Twenty-three-year-old Dalton Dover first started singing at church as a kid, winning his fifth-grade school talent show performing Justin Bieber’s “Baby.” In that moment Dover’s love of performing was born. By the age of 16 he had picked up a guitar and started teaching himself to play, yet it was his grandfather who turned him on to country music and artists such as Keith Whitley, Rhett Akins, Joe Diffie and Steve Wariner. Enamored with the honesty and storytelling found in country music, Whitley’s “Don’t Close Your Eyes” was the first song Dover taught himself to play on guitar. Performances at local bars soon followed along with sharing covers of some of his favorite songs on TikTok. It was there he caught the ear of producer Matt McV and A&R Veteran and founder of Droptine Recordings, Jim Catino, who quickly signed Dover.