoxville, Tennessee songwriter writing in the weathered, literary, bleakly funny tradition where Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, and the old murder-ballad songbook meet. Across four albums and a steady run of singles, his songs lean toward the kind of plain devotion that doesn't apologize for itself — about jobs, houses, the people who stop calling, the dogs who don't. Songs For Dogs, out May 29, 2026 on Happy Day Records, is his fourth full-length and the follow-up to 2024's Gasoline Man!. Lead single "Is It Worth A Try," a duet with Knoxville singer Sarrenna, premiered in April 2025 and previewed the album's preoccupations: loyalty, leaving, and what stays after you do. The dog-thread that ran through recent singles ("Why Does the Dogbird Sing About...") opens here into a full album about devotion and departure, among other things. Dixon has performed on WDVX 89.9's Blue Plate Special and tours East Tennessee and the wider Southeast solo and with a small rotating cast