Dede Day, who grew up in Chehalis, will return Saturday to the Southwest Washington Fairgrounds' Community Events building for a free hometown record release concert at 7 p.m.
Joining her during the performance will be her band, Music School Dropouts.
Day feels strongly about her reasons for releasing her compact disc at home.
"I'm always telling people I grew up in a community that knew I sang and that encouraged me," she said. "Never in my life has anyone ever told me 'You can't do that.' That kind of support is why I'm so excited that I get to do it (release her CD) in my hometown."
Called "Bad," the CD contains 11 songs including the title cut, in which Day sings to the man in her life, a born heartbreaker making her "wanna be bad."
Day co-wrote many of the lyrics on the CD, and did so with the help of a number of other writers. The songs recorded on Day's new release take her from being bad, to being vulnerable, to recognizing too late that a lost love was "better than perfect"
In "The Dreamers" she sings: "Here's to all the dreamers and all you true believers who find the heart to keep the faith alive. Yeah you fight the fight and don't give up. You never once depend on luck. You always keep your hopes set high,. Here's to the dreamers."
Day even dedicated her Ettafied Records CD to "All the Dreamers" who helped her make it a reality.
She also credits the finished product to those who produced, engineered and mixed the CD, and pays special homage to band members Mike Whitehead on acoustic and electric guitar, John Mason on bass, Mike Bailey on drums and Steve Frey on lead guitar.
Classically trained, Day said she and her band perform "blues/country/rock" music. They play mostly in a number of songwriters' haunts in and around Nashville, and also call their music "Y'allternative," a style she describes as high-energy country rock.
In an earlier Chronicle interview, Day said she wrote her first song at the age of 10. She had this to say about that early song: "It had no bridge and had really dorky verses, but it was just my way of getting through, my way of coping."
In spite of the song, called "The Both Of You," Day said the divorce of her parents hasn't caused her any lasting trauma because she has maintained a close relationship with both parents, Don and Debby Day, who together had two children, Don and Dede.
Don remarried and had two other children — Dallas and Destiny. Debby never remarried.
"As a child, Dede was very spirited," said Debby, the woman Dede thinks of as a hero. "I mean that in a good way. She always cared about people and was also very goal oriented. She's known since the fifth or sixth grade what we wanted to do with her life."
Before retiring from Security State Bank, Debby Day had worked as a vice president of the bank's trust department. She has now become Dede's financial adviser, and also lives in Nashville. Day credits her mother with molding her wit and character.
She credits her father with unknowingly lighting the songwriting fire in her heart. She recalls going on trail rides with her father and brother in which her father would sing the popular songs of the time. To the amusement of his children, Don could never remember the words, so he made them up as he went along.
Nearly a decade ago, Day moved to Nashville. She said in that earlier interview, "I didn't know Nashville existed except through 'Hee Haw.' "
Today, she said, it's like being a kid in a candy store.
Day has rented a condominium in which she operates her business office, and has some interesting things to say about that office suite.
"It's at Spence Manor on Music Row, which used to be a hotel," said Day. "The building has a guitar-shaped pool and my office is actually in the old Elvis Presley suite in room 604. The vibes in that room are amazing, and it's where I write most of the time.
"I was painting the walls," she continued, "and I swear that 'Bad' (the title song) was channeled to me because it just started coming out faster than I could find something to write on."
After finally getting "Bad" down on paper, Day took her melody and lyrics to fellow songwriters Chas Sanford and Charles Judge, who helped her smooth out any rough spots.
"Sometimes a song is more one person than another, but it's all equal in the end. That song would not have been what it is without them," said Day.
Pat Jones covers arts and entertainment and lifestyle stories for The Chronicle. She may be reached by e-mail at pjones@chronline.com, or by telephoning 807-8226.
