When we reach Steve Dawson by phone at his home in Nashville, he’s still adjusting to the fact that a snowstorm brought the city to a halt in January. But he doesn’t seem too stressed about that. Dawson has already proved himself resilient and versatile. This multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and producer began new and different creative work in a difficult time.
“Like many musicians, I lost a great deal of scheduled work during COVID,” says Dawson. “I scrambled, and tried to figure out a workaround. I found a crew of friends, and either they were able to record remotely, or I taught them how to do it. Because of that, we could record music for other people.”
Dawson’s music studio is called The Henhouse, so this fast, remote project was called The Henhouse Express. “Singers and songwriters would hire us, and we would have a Zoom call with everyone in the band. We’d meet to talk about the music. And then we would take it and make a song out of it, working around their vocal track. We got pretty good at it!”
This collaborative work also led Dawson to his own burst of creativity. In 2022-2023, he put out three full solo albums in twelve months, all of them stemming from the songwriting and recording that happened when he wasn’t able to tour or do his usual amount of production work. “Yeah, while I was working with others, I soon had albums of my own, too.”
It was all an adjustment for a guy who was used to traveling a lot. Now that touring and production work are resuming, Dawson can reflect on how he’s been able to find balance and joy in his work.
“I have never been on the verge of burning out. I’m always looking for new projects. Before COVID, I toured a ton. With Birds of Chicago, I could be on the road 100 days a year, and I would have 30-40 days a year touring with Matt Andersen, too. I was gone more than I was in the studio. Between session work and backup work, and also producing records, it’s about juggling all the things I’m trying to do to forge a career in this crazy industry.”
Steve Dawson and The Hooded Mergansers (that’s a duck; look it up!) will be in concert in Edmonton on February 2 and in Calgary on February 3. Find details and tickets here.
When asked to send a song out to our audience, Steve picked “Dimes,” a song that he wrote with Matt Patershuk. “It’s a fun one because we recorded it remotely, and the horn players were in Vancouver.” Do you recognize the sweet voice of Allison Russell on backup vocals?
