Steve Dawson has always been hard to pin down. A guitarist, a composer, asought after musical enabler and sideman? Of course, he's all of those thingsand more, but none of those descriptions really do the seven-time JunoAward-winning musician justice.Since moving to Nashville in 2013, it's been full tilt for the Vancouver native.When not producing albums for a slew of roots artists, touring and recordingunder his own name, or putting together his acclaimed 'Music Makers andSoul Shakers' podcast (now clocking in at well over a hundred episodes),Steve was usually out on the road supporting friends such as the Maritimepowerhouse Matt Andersen, or Birds of Chicago, with whom he's played over250 shows in the past three years.In 2019 and coming into early 2020, Dawson was as busy as he'd ever been inhis life. So, when the pandemic hit, like everybody else, he had to re-assessand figure out what to do to stay afloat. It's an old story by now, but the realityis that the same quarantine that closed so many doors in our daily lives,created the opportunity for Steve to work on a large volume of music thatwould never have seen the light of day otherwise. While perfecting his remoterecording techniques producing and playing on tracks for many other artists,this flurry of activity resulted in enough solo material for three distinct albums,the first of which, 'Gone, Long Gone' reflects Dawson's mastery of song-craft.Like all of Steve's albums, 'Gone, Long Gone' features brilliant instrumentalperformances from some of the finest players in roots music. Jeremy Holmesholds everything together on bass with drumming split between Gary Craigand Jay Bellerose (both drummers play together on 'Six Skeletons'), whileKevin McKendree and Chris Gestrin laid down the piano, organ and otherkeyboards. Keri Latimer joins in on vocals on two songs, and Steve's old'Birds of Chicago' band-mate, Allison Russell joined in to sing on a few as didSteve's daughter Casey Dawson. John Prine alumnus Fats Kaplin alsodropped in to add some sweet fiddle and mandolin.'Gone, Long Gone' is just the first of three new albums that Steve createdduring the lockdown. The next two will come to light over three monthintervals throughout 2022. Be on the lookout for a moody, psychedelic pedalsteel excursion coming up next
