Steve Dawson - Rattlesnake Cage - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Over the past decade or so Steve Dawson has become such an indelible fixture on the Canadian musical landscape that it's tempting to take him for granted. One of the drawbacks of being so talented is that Dawson makes everything he does sound so effortless. The music that continually flows out of him is so natural and unforced that it's possible to forget all of the toil that went into producing it. Behind the organic, flowing guitar work, the crisp arrangements and the laconic singing voice, resides one of the brightest, hardest working musicians the country has ever produced. In addition to working on his own music, he's kept very busy producing memorable albums by such luminaries as Jim Byrnes, Kelly Joe Phelps, Old Man Luedecke, The Sojourners, and The Deep Dark Woods, as well as bringing the award winning Mississippi Sheiks Tribute Project to fruition. Add to that his session work and touring commitments and it's amazing that this 2-time Juno award winning artist (not to mention 3 other Junos for his production work!) ever finds the time to create any new work under his own name. Because Dawson is such a diverse artist, you're never quite sure what kind of mood he'll be in when he finally makes it into the studio to record. A master of many genres from gentle acoustic ditties and gut bucket blues through to free flowing experimental compositions, Dawson is comfortable in almost any musical setting you could name, and his newest album, InchNightshadeInch draws from these many interests to form his most satisfyingly complete album to date. Though InchNightshadeInch continues in the vein of his four previous solo recordings, it nevertheless expands upon the language of his guitar work and offers more complex and fully realized songs than ever before. The riveting InchDarker StillInch sets the direction and mood as listeners encounter Steve Dawson, storyteller and ch

Album Tracks 1. Bug Parade 2. Into My Room 3. Slipknot 4. Dog Dreams of Tulsa 5. Hangman's Blues 6. Big Bully 7. Zigzag City 8. The Low Road 9. Casey's Revenge 10. Peddlar and His Wife 11. Never to Have

2018 . Lucky Hand is Steve Dawson's first record of instrumental music since Rattlesnake Cage came out in 2014 and represents a high point of more than two decades of musical searching. Comprised of 10 instrumental tracks of solo, duo and full-bodied string works, Dawson has never released music as sweeping, dynamic and visually suggestive as this. Five of Lucky Hand's tracks feature his old partner Jesse Zubot's innovative string arrangements based on melodies suggested by Dawson's guitar. With Peggy Lee (cello), Jesse and his brother Josh Zubot (violins) and John Kastle (viola) - contributing to the session, the results are moody and intense, full of imagery and suggestion. As a producer and sideman, Steve spends a lot of his time in the studio capturing the essence of other top names in roots music, but it's when he turns his hand to composing and playing his own original material that he really shines. Recorded live off the floor, with several microphones used to capture the guitar and orchestration, this recording represents the perfect intersection of the primitive and the modern that has fascinated Dawson for so long. Album Tracks 1. The Circuit Rider of Pigeon Forge 2. Bugscuffle 3. Bone Cave 4. Bentonia Blues 5. Old Hickory Breakdown 6. Little Harpeth 7. Lucky Hand 8. Hollow Tree Gap 9. Lonesome Ace 10. Hale Road Revelation