Steve Dawson "I Will Miss the Trumpets and the Drums" (Undertown Music, 2010)

A bit of this, a bit of that. A total joy for the ears...

Steve Dawson, frontman for the Chicago group Dolly Vardon, releases his second solo album "I Will Miss the Trumpets and the Drums", and boy is this one a corker.

Dawson lends his considerable skill towards this eclectic humdinger of an album that tantalises the ears and calms the soul. And in terms of genre it’s a bit of a rollercoaster: we have country rock, country folk, soul, soul and more soul with a sprinkling of jazz and even some acapella gospel. It’s a musical tossed salad.

The album bursts open with the uplifting ‘Obsidian’, followed by the lullaby melody ‘Long Overdue’. Dawson’s bittersweet tunes join with his (sometimes) fragile vocals - it can’t fail to tug at the heartstrings. Don’t listen to this if you’re drinking gin, it will make you cry.

‘A Conversation With No-one’ has a farily innocuous start but flowers into something epic towards the end. ‘Mastodons’ is elegant, heartfelt, heady, jazzy and ever so slightly ethereal. Forget fossils, we’re talking hot Parisian nights wired on caffeine. A truly beautiful piece of music, and possibly the stand out track.

I could rattle off a list of why each and every song on Dawson’s album is great, which they are. But this is no school assignment. The best thing about ‘I Will Miss the Trumpets and the Drums’ is the musical journey, leaving a feeling you’ve just been taken somewhere special. Super duper.

Date review added:  Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Reviewer:  Sian Claire Owen
Reviewers Rating:
Related web link:  Artist's Website