{"id":139531,"date":"2023-05-30T08:32:12","date_gmt":"2023-05-30T15:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/?p=139531"},"modified":"2023-05-31T20:24:11","modified_gmt":"2023-06-01T03:24:11","slug":"multiple-layered-guitars-stand-out-on-steve-dawsons-eyes-closed-dreaming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/multiple-layered-guitars-stand-out-on-steve-dawsons-eyes-closed-dreaming\/","title":{"rendered":"Multiple Layered Guitars Stand Out on Steve Dawson\u2019s\u00a0\u2018Eyes Closed, Dreaming\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Steve-Dawson-Eyes-Closed-Dreaming.jpg?ssl=1\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"750\" height=\"750\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Steve-Dawson-Eyes-Closed-Dreaming.jpg?resize=750%2C750&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Cover artwork for Steve Dawson's new album \u2018Eyes Closed. Dreaming\u2019\" class=\"wp-image-139535\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Steve-Dawson-Eyes-Closed-Dreaming.jpg?w=750&amp;ssl=1 750w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Steve-Dawson-Eyes-Closed-Dreaming.jpg?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Steve-Dawson-Eyes-Closed-Dreaming.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Steve-Dawson-Eyes-Closed-Dreaming.jpg?resize=600%2C600&amp;ssl=1 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Steve-Dawson-Eyes-Closed-Dreaming.jpg?resize=125%2C125&amp;ssl=1 125w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Steve-Dawson-Eyes-Closed-Dreaming.jpg?resize=50%2C50&amp;ssl=1 50w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p><strong>Steve Dawson<\/strong><br><strong><em>Eyes Closed, Dreaming<\/em><\/strong><br>(Black Hen)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Some people made better use of their time in pandemic isolation than others. For Steve Dawson\u2014a talented and prolific Canadian singer-songwriter-guitarist-producer-engineer-studio owner who has lived in Nashville for a number of years\u20142020 became a banner year for his personal creativity, as he recorded not one but three albums that he released subsequently: <em>Gone, Long Gone<\/em>; the dreamy, steel guitar-driven instrumental <em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3WD7bjJ\" target=\"_blank\">Phantom Threshold<\/a><\/em>; and this most recent one, <em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3BZLPU2\" target=\"_blank\">Eyes Closed, Dreaming<\/a>. <\/em>As with all of Dawson\u2019s projects that I\u2019ve heard, his layered guitars sit front and center in his always imaginative instrumental arrangements. But he\u2019s also supported by a fine cast of other players and singers (including such \u201cnames\u201d as singer-songwriter Allison Russell, mandolinist Tim O\u2019Brien, and drummer Jay Bellerose) who help him navigate a nice variety of different styles, including straight-ahead fingerpicking folk (both traditional and modern), old-school Hawaiian, blues, and more. He and writing partner Matt Patershuk have four strong originals here (my favorite is \u201cA Gift\u201d); the rest are from the likes of Ian Tyson (\u201cLong Time to Get Old\u201d), Jack Clement (\u201cGuess Things Happen That Way\u201d), John Hartford (\u201cLet Him Go On Mama\u201d), and Bobby Charles (\u201cSmall Town Talk\u201d).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"1290\" height=\"726\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qMWOuIZK7N8?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>But what a delight it is to be enveloped and caressed by Dawson\u2019s sterling playing on an amazing assortment of acoustic, electric, and slide guitars, which he kindly ran down for <em>AG<\/em>: \u201cWhile my memory is foggy at the best of times, I can pretty accurately remember that I used the following axes on this album: A 1953 Gibson J-50 does the bulk of the work on any acoustic parts, acoustic soloing, etc. That\u2019s my main acoustic in the studio, but I don\u2019t really bring it out on the road anymore. I used a Taylor LKSM-12 on \u2018The Owl.\u2019 On \u2018Hemmingway\u2019 I used a Martin Jeff Tweedy model. It\u2019s kind of an odd guitar, but I love it for fingerpicking. Anything on the National [resonator] is likely a 1932 Style O. I used my friend Joe Pisapia\u2019s nylon string guitar on \u2018A Gift.\u2019 Don\u2019t know the model, but I\u2019m pretty sure it\u2019s kind of a cheapie. I have a couple Weissenborns, but the one I\u2019ve played for over 20 years now is a Celtic Cross made by Neil Russell in Victoria, BC. I\u2019ve beat it up pretty good over the years, but it\u2019s still the most comfortable one I\u2019ve ever played. And I used a Harmony Roy Smeck on a couple things. Smeck had a really high-end Gibson signature model that is worth a fortune now, and then he had a really crappy Harmony endorsement where they made the guitars out of cheap wood and leftover Sears\u2019 countertop for binding. That\u2019s the one I have, and I love it!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All in all, a solid album with fabulous playing, a great vibe, and cool songs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>For reviews of more new recordings, visit\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/albumreviews\" target=\"_blank\">acousticguitar.com\/albumreviews<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As with all of Dawson\u2019s projects that I\u2019ve heard, his layered guitars sit front and center, but he\u2019s also supported by a fine cast of other players.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":139534,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"As with all of Dawson\u2019s projects that I\u2019ve heard, his layered guitars sit front and center, but he\u2019s also supported by a fine cast of other players.","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[885],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[1539],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Steve-Dawson.jpg?fit=750%2C514&ssl=1","authors":[{"term_id":1539,"user_id":7,"is_guest":0,"slug":"blairstringletter-com","display_name":"Blair Jackson","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/blair-jackson-headshot.png","url2x":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/blair-jackson-headshot.png"},"user_url":"","last_name":"Jackson","first_name":"Blair","description":"Blair Jackson is the author of the definitive biography <i>Garcia: An American Life<\/i> and was senior editor at <i>Acoustic Guitar<\/i> before retiring in 2023."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139531"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139531"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":139843,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139531\/revisions\/139843"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139531"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=139531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}