Richard Michael Dawson (born 24 May, 1981)[1] is an English progressive folk singer-songwriter from Newcastle upon Tyne.[2] He is known for writing narrative-based folk songs with experimental structures, and has received acclaim for his storytelling capabilities and sense of humour. Alongside his solo career, Dawson is also a member of the experimental pop band, Hen Ogledd.
To date, Dawson has released eight solo studio albums. His 2014 album, Nothing Important, was released by Weird World and was met with critical acclaim.[3][4][5] Between 2017 and 2022, Dawson released a loose trilogy of albums – Peasant (2017), 2020 (2019), and The Ruby Cord (2022) – each set within the past, present and future, respectively. The albums received widespread critical acclaim, with The Quietus naming Peasant as their album of the year in 2017.[6][7][8]
In 2021, Dawson released Henki, a collaborative album, made with the Finnish band Circle, which was lyrically influenced by "botanists and plants".[9] Upon its release, The Guardian named it "a botanical rock classic".[10] Dawson released his eighth studio album, End of the Middle, on February 14, 2025, with the album's lyrical content focusing on "several generations of one family, and how patterns of behaviour repeat across them."[11]
Career
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.[12] 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,[12] a form of Sufi devotional music, Kenyan folk guitarist Henry Makobi[2] and folk musician Mike Waterson[13] as influences on his work.
In 2008 and 2009, Dawson released 10 albums of computerized electronic music under the pseudonym Eye Balls.[14] 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".[12][13] Dawson and Davies have since also released records as the band Hen Ogledd,[15] 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.[13]
Since Nothing Important, Dawson has played the guitar through a Fender and an Orange amplifier in series.[12] He also used synthesized sounds from an iOS application, ThumbJam, and played saxophone despite having only a rudimentary knowledge of the instrument.[12]
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][16] 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]
Discography
Albums
Richard Dawson Sings Songs and Plays Guitar (2007)
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