- Life is all about creation.

Everything that we enjoy everyday comes from somebody creating it.

And my mother really, she really indoctrinated me.

She wrote a whole novel.

She read all the time.

And she was very creative.

She was a poet.

She was a great artist, too.

She was a great painter.

She impacted me very severely.

- One thing I attribute the fact that he's such a fine gentleman is he loved his mother and dad, and he always talks about his mother and dad, writes about them, writes music about them.

You know he's got this genuineness about him.

- His father a minister, and the compassion he gained and was ingrained in him from his parents.

I think that's where he got a lot of his compassion and wanting to serve and to make a difference.

- [Man] He came out of nowhere, brought, once he became County Executive, he really turned this town on its head because he just came up with new ideas, he was able to move them on.

- He developed a whole new structure for county government.

And I think he had certainly put a lot of time into that and it really became a model for the state.

- Dalton's mastery at channeling the energy of the elected commissioners was I think precedent setting.

- I think what inspired everybody that worked for him was his belief in you.

You wouldn't have let him down for the world because he had such confidence in what you could do and he instilled that confidence in you.

So you just felt like you could do anything because he believed you could.

- [Man] We won a number of awards so there were probably 40 or 50 national awards that county government won under his leadership.

- Dalton was the one who wanted to ask the question if Moccasin Bend could be a key link to a new vision and a new future for Chattanooga.

And without his leadership and without his intervention, I feel confident that what we know of today as the Chattanooga Renaissance, the Chattanooga Riverfront Revival, would not have happened.

(acoustic music) - He's a renaissance man whether it's in his writing or his music or standing up before a crowd.

I mean the man is just exceptional.

(acoustic music) - It's a great soul elevator.

It gets in the deepest part of your being, music does.

It enables you to actuate other parts of your spiritual nature.

Just because you're being touched at that level by your music you know.

Yeah, I don't know what I'd do without my music.

It'd be a miserable ole world for me without my music.

♪ I've been gone a long time ♪ But I'm going home ♪ Before the sun comes up ♪ I'll be where I belong ♪ In my mind's eye ♪ I can see the site ♪ Of the lights of Chattanooga ♪ In the night