Richard Dawson | |
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Background information | |
Born | 24 May 1981 |
Origin | Newcastle upon Tyne, England |
Genres | |
Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter |
Instrument(s) |
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Labels | |
Website | richarddawson |
Richard Michael Dawson (born 24 May 1981) [1] is an English progressive folk singer-songwriter from Newcastle upon Tyne. [2] His 2014 album Nothing Important was released by Weird World and was met with critical acclaim. [3] [4] [5] His 2017 album Peasant received similar acclaim, and was chosen by The Quietus as their album of the year. [6] In 2019, he released the album 2020 , again to critical acclaim. [7] [8] Henki , a collaborative album made with the Finnish band Circle, was released in 2021, [9] followed by another solo effort, The Ruby Cord , in 2022.
Dawson grew up in Newcastle and became interested in singing as a child, attempting to emulate American singers such as Faith No More's Mike Patton. [10] He worked in record stores for 10 years before starting a professional music career. He bought an inexpensive acoustic guitar [3] but accidentally broke it. After the guitar was repaired, he found it had a unique sound and he has used it as his main instrument. [2]
Dawson's music has been described as a deconstruction of folk music, done in an English style, similar to what American Captain Beefheart did with blues music. [2] [5] Dawson himself cites Qawwali, [10] a form of Sufi devotional music, Kenyan folk guitarist Henry Makobi [2] and folk musician Mike Waterson [11] as influences on his work.
In 2008 and 2009, Dawson released 10 albums of computerized electronic music under the pseudonym Eye Balls [12] . The music for this project is long-form ambient drone music, without vocals.
The albums The Glass Trunk (2013) and Nothing Important (2014) feature collaborations with harpist Rhodri Davies, who Dawson describes as "somewhat of a kindred spirit". [10] [11] Dawson and Davies have since also released records as the band Hen Ogledd, [13] and Dawson has also released solo material pseudonymously under the name "Eyeballs". Dawson has also performed in the groups Hot Fog with Mike Vest (Bong)[ citation needed ], Moon with Ben Jones and Sarah Sullivan (Jazzfinger), and played a handful of shows on guitar with Khunnt. [11]
Since Nothing Important, Dawson has played the guitar through a Fender and an Orange amplifier in series. [10] He also used synthesized sounds from an iOS application, ThumbJam, and played saxophone despite having only a rudimentary knowledge of the instrument. [10]
Lyrically, Dawson's material deals with dark subjects such as death. For The Glass Trunk, he searched the Tyne and Wear Archives catalogue for "death" and took inspiration from old news stories involving murder and bodily harm. [3] [14] The track "The Vile Stuff" from Nothing Important describes a continuous narrative of events, including one where Dawson pierced his hand with a screwdriver attempting to crack a coconut shell while on a school trip. [5]
Additionally, over 60 releases with Sally Pilkington as Bulbils [15] during 2020-2021.
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci were a psychedelic folk and alternative rock band which formed in Carmarthen, Wales, in 1991. The group performed music in both Welsh and English, and they had eight Top 75 singles on the UK Singles Chart during their career. They were prominent during the era known as Cool Cymru. The group disbanded in May 2006.
Kristina Ulrika Nordenstam, better known by her stage name Stina Nordenstam, is a Swedish singer-songwriter and producer. She is perhaps best known for her song "Little Star", which appears in the Baz Luhrman film Romeo + Juliet.
David Anthony Rice was an American bluegrass guitarist. He was an influential acoustic guitar player in bluegrass, progressive bluegrass, newgrass and acoustic jazz. He was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2013.
Zubot and Dawson were a folk duo from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, that consisted of Jesse Zubot on fiddle and Steve Dawson on guitar. They played largely folk-inspired acoustic music and released three albums. They toured both North America and Europe. In 2003 they won a Juno Award for the album Chicken Scratch.
Éliane Radigue is a French electronic music composer. She began working in the 1950s and her first compositions were presented in the late 1960s. Until 2000 her work was almost exclusively created with the ARP 2500 modular synthesizer and tape. Since 2001 she has composed mainly for acoustic instruments.
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Dave Bainbridge is an English guitarist and keyboard player who has played with The Strawbs since 2015 and Lifesigns since 2016. With Dave Fitzgerald, Dave co-founded the Christian progressive and Celtic folk themed band Iona.
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Kelly Joe Phelps was an American musician and songwriter. His music has been characterized as a mixture of delta blues and jazz.
Without You I'm Nothing is the second studio album by British alternative rock band Placebo. Recorded in mid-to-late 1998, it was released on 12 October 1998 by record labels Hut and Virgin Records.
Granuaile is a blend of Classical and Irish Folk Music written by Shaun Davey for singer Rita Connolly. It is based on the life and times of the 16th century Irish pirate queen Gráinne O'Mally, who was also known as Granuaile. The album was recorded using a 35 piece chamber orchestra joined by uilleann pipe soloist Liam O'Flynn, acoustic guitar, Irish harp and percussion, and special guest Donal Lunny on bouzouki.
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Rhodri Davies is a harp player working within the field of free improvisation. He was one of the most prominent members of the London reductionist school of improvised music that was active in the late 1990s and early 2000s and which has been described as being "extremely influential over the last decade".
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Nothing Important is a studio album by Richard Dawson, released in 2014 by Weird World. The album consists of four songs, two of which exceed 16 minutes in length. The cover of the album features a photograph by Kuba Ryniewicz.
Catherine Anne Davies, better known by the stage name the Anchoress, is a Welsh-born multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and author.
Peasant is a studio album by avant-garde folk musician Richard Dawson, released on 2 June 2017 by Weird World. Each song on the album is from the perspective of a different fictional narrator. Although it is set in the Kingdom of Bryneich, from the 400s to the 600s CE, it is intended to be a modern record, the stories and plight of each character largely contain universal themes that connect to the present day.
Laura Cannell is a British composer and improvising recorder player and violinist. Her work is known for combining the influences of early music, folk and experimental music. Her debut solo album Quick Sparrows over the Black Earth (2014), was named as a top album of 2014 by The Wire and her album Reckonings was named in the best albums and tracks of 2018 in The Guardian. Cannell's music has been frequently broadcast on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 6Music, NTS Radio and internationally.
Angharad Davies is a Welsh violinist and composer, known for her work in the field of free improvisation, her use of prepared violin, her extensive discography and collaborative work with other musicians.
Henki is a 2021 collaborative album by the English singer-songwriter Richard Dawson and the Finnish experimental rock group Circle. The album has seven songs that are all related to the life of plants and trees. The title, according to Circle's Jussi Lehtisalo, is a Finnish word meaning "spirit" or "ghost". The collaboration between Dawson and Circle started with the exchange of demos, and then they met in Pori, a city on Finland's West Coast where Circle are based. The COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 lockdown meant the album had to be finished remotely.