It’s good to be back. I haven’t covered many shows over the past three weeks, but I was not going to miss super producer and multi-instrumentalist Steve Dawson, who was playing the Geomatic Attic with his band (bassist Jeremy Holmes and keyboardist Chris Gestrin and Ry Cooder’s son Joachim Cooder on drums.), who he dubbed the Hooded Mergansers, named after the bar in Penticton and the duck it’s named after , Friday, April 8.
He was in a good mood, just being happy to be touring again after a Covid imposed downtime. He noted the years have melded into each other and joked about joking about how long it’s been since he was last in Lethbridge and how long ago he recorded the three albums he has being released this year.
He and his band mostly focused on the most recent album “Gone, Long Gone,” though he played a couple of beautiful instrumentals from the next one “Steve Dawson and the Telescope Three’s Pantom Threshold.”
He didn’t have as many people as he deserved, but set down a laid back vibe, that felt like he was playing in our living room.
Though, the Weissenborn added a bit of a Hawaiian sound, Dawson promised he wouldn’t be playing any Hawaiian music before playing a short set of Hawaiian music beginning with “King Bennie Had His Shit Together ” about a popular Hawaiian musician who was famous for his exaggerations when being asked about his life.
Percussionist/ drummer Joachim Cooder added some exotic percussion by plucking on a classic Zimbabwean percussion instrument called the Mbira in between caressing the skins.
Dawson was happy to play, alternating between a Weissenborn for a slide guitar heavy show, but also played a couple of other songs on an acoustic and a couple of electric guitars.
The band melded together perfectly , laying down a hypnotic groove.
Dawson only played about half of what he is able to play. He was happy to sit back and let his band mates shine on solos.
Gestrin was a highlight on keyboard grooving gospel style on a couple of songs, including a Mississippi Sheiks song, as Dawson noted he was in Lethbridge with a Mississippi Sheiks tribute a few years ago.
After a quick break, he opened the second set with “Dimes,” one of the highlights off the latest CD.
— by Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor
