Gabe Dixon

From Wikipedia:

Gabe Dixon (born December 7, 1977) is an American musician. He began his career in the Nashville-based country band Six Shooter. Between 1998 and 2010, he was the lead singer of The Gabe Dixon Band. Since the band’s break-up, Dixon has worked as a solo artist. He has released two studio albums, One Spark (2011) and Turns to Gold (2016), and one live album, Live In Boston (2017). He is also the founder of the label Rolling Ball Records.

As of 2019, Dixon is on tour with the Tedeschi Trucks Band. His original tour with the band was scheduled into 2020, but it was postponed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Dixon has since released three singles across 2020: “Smoke Clears”, “Bend The Curve” and “New Year Just With You,” and he published his latest album, “Lay It On Me,” in 2021.

Career

Beginnings and The Gabe Dixon Band

Gabe Dixon started early studying piano influenced by Billy Joel and Elton John. While studying at University of Miami, in 1998, he formed the four-piece band The Gabe Dixon Band alongside drummer Jano Rix, bassist Winston Harrison and alto saxophonist Chandler Webber. He worked with producer/engineer Eddie Kramer to independently release their debut album, More Than It Would Seem. Upon graduation from the University of Miami, the band relocated to New York City and were signed to Reprise by David Kahne.

Dixon played keyboards and sang backing vocals on Paul McCartney’s 2001 album, Driving Rain. Dixon also performed live with McCartney at the Concert For New York City, a September 11 fundraiser. McCartney offered Dixon the opportunity to join his world tour, but Dixon declined citing his plans for a new album. Dixon played keyboards and kalimba with Loggins & Messina on their Live: Sittin’ In Again at the Santa Barbara Bowl concert which was recorded and released on CD and DVD in 2005. […]

From Concord Music Group:

Formed nine years ago by Dixon – then a classical piano major at the University of Miami – and his two college roommates, bassist Winston Harrison and drummer Jano Rix, the [The Gabe Dixon Band] added a sax player and spent several years specializing in jazz-inflected, heavily improvised excursions, showcasing the virtuosity of the players. Dixon’s elevated chops also led to some high-profile moonlighting: along with performing with Alison Krauss, O.A.R. and others, the talented youngster played keyboards on Paul McCartney’s Driving Rain, while also backing the great one at the internationally broadcast “Concert For New York City.” McCartney offered him the keyboard slot for his world tour, but Gabe respectfully turned him down to focus his energies on his band’s then-yet-to-be-released Warner Bros. debut.

At what point did you end up collaborating with Paul McCartney, and what was he like to work with?

Our producer happened to be producing Paul’s album Driving Rain in the same studio the following month. He heard me record an organ pass in the studio and came back in and was like, “Man, you’re really good! Wanna play on the next Paul McCartney album?” And I was like, “What do you think?”So that’s how it started and I got to spend six weeks recording with him, plus perform with him at the Concert for New York City [following 9/11]. He’s a very warm, caring, and funny individual, and not to sound weird, but he’s just one of those people who almost seems to glow whenever you’re around him. One of the one main regrets I have of not going out on tour with him was because he was such a great guy to be around. I wish I could’ve hung out more around him.

So why did you turn him down? How do you say no to touring with Paul McCartney?

It was not an easy decision, but after the Concert for New York City, my band’s record was about to come out and there were a ton of dates booked. All along I really thought it was a great experience to record [with Paul], but I never intended to do anything beyond that. So I was faced with this decision where I felt like I needed to decide what do with life, and I asked myself things like What brings me alive inside? and What am I called to do? I prayed a lot about that decision for sure. Prayer is a big part of my life today and always has been. I prayed about it a great deal and tried to listen for an answer, so that when I finally made the decision, I knew it was the right one. I had guidance, realizing that I was given gifts as singer and songwriter, as well as an opportunity with a major record label to follow my bliss.

Gabe Dixon – Interview with CrossWalk, August 2008

We wanted to ask you about Sir Paul McCartney. You performed with him at the concert for 911, but you also were on one of his albums [Dribing Rain] Can you tell us about meeting Paul?

Oh, yeah. I got involved because our producer… We had the same producer. David Khane was producing the Gabe Dixon band album and then the very next month was producing Paul’s album. So, David asked me to play on the album. So, I got to hang out with Paul for a few weeks, uh, making a record. And the first day, I got there so early, you know, I was a little nervous, you know, he was a hero, like since I was a child, that was my favorite band. My first favorite band was the Beatles, you know. So, I’m getting there early. I’m warming up and everything. And then and walks Paul and he’s like wearing like pajama pants and he’s got like a Gibson backpacker guitar on. He’s like, “Hey man, you know, hey man.” David introduces us. “Oh, this is Gabe.” And, so he says, “Gabe, I’m so glad we’re going to be working with, you know, working with you. David played me your record. It sounds great.” So he was just immediately kind of put me at ease, you know. It was weird because it felt like meeting a cartoon character or something, you know. I mean, he literally was a cartoon character, [laughter] you know, back in the day. So, you know, for about 10 minutes, I was… I was 23 years old, you know. So for about 10 minutes, I was like, walked back into the studio after meeting him, and I was like, “God, I hope I’m up to this.” I hope I can keep my cool, man… Like, I know what I’m doing. I really do. I know what I’m doing.

But he was great to work with. I really enjoyed him. He’s such a charming dude. He carries himself with such… like levity and good naturedness and dignity. Every part of that six weeks that I got to play in a studio with him, I enjoyed all of it.

And you probably had to take kind of take yourself out of that “This is Paul McCartney. I’m talking to Paul.”

I got to be honest, it took a few weeks before it started to feel somewhat normal… It wasn’t until the second round. Like we did three weeks in February of that year and then we did three weeks in June and it was somewhere around a little about a week into the second half that I was lying on the floor in the studio just like while we were listening back to stuff and I was like “I’m used to this”, you know.

Was that before 911 cuz didn’t you get to perform with him at that concert?

It was 2001. So, yeah, that 9/11 happened a few months after we finished tracking and you know, so he tells the story where he’s sitting on the tarmac and basically kind of sees it happening. He was in New York JFK and kind of sees the building, you know, in flames and everything and he’s like, “What are we going to do?” And he sort of helped make this thing come together. He was one of the artists that said yes first or tried to get people together for it. It was a strange coincidence that… The beautiful thing about it, as horrible as it was, but was that at that time everybody wanted to do something to help. Everybody came together. It was a real moment of genuine patriotism and kind of wanting to be a part of healing from it and for me to get and play with him some of those songs that honestly I don’t know how I got through them without like just sobbing, like “Let It Be” and we’re doing “Yesterday”

It was sort of gratifying to get to be a part of it through music, to be a part of the healing through music. I was very grateful for that experience.

Gabe Dixon – Interview with Know Good Music podcast, June 20, 2026

Albums, EPs & singles which Gabe Dixon contributed to

Songs Gabe Dixon contributed to