STEVE DAWSON : SOLID STATES & LOOSE ENDS

1. Loose Ends
2. Broken Future Blues
3. Leave My Name Behind
4. California Saviour
5. On Top Of The World
6. Little Silver
7. Riley's Henhouse Door
8. Final Words
9. Can't Put That Money On My Back
10. Early Warning
11. You Got What It Takes
12. Driver's Wheel
13. Delia
14. Rose's Blues

Label : Black Hen Music

Release Date : April 1, 2016

Length : 59:45

Review (Blues Blast Magazine) : Canadian guitarist Steve Dawson is rapidly becoming one of my favorite guitar players with a string of great recordings of predominantly original music. The album features 10 originals and 4 covers. Dawson's original songs are far more complex than on the prior offering Rattlesnake Cage. There the songs were solo acoustic and much more sparse; they were great but we get a real contrast with the more fleshed out accompaniments. Gary Craig on drums and John Dymond on bass are the solid backline. Dawson's vocals have grown and are finely textured here, plus he has excellent support from Keri Latimer and the superb McCrary Sisters. The rest of the supporting cast are noted as I go through the songs below; suffice it to say that they are experienced and well up to the task! This is a well developed and executed album! Loose Ends opens things up and Dawson lets loose with some wickedly sweet electric slide guitar. Backed by a large ensemble on this cut, the production is well done and the players and backing vocalists are together. The McCrary sisters are top notch accompaniment. Dawson offers some sultry and suave vocals, too. The next cut, "Broken Future Blues," is more scaled back with only drums and bass in support. He picks out some mean acoustic guitar here and the song bounces along nicely. He layers some nicely done electric guitar in the mix, too, and solos well on both guitars. His finger picking is fabulous. Things slow down with "Leave My Name Behind;" Dawson is on National steel and electric guitars and the McCrary sisters return to vocally back Dawson. Fats Kaplan adds a unique viola to the song and has an intriguing solo and Jim Hoke's sax work adds to the appeal, too. The song builds intensity using Dawson's guitars, first on the National and later on the electric guitar. Dawson expands his repertoire and plays the National Steel, electric and pedal steel guitars and a pump organ. He opens and closes with the National, giving us a sweet, country porch sort of sound to the cut. Keri Latimer joins in on the vocals she and Dawson blend nicely on the choruses. The pedal steel arrives around mid way through for a sentimental solo. Well done! "On Top of the World" feature Kaplan on fiddle and Mike Bub on upright bass. Dawson again adds some guitar lamentations via the pedal steel and also adds depth with other instruments, but the fiddle and peddle steel set the mood and tone so well here as Dawson swings country style for us. "Little Silver" features some slick finger picking by Dawson on acoustic and pedal steel guitars. Dawson goes solo on vocals and acoustic slide in the cool traditional ditty from Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers "Riley's Henhouse Door," the first of the covers. He does some more really nice finger picking here. "Final Words" is an original with the tempo going way down and the mood following. He does some very good slide work and breaks out the mellotron for a little fill on keys with Kevin McKendree's piano and farfisa. The guitar, organ and vocals play off each other quite well. The second traditional cut is Riley Puckett's "Can't Put That Monkey on My Back." McKendree on piano and Kaplan on mandolin join Dawson's electric slide for another tight track, a very bouncy and fun cover. "Early Warning" is a dark and somber tune with Dawson on acoustic guitar and mandolin with he and the McCrary sisters on vocals. McKendree's organ also has a haunting solo as Dawson sings. Joe Tex' "Got What It Takes" is a big slide guitar piece with very sweet horns; Jim Hoke on saxes and Steve Herman on trumpet do a standout job as does Kevin McKendree on organ. "Driver's Wheel" has Dawson on the Weissenborn lap slide guitar which sound oh-so-nice, especially when he trades licks with Fats Kaplan's fiddle. Keri Lattimer joins him on harmony again, adding a lot to the vocal mix. This is a very cool track! "Delia" is the last traditional/cover with basically the same crew and instrument as the last track except Kaplan switches to mandolin and Mike Bub returns on upright bass. A very down-home sound is offered up here with a great mix of mandolin, electric guitar, lap slide, and the thump of the upright bass. Lattimer and Dawson again excel on vocals in this upbeat and bouncy tune. The album closes to "Rose's Blues" where Dawson gives us electric and acoustic guitar along with his dobro. Kaplan is again on mandolin and adds some accordion. Latimer gives Dawson some deep, slightly distorted vocal support. The dobro is used effectively in solo and support work along with the mandolin and guitars. The last cut is quite interesting and sublime. This is a very big album, especially when you compare it to the more bare boned prior release by Dawson on Black Hen Records. The last one was nominated for a Blues Blast Music Award and this one is perhaps even better and could be slated for more accolades. I think Dawson is the real deal. A great session performer, his original solo and front man for a band work is exceptional and shows that he has a bright and wonderful career ahead of him! Of course his already having received 7 Juno awards as an artist and producer out of his 18 nominations shows he's already being recognized for his fantastic work. This native of Vancouver who now resides in Nashville is at the top of his game. I strongly urge you to check him out!

Review (Off The Tracks) : Nashville-based Canadian guitarist Steve Dawson has an impressive bag of tricks - Ry Cooder-esque slide, a voice that recalls Jackson Browne and songs that show off dobro and resonator guitars, electric and acoustic but never feel like placeholder-songs to showcase his formidable technique. Opener, Loose Ends, features a stonking horn section, country-blues grooves and R'n'B backing vocalists - it's as if Robbie Robertson suddenly warmed right up, opened up. In fact it's the sound of Robertson's great Storyville album if Cooder and Kottke had added their guitars and production thoughts. Broken Future Blues has the core band - bass, drums, guitar - laying down the groove for Dawson's nimble-fingers to dance across. Leave My Name Behind showcases some beautiful National steel playing as the rhythm section takes this to the places where Tami Neilson and Delaney Davidson's music meets - almost - with Tom Waits'. Fats Kaplan's viola sings its own song underneath all the while. This sound is further explored across On Top of The World, Mike Bub's upright bass warmly plodding and plonking in and around Dawson's guitar and voice with Kaplan's fiddle emerging to dance. The slide playing is set to subtle slow-burn here. Little Silver is Dawson - guitar and voice - set to a soft train shuffle on the drums. It's modern folk blues. It's just guitar and vocals for a fun take on the traditional blues Riley's Henhouse Door, walking blues bass-line on the acoustic guitar - and it's like Stefan Grossman and Paul Ubana Jones combined. Joe Tex's You Got What It Takes returns us to the swagger of the horns and slide guitar and the loping country-blues gait. Driver's Wheel has Dawson showing off the Weissenborn lap slide in a duet with Kaplan's fiddle.dawspm There's some super great playing on every track - 10 originals, four covers. And Dawson's grasp of so many song styles and playing techniques is always impressive without ever taking over; these still feel like campfire songs for the most part. They'll warm your spirit. And make you feel good in your soul.

Review (American Roots UK) : For the better part of twenty years Steve Dawson has been recording and producing albums for many other artists whilst still finding time to record and release a number of recordings of his own. His own releases, by my reckoning this is his ninth, have been musically varied, often widening the boundaries of 'roots music' and yet frequently having a strong country leaning. Many of the artists he has produced in that time, much of it spent in his home territory of Vancouver, British Columbia, are personal favourites of mine and include such diverse musicians as Old Man Luedecke, recent favourite Matt Patershuk, Christa Couture, Jim Byrnes, Deep Dark Woods and Kelly Joe Phelps amongst many, many others! He moved to Nashville in 2013 where he set up and runs his 'Henhouse Studios,' having won numerous 'Juno' and 'producer of the year' awards whilst in Canada. Being a multi instrumentalist, sought after producer and a very good vocalist, as well as a talented songwriter, means there is little in music this man can't master as evidenced by this excellent new fourteen song album. Whilst this song collection has a nice flow there is what could often be an almost overwhelming diversity of styles, and yet this recording actually benefits from that very diversity that would destroy many other recordings, because those varied styles are mere generic suggestions rather than being overtly country or blues or soul or any one of the myriad other styles that have influenced this talented man. Certainly all of those elements are there but you could never affix any one of them as a label for the album, as a consequence of which Steve Dawson has in many ways defined his own style which happens to be a mish mash of his many generic influences. All of those influences have obviously been absorbed ensuring his roots are certainly peculiar only to him, giving him that individuality that all artists seek, but few find. The instrumentation is also varied from song to song, adding yet more diversity to the recording, giving the recording as a whole an incredibly 'coulourful' base. Often with that much variety in the makeup of an album the vocals and flow of a recording can get a little lost but everything on this excellent disc is perfectly balanced as are the basic compositions that are thematically varied but all beautifully conceived and written. Things get underway with Loose Ends an excellent song that strongly evokes a blend of Little Feat and a powerful soulfulness, with twangy slide guitar and soulful choir backing and a horn section allied to keyboards adding yet more colour. A mish mash of stylistic leanings it may be but it is one that works incredibly well. California Saviour opens with a lovely dobro lead on a song on which Steve's vocal is supported by female harmonies before being joined by keyboards and percussion and the eventual inclusion of a gorgeous steel guitar that gives the song a strong country feel. There is some tremendous slide guitar playing on Riley's Henhouse Door, another song that has an easy going feel, albeit one that is lifted by the tremendous guitar sound on a really entertaining tale that is completely lacking in any other instrumentation. Early Warning is a slow soulful, gently funky song that includes gospel harmonies on a composition that has at least part of its roots in the blues. There is some nice guitar playing and those harmonies blend well with Steve's lead vocal with the song further enhanced by a sparingly used Hammond and an excellent guitar solo. Finally, You Got What It Takes the blend of excellent twangy guitar and horns gives the song a soulful funky start before Steve's vocal comes in and changes the timbre, as usual making the song style impossible to define. It's certainly not soul, funk, blues, rock, r 'n' b or country but could almost be said to be all of them! You will find few albums containing this much variety and diverse colouring that work but this generically impossible to define album actually defines the myriad stylistic mix that can be found under the broad 'roots' umbrella, and then some. We should probably expect no less from a man of such immense talents! Buy it and give yourself a rare musical treat! Go on, you know you want to.