Steve Dahl, the longtime head of the fairs & festivals department at Paradigm, died Sunday night in Nashville, the agency announced. He was 71.
In 1986, Dahl opened the Nashville office of the boutique booking agency Monterey Peninsula Artists, which was launched in Northern California in 1974. Paradigm purchased the company in November 2004.
He worked with such acts as Toby Keith, Aerosmith, Travis Tritt, The Steve Miller Band, Montgomery Gentry, Black Eyed Peas, Sawyer Brown, Huey Lewis, Ricky Skaggs, Grand Funk Railroad, Doobie Brothers, Lyle Lovett and The Black Crowes.
Dahl “was an extraordinary presence at this agency and in the Nashville music community,” Paradigm said in a statement.
Dahl served as vice president and director-at-large for the Academy of Country Music and was on the boards of the International Association of Fairs & Expositions, the International Entertainment Buyers Association and the Country Music Association.
Before he became an agent, Dahl was a singer, frontman and trumpet player for The Red Dogs, an R&B band that toured widely and recorded for ATCO/Atlantic Records in the 1960s.
The Red Dogs have been inducted into the Kansas Music Hall of Fame, the Nebraska Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the Iowa Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the South Dakota Rock & Roll Music Association Hall of Fame.
Survivors include his wife, Beth, and two children.
