Don Dunn

Dividing his time between Nashville and his hometown of San Diego, Don Dunn has made his greatest mark as a songwriter. Dunn's tunes, including "Hitchcock Highway," were recorded, in the late '60s and '70s, by such pop and rock artists as Joe Cocker, José Feliciano, Rare Earth, Kenny Rogers, Cher, the 5th Dimension, and Diana Ross. After spending most of the 1980s teaching music and performing in small San Diego clubs, he returned to songwriting after moving to Nashville in the late '80s, penning tunes for Hoyt Axton, the Whites, and Claire Lynch.

Although he returned to San Diego in the mid-'90s, Dunn has continued to bridge geographical differences through his music. He spent five months in the Ukraine recording an album, Voices From Another Planet, with the Odessa Connection, that he shared with Soviet keyboardist Yuri Kuznetsov. The album was released as a solo effort after Kuznetsov encountered problems leaving the Ukraine.

Dunn launched his music career, in the mid-'60s, as a member of folk-rock band Deep Six; they released the single "Rising Sun" in 1966.