TJ Music Magazine

Canadian, Juno Award winning producer, Steve Dawson kicks off a trio of new albums for 2022 with his ninth release, Gone, Long Gone. Combining piedmont blues, delta blues and southern California folk rock, Dawson’s musical influences are a long way from his Vancouver home; but like fellow Canadians J.R. Shore and Corb Lund, he channels the spirit of Americana and sends back a friendly and familiar echo.

Starting off with the soulful syncopation of “Dimes,” Dawson showcases his ability to combine genres. Equal parts soul, funk, and folk, he creates a hybrid Little Feat/Jim Croce groove that’s perfectly punctuated by Memphis style horns. The bouncy melody augments his “silver lining” approach to finance. Singing, “I’ll take this last dollar that I got and turn it into dimes… Everyone knows ten’s more than one, so I turn it into dimes.” Dawson whimsically illustrates that sometimes the difference between poverty and prosperity is just a matter of perspective. In a more subtle subtext, referencing dimes as the original currency for jukeboxes; Dawson asserts that music is its own currency and as long as you have music, you’re never truly poor.

The rest of the album is painted in shades of Blues. From the slow burning New Orleans Blues of “King Bennie Had His S*** Together,” to the haunting Delta Blues of “Bad Omen,” to the talking Folk/Blues of “6 Skeletons,” to the Allman Brothers inspired cover of the Faces, “Ooh La La,” to the Cosmic Cowboy/Blues fusion of “I Just Get Lost,” Dawson plays with traditional blues styles and manages to create new and occasionally playful arrangements. Not exactly “long gone” from traditional Blues, Dawson is definitely one foot removed from the historical limits of the genre. Like a honeysuckle vine continually stretching away from its roots to follow the sun, Dawson stays planted in the Blues even as he discovers new avenues and directions to explore musically.