Dredd Foole

Reviewing 2007's Daze on the Mounts, Pitchfork referred to Dredd Foole's "legendary status" as "Vermont's free-folk poet laureate."

Following a move to Brattleboro, Vermont, in 2000, Dredd Foole became widely active again and has collaborated and recorded with musicians including Matt Valentine, Chris Corsano, Thurston Moore, Jack Rose, Ben Chasny, Bill Nace, Paul Flaherty, Joshua, and Sunburned Hand of the Man. Many of these musicians lived in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and southern Vermont and would later have their activity dubbed New Weird America in The Wire in a cover article by David Keenan. Dredd Foole performed at the 2003 Brattleboro Free Folk Festival, a summit gathering for the most of the musicians involved in the free folk community at the time, "where he was introduced on stage...as a vitally important link between the first wave of experimental folk and its new incarnation." In his article, Keenan wrote:

In 1993, Dredd Foole recorded the solo In Quest of Tense, a home-recorded solo album of improvised psychedelic folk music that was released on Forced Exposure's label in 1994. The CD went largely unreviewed at the time of its release, and Dredd Foole went dormant until the late 90s and would not release another album until 2003. In Quest of Tense was later called "a classic" by Pitchfork, which noted that "most" of the New Weird America scene "were influenced by one particular record": In Quest of Tense. "That album is a mesmerizing collection of exploratory guitar, haunting vocals, and dark reverb, evoking the rituals of Velvet Underground associate Angus MacLise, the psych of early Pink Floyd, and the outsider art of Jandek."

Dredd Foole and the Din's live performances and recordings were regularly celebrated effusively in Forced Exposure, and came to be heavily associated with the widely distributed magazine. Reviewing a September 6, 1986 show at T.T. The Bear's, Forced Exposure creator Jimmy Johnson wrote:

Following the March 1983 dissolution of Mission of Burma, drummer Peter Prescott formed Volcano Suns. When Mission of Burma's involvement as the Din came to an end, the Volcano Suns replaced them, becoming Dredd Foole's backing band in time for June 2, 1984's show opening for Sonic Youth. The collaboration would prove lasting, producing two LPs, 1985's Eat My Dust, Cleanse My Soul on Homestead Records and 1988's Take Off Your Skin on PVC Records, and dozens of local live performances.

Kenny Chambers, of Moving Targets, played guitar in the Din from 1983 to 1988, including both the Mission of Burma and the Volcano Suns eras.

In February, 1982, on Ireton's 32nd birthday, he entered a studio with Mission of Burma, resulting in Dredd Foole and the Din's debut, the two-song single Songs in Heat. The collaboration would continue in August 1982, with Dredd Foole and the Din's live debut, again featuring Mission of Burma as the backing band. Despite the dissolution of the initial Mission of Burma lineup in March 1983 due to Roger Miller's tinnitus, live performances with Mission of Burma as the Din would continue throughout the remainder of that year, culminating with a January 1984 show without Miller.

Music writer Jim DeRogatis, referring Ireton's 1980s activity, has written that Dredd Foole is a "punk legend."

The Wire has referred to the 1980s Din material as "free rock."

Dan Ireton (born February, 1950, in Camden, New Jersey), known professionally as Dredd Foole, is a vocal improviser and songwriter based in New England whose various collaborative backing bands have been known as The Din.