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Nashville-based Canadian Steve Dawson serves up a real heady mixture of American roots music in his latest record that caps an extremely busy period of committing his bubbling projects to commercial status. Hot on the heels of a brace of 2022 releases, Dawson steps onto a higher plateau with a new album spinning the plates of many ideas, influences and ports of call. Drawing on exceptional talent from within and probably more perceptively from a wide contact resource bank, we are served an eleven-track mix that possesses many coats without diluting standards. EYES CLOSED DREAMING is an album to ferment over time and become a valued reference point.
Co-written originals mingle with choice covers wedged in between a couple of instrumentals to keep the album in perpetual motion. There is a level of intellectual grandeur when delving into the work of Steve Dawson. Not only do the songs and tunes measure up well, but you get the extra gift of learning more about where he draws his influence. From his perch of songwriter, musician, vocalist, producer and arranger, Dawson explores many facets of country, blues, folk and old time then spins them into a pivotal space of contemporary work.
All four original songs are co-written with Matt Patershuk, who has recorded several albums on Dawson's Black Hen Music label. The launching pad for this record. The first of these titled 'A Gift' unravels as an intriguing story song in the folk tradition with a sprinkling of twang in its midst. 'Hemingway' follows and a self explanatory title containing dialogue with a fiction icon likely to be the subject of further art for eternity. Dawson and Patershuk moved into the feathered kingdom with their next subject delivering 'The Owl' as one of the album's quieter moments, albeit a break into slide towards the end, with the lyrics being the focal point. The final selection from this pile is 'Polaroid'. Retro is both name and theme.
The pair of instrumental are split between a Dawson composition and an interpretation of a traditional tune. The former, 'Waikki Stonewall Rag" mixes multiple strings, keys and percussion in a rhythmic stroll. The same quartet headed by Dawson proceed a little more lazily in 'Singing the Blues'. Both core sounds implying past roots influences.
Before we turn to the four covers, a brief mention of the blues interpretation to the traditional number 'House Carpenter'. A track awash with fine picking and solid vocals adding to a credible version.
The album kicks off with a version of fellow Canadian Ian Tyson's 'Long Time to Get Old'. A good choice to win listeners over from the start with a breezy catchy song. Detected backing vocals didn't take long to trace back to Allison Russell, a long term co-worker with Dawson going back to the Birds of Chicago days. The largest accumulation of musicians appear on the Bobby Charles song 'Small Town Talk' with brass featuring for the first time and most prominently. The Jack Clement-penned Johnny Cash-famed piece 'Guess Things Happen That Way' excels when the album is fully ingrained into the listening experience and keeps things rolling along. Dawson's Weissenborn lap slide guitar features throughout the album and is the sole accomplice with its owner's voice on John Hartford's 'Let Him Go On Mama' to close things.
There are so many facets to EYES CLOSED DREAMING that each play takes you down a different route. Steve Dawson has one of the keenest ears in the business and expertly transmits this into records that secure a legacy both of his sources and increasingly himself.
