Dillon Spurlin (musician)

Dillon Spurlin is a singer-songwriter from Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, who performs as a solo acoustic act under the name Spurlin. On social media he uses the handle "Spurlin the Music".^[1][2]

Background

According to the Detroit Lakes Tribune, Spurlin graduated from Detroit Lakes High School in 2016. He appeared in school musicals there, including Next to Normal, Urinetown, All Shook Up and Aida, and he won Spotlight Education's "Triple Threat" Award in 2016 for his role in Aida.^[1] In an interview with Mostly Minnesota he said he grew up playing in a church band with his family, and that he learned several instruments before he developed his singing voice in middle-school choir and musical theatre.^[3] The Tribune reports that he tried to move to New York City in early 2020 but came back when the COVID-19 lockdowns began. The paper also says he later lived in Fargo, where he worked as a musician, photographer and videographer, and that he performed as a duo called "Olive and Ivy" with a fellow singer-songwriter.^[1]

Stage

BroadwayWorld's reviews of Fargo–Moorhead theatre credit Dillon Spurlin with a run of leading roles in musicals. He played Jesus in Fargo-Moorhead Community Theatre's Jesus Christ Superstar in July 2019, and the reviewer praised his vocal range. The review says he was from Detroit Lakes and that this was his first local show.^[4] That October he played Anthony in the same company's Sweeney Todd.^[5] In January 2020 he played Orange in Purple Rhymes with Orange, a new musical written and directed by Patrick Kasper.^[6] With Stage West he played Frankie Valli in Jersey Boys in June 2023, and the reviewer singled out his falsetto,^[7] and Crutchie in Disney's Newsies in June 2025.^[8] He was among the nominees in BroadwayWorld's reader-voted Fargo awards in 2019, for Jesus Christ Superstar, and in 2023, for Jersey Boys.^[9][10] See also Spurlins on stage.

Recordings

His first album was self-titled (Spurlin).^[1] Apple Music dates it to January 10, 2020.^[11] His second album, Hard Way, came out on August 31, 2024, according to Apple Music.^[11] It contains ten original songs, and Spurlin wrote, performed, recorded and produced all of them himself. The Tribune describes its sound as indie folk with Americana influences.^[1] He told Mostly Minnesota that he produced the record in Logic Pro X, having learned production from YouTube tutorials.^[3] A 2024 post on his Facebook page announced a track-by-track "album breakdown" before the release.^[2]

His official website links to his artist profiles on Spotify and Apple Music under the name Spurlin.^[12] The Spotify biography describes a Minnesota singer, songwriter, producer and composer influenced by 1970s singer-songwriters.^[13] Besides the two albums, Apple Music lists singles including "Butterfly" (2018), "Goodbye" (2019), "I Carry It in My Heart" (2020), "Backdoor Barefoot" (2022) and "Real Life Movie" (2023).^[11] He is also credited on nine of the ten tracks of Damn, dude., a 2026 album by the artist Damn dude.; eight of them are credited to Damn dude., Spurlin and Tarias and the Sound.^[14]

Touring and media

To promote Hard Way, Spurlin toured the East Coast in a converted school bus. The tour went through Minnesota, Illinois, New York, Massachusetts, Maine, New Jersey and Virginia.^[3] A Wisconsin venue listed a "Spurlin | Hard Way Tour" show.^[15] Spurlin was the musical guest on an April 2026 episode of Prairie Public's Prairie Pulse, where he performed his original song "Desperate Times". PBS describes him there as "a classically trained, solo acoustic musician."^[16] He has also been featured by AMPERS community radio through PRX,^[17] and he runs a YouTube channel that describes him as a singer/songwriter.^[18] His official website presents "Spurlin" as a solo acoustic act that specializes in easy-listening music and pairs a classically trained voice with a self-taught guitar style. The site says he performs regularly in Minnesota, North Dakota and Arizona and offers bookings for wineries, restaurants, weddings and corporate and private events.^[12]