SoBros Network
Vancouver native and current Nashvillian Steve Dawson has spent the better part of twenty years building one of the most impressive resumés in music. He has been nominated for 18 Juno Awards as an artist and producer collectively winning 7 of them and has been named Producer of the Year four times at the Canadian Folk Music Awards. 2022 finds Dawson looking to add to his credentials as an artist with the release of his new album Gone, Long Gone.
Gone, Long Gone is the follow up to his highly acclaimed 2018 instrumental release Lucky Hand. The new album is his return to singing and he brought back up. Birds of Chicago singer Allison Russel joins Dawson on the straight out of New Orleans horn-laden “Dimes” as well as the Faces’ cover “Ooh La La.”
Dawson mastered the art of playing in the background a long time ago, so to hear him front and center on his new album Gone, Long Gone is a sonic treat to fans new and old. His first of three collections of material born amidst the pandemic Gone, Long Gone shows us that there is a bright side to our enforced isolation. As the weather moves from the harsh cold days of winter and into the crisp warmer days of spring, Dawson’s new release offers a ray of sunshine the listener desperately could use. The impeccable fingering Dawson delivers throughout the album on guitar is just a testament to why he is always in demand to play for some of the best artists in folk and blues. His guitar work is fully on display on the Hawaiian inspired “Kulaniapia Waltz,” an instrumental track that has Dawson showing off his slide guitar skills that also features Russel on the ukulele. Another Hawaiian inspired song is “King Benny Had His Shit Together.” The song plays homage to legendary street musician “King” Bennie Nawahi who lived a life worthy of a Hollywood telling. Nawahi was extremely healthy when he was suddenly stricken blind in 1935 at the age of 36. The new handicap did not stop him as he took up open water swimming. One night in 1946 he entered the sea at Avalon on Catalina Island and, following his guide boat’s ringing bell, began swimming towards San Pedro, twenty-two miles away. Nearly twenty-four hours later he walked ashore with two lifeguards “dog tired but happy.”
Adding his relaxing vocals and his beautifully detailed guitar playing Gone, Long Gone is a record that not only stamps Dawson as an artist to be reckoned with in folk music but also double downs on him as the best producer in folk music too.