Acclaimed Vancouver, BC musician/producer/songwriter Steve Dawson will release two new albums of his work in 2008, ‘Waiting For The Lights To Come Up’ and ‘Telescope.’
Rather than waiting and recording them separately, Dawson decided to put together a crack band and spend a few days the studio getting the majority of both albums done at once. The idea was to create two completely different projects that tied together sonically and that shared a similar energy.
The musicians are players with whom he’s been making a lot of records over the last few years. The band comprises Keith Lowe (Bill Frisell, Fiona Apple) on bass, Chris Gestrin (Randy Bachman, K-OS) on keyboards, and Scott Amendola (T.J. Kirk, Bill Frisell, Madeline Peyroux) on drums.
Telescope
The second album in the series, ‘Telescope,’ is and all-instrumental release written primarily on, and based around the pedal steel guitar. Steve set out to create music that was a showcase for the voice of the pedal steel, a complex form of slide guitar with a series of foot pedals and knee levers that raise or lower the pitches of the individual 10 strings.
‘Telescope’ has been in the works since 2005, when Steve received a grant from the Canada Council For The Arts to study the pedal steel guitar with Greg Leisz, one of the most influential, not to mention one of the most recorded steel players in modern recorded music. Steve spent time working with Greg in short spurts over the next two years and during this intensive period, began writing music for the steel guitar.
The result is a beautifully unique instrumental album that emphasizes melody and interplay, displaying healthy doses of both structure an improvisation.
Featuring the same band as his last album; Scott Amendola on drums, Keith Lowe on bass, and Chris Gestrin on keyboards, Steve also enlisted trumpet players Brad Turner and J.P. Carter for the evocative horn parts and solos, and Ottawa harmonica player Steve Marriner for some bluesy wailing on ‘Speaker Damage’.
Working with a recurring cast of musicians has honed the sound of Steve’s recording work to the point where he has become a recognizable and prominent producer of many current artists working around the world. In the last few years, Steve has worked in the studio with artists like Jim Byrnes, Kelly Joe Phelps, The Sojourners, Ndidi Onukwulu, Jenny Whiteley, Old Man Luedecke and many others. While individual projects vary in sound, the signatures of Steve’s production come through, such as the elements of live performance that he keeps at the heart of his recordings, and the tones of the old and unusual instruments that he collects. His go-to list of textural instruments include the pump organ, marxophone, mandotar, tack piano, and a growing collection of oddball guitars and microphones. Steve uses these tools to create soundscapes of unusual yet timeless sounds.
