Fervor Coulee - Roots Music Opinion

Multi-instrumentalist Steve Dawson’s third release within a year, Eyes Closed, Dreaming may just be the strongest album of the British Columbia-Nashville artist’s lengthy career, and I don’t say that lightly.

While the majority of Dawson’s many albums have seen him feature original compositions more frequently than covers, this time out Dawson swings the other way, exploring the folk tradition in a manner he hasn’t really done before, as far as I’m aware.

Yes, both Waiting for the Lights to Come Up (2008) and We Belong to the Gold Coast (2005) featured numerous songs from the trad. arr. tradition as well as the pens of others. But this time out the focus appears to be on deliberately melding modern folk roots (through songs co-written by Alberta’s Matt Patershuk) with observations from previous generations of folk wanderers.

Perhaps a continuation of Gong, Long Gone (2022), Eyes Closed, Dreaming is every bit as strong as that memorable album, and may surpass it for no other reason that there are more familiar songs included. Folk music, almost by definition, must look back to the path on which it has traveled while providing a contemporary context for that music, whether that is by refreshing sounds of the past or by providing new material to continue the journey. Dawson and his collaborators—all familiar from recent Dawson sets—are more than successful in this endeavour across these eleven numbers.

For the originals, Patershuk and Dawson appear to have set themselves the challenge of writing within the manner of Guy Clark. I am confident they have found inspiration in the works of the master to create songs like “The Owl.” “Hemmingway” (featuring a small string section of Ben Plotnick and Kaitlyn Raitz) and “A Gift.”

Further, it is impossible to encounter “Polaroid” without thinking of Clark’s “My Favourite Picture of You”—both examine love through the transitory pictures of the instant camera of long ago, capturing affection and regard shaded with confusion and challenge: like the image, relationships are seldom ideal. Similarly, “Hemmingway” and“A Gift” tells ‘just enough’ without over-explaining the significance of each lyrical choice; let the mystery be, as they say.

“The Owl” is another rare gift, a song that seems hundreds of years old while being completely new. The richness of the lyrical visions within these four songs is quite amazing; few listeners will resist the pull of these rich vignettes, each providing sufficient space for interpretation without a sense of narrative dissatisfaction.

Dawson’s voice is strong throughout. I’ve likely never given him his due as a vocalist, but listening to the four originals that provide Eyes Closed, Dreaming’s sturdy spine one is impressed to a degree not previously acknowledged.

Dawson has also dusted off the old records to remind us of the beauty and, in some cases, glorious simplicity, of John Hartford (“Let Him Go On Mama”—oh my gosh) and Bobby Charles (an exquisite reading of “Small Town Talk,” featuring a horn section.)

The album opens with Ian Tyson’s “Long Time to Get Old” (from the Great Speckled Bird album), an incredibly deft song that has been lost in the flood for too long. Going back centuries, we have a resophonic-rich rendition of “House Carpenter,” a song that has never made satisfactory narrative sense to me, and for the first time I’m not overly concerned. Tim O’Brien lays out some lovely mandolin while Keri Latimer harmonizes in just the right places to provide the song with additional aural depth.

Dawson’s Birds of Chicago compatriot Allison Russell appears on three songs, each a singular highlight within a collection without lag. Singing with Casey Dawson on “Poloroid” and “The Owl,” Russell is, as expected, impressive, but it is her vocal work within “Long Time To Get Old” that is absolutely gorgeous, elevating the song and recording.

If anyone deserves the modern String Wizard title, it is Dawson. Each of these songs contains something—a flurry of lap steel (“The Owl,”) a touch of slide (“Guess Things Happen That Way,”) deft picking (“A Gift,”) a taste of ukulele (“Waikiki Stonewall Rag”)—to further attract the listener to become more attentive to the proceedings. Along with familiar sidemen—Gary Craig and Jay Bellerose (drums and percussion), Jeremy Holmes (URB), and Chris Gestrin (piano, organ, and Moog)— as well as Fats Kaplin (“Long Time to Get Old”) and others, Steve Dawson has again surpassed all expectations for modern roots music.

This year’s Polaris Music Prize is going to be a fierce competition, as it always seems to be. This year, my ballot will include Ron Sexsmith’s The Vivian Line, Julian Taylor’s The Reservoir, Tami Neilson’s Kingmaker, and Harrison Kennedy’s Thanks for Tomorrow. I had a place reserved for Phantom Threshold, but it has been supplanted by Eyes Closed, Dreaming. Now I just need to settle on the weighting of each of these fabulous releases.

I’ve been listening to Eyes Closed, Dreaming for more than a month, and during each visit I discover something fresh to appreciate. For me, that is one of the marks of a great album. Listen closely for additional indicators of greatness. You’ll hear them.